Free Fall - Modern Classics 79

Free Fall - Modern Classics 79 Book Description Although Sammy Mountjoy grew up in poverty without ever knowing his father, he is a talented painter who was able to see his paintings on the walls of the Tate Gallery. During World War II, he is captured by the Germans and locked in a dark cell under the threat of torture. He reviews his past life with the horror of the darkness, isolation and the fate that awaits him. He thinks about how his life suddenly lost its meaning, which mistake turned him into the person he is today, and begins to question how he lost his sense of direction and fell into the labyrinth of his own existence. When did his responsibility begin, when did the darkness fall? Sammy tries to pinpoint the moment in his life when his free will completely slipped away. This questioning, in which he traces the events that prepared that moment, leads him to a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Golding described Free Fall, in which he devoted his genius entirely to the service of literature, as "a confession" and drew attention to the parallels between his own life and Sammy's. (From the Promotional Bulletin)