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    We Love You, Charlie Freeman
    We Love You, Charlie Freeman
    We Love You, Charlie Freeman
    Audiobook10 hours

    We Love You, Charlie Freeman

    Written by Kaitlyn Greenidge

    Narrated by Cherise Boothe, Karole Foreman and Myra Lucretia Taylor

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Frustrated by the limitations of cross-race communication in her predominantly white town, a young African-American girl teaches herself to sign. Years later, Laurel uproots her husband and daughters from their downwardly-mobile, over-educated and underpaid life in the South End of Boston for Cortland County, Massachusetts. The Freemans are to take part in an experiment: they've been hired by a private research institute to teach sign language to a chimpanzee. Told primarily from the point of view of Laurel's elder daughter, Charlotte, the novel shifts in time from the early 1990s to the founding of the Institute in the 1930s to the present day. With language both beautiful and accessible, Greenidge examines that time in each person's life when we realize the things we thought were normal may be anything but.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 8, 2016
    ISBN9781501903359
    We Love You, Charlie Freeman
    Author

    Kaitlyn Greenidge

    KAITLYN GREENIDGE’s debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, was one of the New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Books of 2016 and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Greenidge is a contributing writer for the New York Times, and her work has also appeared in Vogue, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal and other publications. She has received fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Kaitlyn Greenidge lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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    Reviews for We Love You, Charlie Freeman

    3.5/5

    108 ratings25 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I don’t even know where to start…. Just very Disappointing
    • 5/5
      Well told, complicated emotional story with lots of open ends. Worth while and I'm looking forward to more books from this author
    • 5/5
      The description had me hooked, and it did not disappoint. Kaitlyn Greenridge paints stunning pictures with her words. Not only did this book have a great message about history, family, and passion it also was a stunning read. The narrators of the book were excellent as well, and definitely aided in helping these characters feel real.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this book because it sounded like such an interesting premise but the multiple points of view (two 1st person narrators and 3rd person recounts of myriad other characters) ruined any sense of cohesion this tale might have had. At the end, I was left feeling like I had missed something because the resolution felt disjointed and abrupt, which is a shame as I found the book very readable.

      Many thanks to Thomas Allen & Son for providing me with a free review copy.
    • 5/5
      I picked up this ARC at ALA Midwinter because the author was there and the back blurb looked interesting enough for me to actually read it -- unusual for me with an adult book by a new author! I am so glad I did. Greenidge's prose is clear and descriptive, and while I can't exactly say I "enjoyed" spending time with the Freemans and Nymphadora -- it's not much of a spoiler to say their stories are painful -- I can say that the questions the book asked encouraged me to think about race and history in new ways.
    • 3/5
      This is the debut novel by Kaitlyn Greenidge that reads like a debut novel, which is to say that it's uneven, with parts that fit together uneasily, but also with sections that show the author she will become. Charlotte Freeman moves with her family from their crowded home in Dorchester, Massachusetts to a spacious apartment in the Toneybee Institute, where they are to take part in a research project that has them living with Charlie, a young chimpanzee, as a member of their family. Her mother and younger sister are the most enthusiastic about the project, while Charlotte is more focused on starting at a new high school. What this book does well is to create a rising sense of dread about the events as they unfold, as well as about what happened at the Institute decades ago. The point of view changes depending on the chapter, but stays primarily with Charlotte, who is a critical observer of what is going on. Greenidge gives a weaker ending to both storylines than is hinted at earlier, and she fails to develop the motivations for conflict as adeptly as a more experienced author might have done.
    • 5/5
      We Love You Charlie Freeman is a sad, strange and engrossing novel. The Freeman family is hired by a research institute as part of an experiment to teach sign language to a chimpanzee while incorporating him into their family. This somewhat extended family experiences joys, sorrows, adjustment issues racial concerns a and a tragic event that changes everything the family in time learns that not everything is as it appears at the institute as they learn its history this is so beautifully written and impossible to put down
    • 4/5
      This is not at all the book that I expected. It discusses so many things in such a smart way. A totally uncomfortable subject. Many of the twists in this books caused me to ask "what is wrong with her?" Even when nothing in particular was happening the tension was always there. The feeling of butterflies in my stomach just waiting for the bad thing to happen. Yet the book is always serious and completely believable in it's tension and drama. I wouldn't say that I loved this book or that I enjoyed reading it but it did affect me and it is a book that I will be thinking about far into the future. I will also be watching Greenidge for her next book. I really can't wait to see where she goes from here.
    • 4/5
      Debut novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge takes on a lot of ideas in this engaging novel, and she acknowledges the complexity of each one. Charlotte falls in love for the first time with Adia, a girl at her school, and through Adia, she learns to find her voice for social justice. But she’s young, and her expressions are clumsy and possibly misdirected. Laurel knows Toneybee’s history, but she loves Charlie and the opportunity to mother him so much that she’s willing to overlook it. Her actions, and those of Nymphadora, raise questions about choice in the face of a corrupt system.I think that much of this book revolves around the idea of choice and how free any of us are to choose. Who we are and who we will become are guided to some extent by our families, by society, and by our own internal drives, which we can’t understand. Charlie can only ever be a chimp, but living among humans alters some of his wants. He can’t help who he is. The Freemans have the ability to think through their choices, but they too face limits, some imposed by history, some by love, some by their own natures. I enjoyed watching each one grapple with these choices, and I appreciated that the right answers weren’t always clear.
    • 4/5
      This is an intriguing read on family and race, with a bit of history thrown in. While it is challenging to figure out where this story is going, there is an underlying feeling that something devastating may happen. This feeling kept me turning the page. At times I was frustrated with this story and its indirect method of approaching loaded subjects. I wanted the characters to get it all out in the open and explicitly hash it out more. However, I think the author made the right choice in not doing this. It would detract from the overall narrative and characterizations. I was thinking about this book for a while after I read it and I’m interested to see what Kaitlyn Greenidge does next. Note: I received a free copy of this book from the LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      This book is difficult to describe in a few sentences. The Freeman family moves from Dorchester to a rural town in Western Massachusetts where they will live in an apartment at the Toneybee Research Institute with a chimpanzee named Charlie. They are part of an experiment to teach a chimpanzee to communicate and were chosen because the children know how to use sign language. There are some immediate racial overtones as the Freemans are an African American family constantly being observed by the white research staff at the institute and it is located in a predominately white town adjacent to a predominantly black town. The book is told from multiple points of view, although the key narrative voice belongs to Charlotte, the older daughter who is the first to feel unease at the institute and at her high school. There are also flashbacks to 1929 where the story of a woman named Nymphadora, a school teacher and member of a secretive society of African American women, reveals the dark origins of the Toneybee Institute. This is a distressing book because it documents the unraveling of the Freeman family set against continuing racial prejudice. It's upsetting since no character really intends to cause harm by under the circumstances their actions lead to sadness and suffering.
    • 5/5
      We Love You, Charlie Freeman is a story about a Black family who moves from the city to the boonies in order to participate in a research project teaching sign language to a chimpanzee named Charlie. But do not assume this is a book about chimpanzees or animal rights, oh no. This book is about race, memory, history, and especially the language with which to talk about all three.Charlie Freeman hooked me with its characters from page one. It was interesting to discover how the experiment grew to encompass the family more so than the chimpanzee, and it was downright frightening to uncover the Institute's dark history. Living the majority of the story through Charlotte's eyes allowed me access to an existence I will never be able to live myself, and I appreciated the experience of seeing from Charlotte and her family's perspectives."Because I do not wish my own skin was white. What I envy is not their skin but their insouciance. I envy the freedom to sin with only a little bit of consequence, to commit one selfish act and not have it mean the downfall of my entire people. Where indecency and mischief do not mean annihilation. I envy that their capacity for love is already assumed, not set aside or presumed missing, like it is for us Negro women." (Nymphadora, 1929)4.5 stars(watch out for Greenidge; I suspect she's gonna make big waves in the literary world and I can't wait!!)
    • 4/5
      At first glance, this looks like it will be a cute and happy story. It is actually really strange and sad. There are a few different perspectives, but the main ones are Charlotte's in 1990 and Nymphadora's in 1929. This book is especially interesting because it touches on many interesting issues that I don't see in fiction much, especially with respect to the way we use language. Greenidge's writing is so easy to read and I sailed through this novel. There were a lot of issues in this book, but not everything coalesced for me. One of the few books where I actually wish it was longer! I finished this book with a lot to think about and excitement about Kaitlyn Greenidge's future work!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed We Love You, Charlie Freeman. By presenting the story of an ape research institute through the viewpoints of several characters from the 1920s to today, Greenidge explores a variety of perspectives on race, communities, acceptance, and how we connect across the gaps that separate people (and species). Each character is well-drawn and nuanced, and there are no easy conclusions but plenty to make you think. I was especially taken by several beautiful and haunting moments of parallelism that connect these characters across time.
    • 4/5
      There's lots to mull over in this book and it would probably make a great choice for a book club discussion. The Freemans, a black family from Boston, move to an institute in the Massachusetts countryside to participate in an experiment where they teach sign language to a chimpanzee that lives with them as a family member. The experiment draws parallels with earlier racially motivated experiments conducted at the institute. The narrative switches largely between the Freemans' oldest daughter, Charlotte, and a woman named Nymphadora, who was involved with those early experiments. This wholly original story is disturbing, sad, and yet fascinating; topics of race, gender, and human nature are laid out for discussion. While some choices in the book are perplexing (how can a mother choose a chimp over her children?) and can sometimes distract from the story, the bigger questions keep it on track.
    • 3/5
      For the first hundred or so pages, I could not put this down. Then the inexplicable reaction of Laurel, the mother, to Charlie, the chimp, began to be a problem for me. Her attachment to Charlie is one of the engines that drive this story, and if you don't believe that she uprooted her family, ignores her daughters, and becomes estranged from her husband in order to become a surrogate mother to a chimpanzee, then the family story stops working. I did think that the flashback to Nymphadora in 1929 was well done, and helps the reader understand the not-so-subtle racism inherent in the experiments at the Toneybee. And the tragedy of Callie, the younger daughter whose life is stunted by her mother's withdrawal, is haunting. I want to read more from this author.
    • 4/5
      Charlotte Freeman and her family are hired to be a ‘sisters/ parents’ to a chimpanzee and teach him sign language in Western Massachusetts as an experiment at the Toneybee Institute. Charlotte, her sister Callie, their parents, even Charlie the chimpanzee are all isolated, and warped by their isolation. The isolation goes back sixty years at Toneybee, for we also get the POV of Nymphadora, who, a spinster school teacher in Spring City, aka Springfield, is asked to do things of which she ought to be ashamed. Does it need to be said that the Freemans and Nymphadora are black and the people who work and administer the Toneybee Institute are white? Yes, it does. I’m glad I read this disturbing, inventive and very good novel. ARC from Library Thing and the publisher Algonquin Books, received 4.14.16. Thanks Library Thing and Algonquin Books! Finished reading 4/23/16.
    • 5/5
      I'm going to need to think about this for a while before I know what to say about it; it was incredibly powerful and I think this would make a fantastic book discussion book.
    • 4/5
      We Love You Charlie Freeman is one of the strangest coming of age books to come along. A very difficult book to really like, but not to admire. The book stinks and roils with discontent and frustrated muteness that is never resolved. To watch a family implode as it serves one members overweening need to fill some deep secret place left barren by a racial barrier which resists true communication is very uncomfortable. Darkly imagined, brilliantly characterized but horribly, horribly uncomfortable. The story insists on things which are already "chalk on the chalkboard" for me. Heavy scents, grime, greasiness, mustiness, dustiness, grasping and grabbing, and - God spare me, chalk. The idea of living for an extended period in an designated apartment with cast off furniture with in the confines of a scientific center was immensely claustrophobic. Then throw a moody, manipulative, stinking chimp in the mix. How none of them was driven to sheer madness is beyond me...or maybe some of them were.This book was made available to me through Librarythings' EarlyReader program.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. Such an excellent book that I did not want to put it down!
    • 3/5
      This book captured my attention from the beginning even though at times I was lost and slightly confused. The plot line involved an African American family moving to a research facility with a history of working with chimpanzees to determine their ability to speak. in reality the book wa more about the individual relationships with others and themselves as african americans. Some of the details regarding the chimp's relationship with family members were disturbing and the book became difficult for me to read at some points. there wer many characters and story lines that were interesting but on ly superficially explored - Aida as an example -that wou;d'v e enhanced the story. I would recomend the book but with caveat that it has a few disturbing lines. overall, I'd read another of the authors.
    • 5/5
      Thank you to Algonquin Books and LibraryThing Early Reviewers for sending me an ARC of We Love You, Charlie Freeman. The book's description tells you that African American Laurel Freeman and her family, skilled in the art of signing, move from their home in the South End of Boston to the Tonybee-Leroy Research Institute in the country to participate in an experiment during which they will teach sign language to a chimpanzee named Charlie. What the description doesn't tell you is that there is so much more in this book. A variety of themes such as racism, lesbianism, and coming of age are deftly covered. The story is primarily narrated by the teenage daughter Charlotte. She discovers the exploitative past of the institute's original director and the questionable experiments that were performed. The author steps back in time to tell this story through the voice of Nymphadora. As Charlotte deals with being one of only a few blacks in an almost all white high school and learning about her sexuality, she must also confront her feelings about the institute's past and her family's role in it. Her younger sister Callie seeks to ease her loneliness and her mother's lack of attention through obsessive overeating. Callie seeks love from Charlie which he is unable to return. The book is extremely well written and complex leaving the reader somewhat uncomfortable. What a pleasure to have the opportunity to read something so unique!
    • 4/5
      This book was extremely well written and captured my attention from the beginning. The plot line involved an African American family residing in a research oriented home to determine if chimpanzees could learn sign language in the context of becoming a member of the family. Some of the details regarding the chimp's relationship with family members were disturbing and made me reflect on society's racist tendencies and so the book became difficult for me to read at some points . The book reviewed other "studies" undertaken that reflected the same biases in the past. The description of the older child's relationship with her peers and teachers in an all white school were so well depicted I personally felt this child's isolation and came away with the understanding of just how devastating racial biases are and were. Beautifully written book but some of the details can be disturbing if you consider that some members of the family fell prey to exploitation from the research facility and I believe they did. On the other hand, it is imperative that we face society's failure to free itself of biases to eradicate them.
    • 4/5
      This is hard for me to review. The story is riveting . I read the book in two days and when I was not reading it , the story stayed on my mind. But, it is not a comfortable read. Basically the book is about a family, the Freeman's, mom and dad and 2 daughters who are selected to incorporate a male chimpanzee, Charlie, into their family. Ostensibly their selection is based on the family's ability to use sign language. The Toneybee Institute, which has hired mom, Laurel, has a very dark past. That story becomes part of this story. And it is a horrific one.The Freeman family is not doing very well when they embark on this experiment and things get progressively worse. The daughters, Charlotte and Callie , tell the story of their experiences and much of the book reflects the girl's reactions to the seeming abandonment of their mother as she seeks to make this experiment work and does not understand how deep her commitment to Charlie has become.This is a first novel. I want to read more from Ms Greenidge.I am very interested to read the YA reaction to this book.Read as an ARC from LibraryThing.
    • 4/5
      This is at least the second book about adding chimpanzees to your family that have been recently highly recommended. I am chimp-adverse but the author's sister is one of my favorite playwrights, so I had to give it a try. There are multiple themes: black family life, the sometimes fraught ties of sisters, horrible and seemingly ongoing racist scientific research, and the battle for power within all relationships. So I could enjoy the book and skim the chimp part. Greenidge is a passionate writer, the novel flows well, I'll be looking forward to her next one, hopefully sans apes.