Freeman’s memoir covers her life as a fugitive after burning draft cards in Chicago to protest the Vietnam War. The title works as a double meaning, referring both to her flight from court on the day of sentencing and her subsequent life of split identities and hidden sexuality. ⁣

I often struggle to rate memoirs because who am I to evaluate the story of someone’s life? That said, it was an interesting story that reads like a novel, almost one with an overly-stereotyped main character — except she is a real person! I went in expecting it to be more about resistance in the seventies and eighties, but the focus was far more narrow and personal, with emphasis on Freeman’s struggle of living as a fugitive and lesbian. ⁣

While her life is punctuated by pain, she also had the good fortune of intersecting with some truly wise and generous people who served as guides, comforts, and confidants. It was because of this that I struggled with her expressed frustration and loneliness. I can only imagine what fugitive life is like, but at many points in the book, she rounds off a section about her social life with something to the effect of “I felt numb/broken/incomplete,” without much more additional explanation. At times, it made it hard to empathize with her. Occasionally, her attitude struck me as privileged and ungracious. All that to say, it was a good read with a story unlike any I’ve ever read.