Judith Freeman - 1946
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
I. Biography
Judith Freeman was born on October 1, 1946 and raised in a Mormon family in Ogden, Utah. She's the daughter of Leroy and Alice Freeman. She currently lives in Challis, Idaho with her husband, artist-photographer Anthony Hernandez and her son Todd. Judith Freeman is the author of The Chinchilla Farm, Family Attraction, Set for life, and A Desert of pure Feelings. She worked as a newspaper reporter, a ski instructor and frequently reviews for the Los Angeles Times.
II. Literary Works
In The Chinchilla Farm, Verna Flake is on the road to Los Angeles due to her disappointing marriage to Leon, who left her for a woman named Pinky. On her way to Los Angeles she picks up an unfortunate hitchhiker, Duluth Wing, who had his own marital problems. In L.A. she stays with her old friend Jolene and her husband Vincent, until she finds her own place near MacArthur Park. She reunites with Inez, the widow of her brother, Carl. Inez is forced to flee to Mexico because her husband beats her and rapes her retarded daughter. However, Inez's inability to drive leads Verna to drive the two to freedom, with Jim determined to find them. This book received excellent reviews, and won the Association for Mormon Letters Award for fiction in 1989.
In A Desert of Pure Feelings, Lucy Patterson falls in love with Dr. Cabrera, the man who saved the life of her infant son. This strong attraction compelled her to break up her marriage. Abraham Verghese, author of My own Country, said "Once again as she did in The Chinchilla Farm, Freeman takes on a voyage both outward and within the soul; her characters are so fully realized, the landscape so vivid, the prose so fine, that Desert of Pure Feelings lives on long after you reach the end."
Set for Life is about "two ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances." One of those people is Phil Doucet, who is facing death and in desperate need for a heart. The heart becomes available from an unlikely source, and now Phil is "Physically set for life." He meets Louise, a sixteen-year-old on the run from her stepfather. By offering his sympathy, Phil manipulates her and takes her into an isolated house. This book received the Western Heritage Award for best Novel.
Family Attraction contains several short stories best described by Carolyn See, "In these dizzyingly beautiful collection, Freeman proves there are no ordinary people. Her prose is familial but made entirely of magic . . . It was an honor to read this book."
III. Los Angeles, California and The Chinchilla Farm
Most of The Chinchilla Farm takes place in Los Angeles and partly in Mexico and Utah. Some of the places that were mentioned in the book are:
MacArthur Park: Verna lives near the park that is inhabited by criminal and bums. She encounters unsuccessful Duluth Wings, the hitchhiker that she helped get to L.A.
Mar Vista Ave.: This is where Verna's relatives LaRue and Heber lived. It is located on the westside of Los Angeles near an airport.
St. Vincent's Hospitals: Verna got her first job in Los Angeles as a receptionist in a dental office.
Lucky's Market: A delivery boy delivers food to one of Verna's overweight neighbors.
May Company: A department store located on Wilshire and Fairfax, where the saleslady was rude and refused to give Verna change to use the phone. Now part of the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
Linda's Place: A bar located on the corner of Rampart and Beverly, Inez and Verna decided to meet to discuss her plan of escaping to Mexico.
IV. Literary Works
Family Attraction (1988)
The Chinchilla Farm (1989)
Set for Life (1991)
A Desert of Pure Feelings (1996)
V. Sources
Freeman, Judith. The Chinchilla Farm. New York. NY: Norton and company, 1989.
Freeman, Judith. Set for Life. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.
Freeman, Judith. Family Attraction
. 1988.
Freeman, Judith. A Desert of Pure Feelings . 1989.
Biographical information on Judith Freeman
This essay was submitted by a student of Grant Farley, a teacher at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California.