The book describes the lives of day laborers in Delhi focusing primarily on one person but including many others. It presents a glimpse of Delhi and Indian life for the poor. It's description of a poor man determined be free and not beholden is universal. ( )

Thank you Goodreads First Reads for this great book!

At a point in my life when I feel tied down to a not-so-great job, desperately looking for a better one, or fantasizing about irrational alternatives (like opening an indie bookstore!) to be free of dysfunctional offices and bad bosses, the idea of working and living wherever and whenever you want, working for money and living until the money runs out, leaving a city at the drop of a hat to go live and work somewhere else for a few days or months or years... All of this sounds so fascinating and almost romantic. Except, as we learn in A Free Man, this type of freedom has its price, too. In fact, it seems only the very poor, who have nothing to their name, can maybe live this kind of life. Half vagabond, half day-worker, the main character in the book that Sethi follows seems to be a typical example of the "free man" life. But no man is truly free, as we all know, and as the story unfolds, the things that severely limit his freedom come into focus. I am still in awe of such a life and I think some people can lead this sort of life, especially if they were born in a western country that gives them the freedom to move around without visa issues and a relatively cheap or free health care system to fall back on in their old age. I remember my sister once met a European guy who just travels around Europe and Asia, staying in hostels for free in exchange for doing repairs and IT work. That's the rich version of Sethi's book, I suppose.

Well-written with a good sense of humor, A Free Man is a great read. It certainly puts life in perspective in many ways. ( )