Love and grief are among the most powerful emotions a person can experience. They often mirror one another, with both emotions driving people’s choices and life paths as they grow stronger. While they can be overwhelming, these emotions can become instigators for change, driving a person to reevaluate their life and go on a journey to rediscover themselves along the way.
Those two emotions drive author Benton Savage’s Free and Satisfied. This coming-of-age story follows 19-year-old Zack, who, after losing his father to cancer, finds himself dreading a life stuck in a small East Tennessee town with his mother. Eager to reevaluate himself, he sets off on a journey on the road until he ends up at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, where he becomes enamored with a new life in the city that includes the ceremonial “Duck March,” a grand hotel, and a beautiful young desk clerk named Prudy who captures his heart. Zack must wrestle with these changes and the challenges of loneliness as he struggles to balance the still lingering grief and growing love in his heart all at once.
An introspective and compelling novel, the author does an incredible job of balancing dynamic character development with insightful thematic storytelling. The author quickly infuses the narrative with a plethora of various characters which the protagonist meets along his journey to highlight the life lessons and experiences the protagonist picks up along the way in their adventure, while also highlighting the hurdles and mistakes people often face on their journey that define what they learn from and who they ultimately become. The powerful imagery in the author’s writing style and the immersive experience that readers get when connecting with the protagonist, and their adventure make the emotional beats of the story, have a much grander impact on the reader overall.
Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories, especially those that blend literary and genre fiction, will be absolutely enthralled by this narrative. The emotional connection between Zack and Prudy and the complexity of their individual character developments help highlight several themes in this story, from the powerful impact of grief to the real-world struggles many people who find themselves in an interracial relationship face as societal expectations and judgements threaten to impact the heartfelt connection two people have with one another, making this a powerful narrative that will be impossible for readers to put down.
