Zeke Cooper鈥檚 life hasn鈥檛 turned out quite like how his ambitious mother had planned. Undone by twin disasters 鈥� divorce from his childhood sweetheart and the drowning death of his twin, Carter 鈥� the 42-year-old can鈥檛 see a future any more.
The big question, as he puts it, is: 鈥淸H]ow did the smart boy with a full scholarship to the University of Virginia end up living in a converted shed in his mother's backyard and working on the line at the Dover elevator plant?鈥�
The Lost Saints of Tennessee, told mostly from Zeke鈥檚 viewpoint, with a few salient facts thrown in by his estranged mother, Lillian, looks at the Cooper family history from the 1940s to the 1980s and how things went so very wrong.
When the novel has opened, Zeke鈥檚 had enough: 鈥淢y daily choices have evolved from whether to have chili or a Swanson's Hungry Man dinner to kicking around suicide methods.鈥�
He can鈥檛 leave his brother鈥檚 elderly dog, Tucker, behind, so the two set out to Pigeon Forge, where Zeke鈥檚 suicide plan doesn鈥檛 quite come off as expected. From there, Zeke and Tucker head back to a relative鈥檚 farm in Virginia 鈥� the last place he can remember feeling hope.
鈥淭he Lost Saints鈥� is a 鈥淪outhern novel,鈥� in terms of being filled with RC Cola, Moon pies, McDonald's drive-through, hummingbird cake, and the Piggly Wiggly. But any bright kid making it to middle age can easily relate to battered Zeke and his bafflement about what he鈥檚 supposed to do now.
Franklin-Willis tries too hard to create a happy ending for her worn-out hero, but she excels at making readers care about her characters, especially the ones who have made the biggest mistakes. And after all, it would be downright curmudgeonly to begrudge Zeke a little happiness.
