Hailed with significantly less enthusiasm than her previous short story collection, Ali Smith's Free Love and Other Stories presents 12 rather hit-or-miss stories. As the title suggests, sexuality and love play major roles throughout the stories. Characters are trying to make sense of their relationships -- familial, romantic, and friendly. Some of them are even being forced to rework their lives in order to pick up the pieces of failed relationships or lost loved ones.
Throughout the various stories, Smith communicates an ever-present sense of longing. Her protagonists face loss, betrayal, confrontation, and fear. In each story, however, the main character is forced to resolve some sort of internal conflict. For instance, Melissa in "Text for the day" finds herself needing to make dramatic changes or risk falling into a deepening depression. She decides suddenly to leave her life behind and to break apart her precious book collection, distributing pages random places as she travels the world. She has to look at her life objectively in order to modify her behavior for success, which in Melissa's case means taking charge of her own opinions.
As part of the above mentioned longing, many of the characters struggle with grief and loss. They all seem to be hurting from past experiences and simultaneously wishing to be back in those seasons of life, however painful. The protagonist in "A quick one" cannot seem to separate her memories from the person of her ex, so she feels as if she's betraying herself by sending him away. Although each character takes a different approach, they each find resolve for these powerful experiences, usually in the form of future resolutions. Change is inevitable and painful, but it brings hope and healing.
