PositiveBOMBComposed in a variety of styles, the only similarities the fifteen essays share are the questions they pose: What does it mean to be a writer? And what does it mean to be? This intensely cerebral debut collection operates like a set of mismatched china. The essays are charming, quirky, and at odds with each other. But categorizing the collection as \'essays\' feels inaccurate. The combination of memoir, reportage, poetry, and prose lacks a lateral narrative, and reads more like poetic musings than cohesive, fully-fleshed arguments. Some pages are written in a more academic style, while others are like the pages of a diary. Savage navigates as many forms as the places she travels, though no one style is superior to the other. Together, though, they carry equal importance in Blueberries. Savage has a proclivity for placing secondary details at the forefront of her stories ... Savage’s lens is, at times, overwhelmingly privileged. This isn’t necessarily a detriment. She is aware of her whiteness, but doesn’t make amends for it; she is, after all, an accessory to larger systemic issues ... Some statements could be read as politically incorrect, but at least they’re thought provoking ... Savage is skilled at imparting language to universal feelings that are difficult to articulate.
