If Vauhini Vara were to deliver a eulogy at a funeral, it would be stark, forging mountains of heartbreak with sparing, skeletal words. At the same time, it would be hilarious, peppered with quips so subtle that they linger quietly, only appreciated in hindsight ... While graphic, these images are far from gratuitous. If anything, they serve to illuminate the ugliness of being a person in the world—ostensibly the larger point of This Is Salvaged, which boldly asks: how, despite life’s indignities, do we make meaning from it? ... a slender collection at 180 pages, but hangs heavy with a profundity that only Vara, a master of thrifty syntax, can deliver so gracefully.
A dazzling collection full of spellbinding prose and intimate glimpses into the minds of people grappling with life’s familiar but lesser-discussed traumas ... Through unrestrained characters and fresh scenarios, Vara masterfully makes anew what it feels like to be alive. We are flawed, we falter, we go on.
The power of Vara’s collection rests, for me, in the sense of freedom characters are afforded through the realm of abjection: Facing the unthinkable helps these characters loosen themselves from expectations about how their feelings should manifest and why.
Once again Vara demonstrates her unbound fearlessness; she does not shy away from the rawness of everyday life. But in teasing apart the knots that complicate our lives, she exhibits a remarkable empathy for humanity, especially for so-called ordinary people.
Although many of the stories dwell in the realm of alienation, they generally end on a note of redemption, however small. The reader emerges from these stories contemplative but not pessimistic. A poignant collection of stories that glimpse the salvation of human connection in the midst of modern alienation.
