
In 10 stories, Vara (
The Immortal King Rao) describes the gamut of human predicaments and their corresponding emotional states: grief, isolation, obsession, shame, courage, and rage. Each story exists in isolation, but many mirror each other. For example, the unnamed narrator of “Hormone Hypothesis” is subconsciously looking for a sister figure and finds Fernanda. The stay-at-home mother seems to be the narrator’s polar opposite, but the two bond and find strength in their shared grief. A complementary story, “Eighteen Girls,” features two sisters, one of whom is slowly dying of cancer. The title of that story represents the same person: the healthy girl reacting to her sister’s forceful personality. “The Irates” is about a teen who finds the world irretrievably altered after her much-loved brother dies. She works a job she detests (telemarketing) and becomes a person she hates—an irate. Meanwhile, Sheila, the protagonist of “I, Buffalo,” has lost her high-stakes job after an embarrassing incident, and in the title story, “This Is Salvaged,” a lonely man tries to build a replica of Noah’s ark. Throughout, Vara brilliantly describes emotional states, especially isolation
VERDICT A splendid and compelling collection that covers different aspects of the human condition with humor and nuance.
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