Save as many as you ruin
Simon Van Booy

One thing we all have in common is that we make mistakes and regret them. That is what happened to Gerard when he met the only woman he had ever loved after eight years apart. But sometimes the mistakes we make, end up turning around and by a religious experience, faith gives us a second chance.

The magic, realism short story‘ Save as many as you ruin’ by Simon Van Booy starts with in medias res composition. ”By the time Gerard leaves the office it has stopped snowing”. Afterwards the short story continues in a chronological order, but Simon Van Booy uses flashbacks, dialog and direct speech to show the audience of the short story, specific events of Gerard’s past. The narrator of the short story is a third person narrator, writing in present tense. The story time is one day and it takes place in Miami. It starts when Gerard leaves his job and ends when he is sitting in his study room, looking out the window wondering about his life, when he suddenly feels as it says in the short story. “a chill like cold water down his back”. After thinking about his different times with Issy and Laurel.

According to the short story, Issy and Laurel are two out of the four momentous women in his life whose names are Indra, Lucy, Issy and Laurel. Gerard is the protagonist of the short story and Issy is the antagonist. Issy has given birth to his beloved daughter Lucy, who is the most important person in his life. Issy was never a woman Gerard loved.” Gerard loved one woman once, but not Lucy’s mother”. The women Gerard loved was Laurel. They were dating for a few months but Gerard ruined it by cheating on Laurel with Issy. Gerard is a very static but also round character. We have seen his type of figure before.” Gerard is handsome. He has slept with many women. Most knew he would never love them”. , But at the same time he is different. He is very philosophic.” He recalls Rike; what is ours floats into the air, like steam from a dish of hot food”. He believes that there are more to earth, than we are able to see.

As said earlier Gerard believes that there are more to this world, than what meets the eye As a reader we get the impression that he believes in faith, as it says in the text, when he thinks of his meeting with Laurel after eight years apart. “ Gerard wonders if he has done the right thing. Perhaps he should have walked on”. He does not know if he is doing the right thing, because he is afraid of hurting Laurel again, as it says in the text.” You were kind to me too” Was I?” Gerard says:” I don’t feel as if I was” You were” she says, “despite everything”.
But after hearing Laurel saying the last sentence it appears to Gerard, that faith has turned around and given him a second chance. Despite Gerard gets another chance with Laurel and better will come his way. His mood still appears depressed and grey. We see the way his mood is by reading how he describes things. For instance in the start of the short story, when Gerard is walking home from work.” At the end of each block the sidewalk disappears under a pool of grey ice”. Or when he describes seeing Issy after her death.” Los Angeles was seventy-five degrees and dry. The air condition in his rental car smelled like candy”. The only time he describes something good, is when he runs into Laurel or is together with his daughter Lucy. When Gerard finally is able to turn the tables and make up for his mistakes, he is scared. The contrast in the short story is mostly between the co-characters Issy and Laurel. They are to completely different women, but they have an important place in Gerard’s life and as it says in the text. ”Gerard vaguely remembers the feeling of being in love with Laurel and the desire to have sex with Issy”. Issy is the mistake he made, but he was still very interested in Issy, because she was an incredible lover and he wanted to try to have an occasional partner outside the relationship he had with Laurel, where Laurel stands for love and happiness. She would be the right choice if Gerard had the opportunity to change his past. Faith gave Gerard a second chance he will not blow up.

When we read this short story through, we get the impression, that the theme of the short story is faith. Faith is the object that made Laurel and Gerard meet again after eight years apart, faith gave Gerard the chance to make it different with Laurel this time and even get a future with her as it says in the text.” He knows that before long Lauren will move in with them”.

Conclusion
What we conclude from this magic realism short story is, that faith can give you the opportunity to change your past so it will be the right future. As well as faith can do you good it can also do you bad. For instance when Gerard is cheating on Laurel with Issy and Issy gets pregnant and Gerard needs to move in with Issy and take care of her and Gerard’s daughter Lucy and live with the mistake he made for the rest of his life, although he could have been with the woman he loved, Laurel.

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