"Save as Many as You Ruin" is an interesting short story, one whose meaning isn't immediately obvious. It certainly celebrates love and interpersonal connection through Gerard's relationships with Lucy and Laurel despite his emotional deficiencies. Gerard is a character almost like Camus's Meursault (The Stranger); his mind functions in an impersonal, detached manner, focusing far more on physical attributes like sound and smell than on less tangible things like love and justice. He is almost completely oblivious to social cues, as seen in the reminiscence of his relationships with Laurel and Issy: "He told Laurel [about Issy's pregnancy] the next night, and she said she understood. A week later, Laurel broke it off in an e-mail. Gerard agreed to move in with Issy." This is the extent of the evidence of his emotions concerning the matter (and, indeed, mention of the matter at all). His existence is a complacent, morally nonchalant one; he never shows any signs of strong emotion, especially anger, or any regret for decisions he has made. Moral and ethical factors don't seem to affect his judgment in any significant way either.
This half-paragraph, taken from Gerard's account of Issy's funeral, summarizes his mental state:
"Gerard went to Issy's funeral in Los Angeles four years ago. She was found floating in a pool. She'd written Gerard's name as her next of kin. Los Angeles was seventy-five degrees and dry. The air-conditioning in his rental car smelled like candy. Issy had played the part of a psychic on a soap opera. People exchanged business cards at the buffet after cremation."
These statements are vaguely connected but rather disjointed; his thought process is simply an objective consideration of several facts in sequence without any regard for sentiment or meaning. He spends more time on the smell of his rental car than the circumstances of his ex-lover's death. The parallels to The Stranger are remarkable and perhaps not unintentional: Gerard is essentially a stranger to mankind, as was Meursault. The emotions and connections experienced by the majority of humans are nowhere to be found in Gerard's mind; nor does he seem to feel like he's missing anything. The only break in his complacency is the moment of preternatural fright when he appears to perceive something beyond the material, speculating that the unknown elements of the world might just be beyond knowledge.
If there is a message here, it seems to be this: love is a worthwhile and redemptive aspect of any human life, even an abnormal one. Life may have a greater meaning, but its inscrutability makes it an unattainable understanding, so it is best to simply live in wonder, cherishing the world and the people we come into contact with.
