A review by bhavani
Pen America Best Debut Short Stories 2017 by

4.0

Have you tried pickling vegetables? It's easy and a great way to preserve them, especially when they're wilting at the back of the refrigerator. But 1000-year-old ghosts subverts the idea of preservation. In this tale of memories, relationships, and traditions, the women use pickling as a way to remove their memories and deal with overwhelming sadness. As time goes by, they have jars of memories bottled away and they slowly dissolve like salt in water, until nothing remains...

For me, memories, be they good or bad, sad and embarrassing, cringe-worthy and regretful, these are the things that make up our lives and experiences. Being human means embracing all these things and learning to live with some while thriving despite others. They can lift us up or destroy us, depending on the choices that we make and the power we give them.