A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies - Softcover

Murray, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141010479 ISBN 13: 9780141010472

Publisher: Penguin, 2004

Synopsis

An American scientist, lecturing on cholera in Bombay, visits a makeshift hospital and makes a decision that will change her life forever. A carpenter sits in the Australian beach house he built for his adored wife, hearing strange noises in the walls. An aid worker in war-torn Africa watches, powerless, as a mission church, filled with people, is burned to the ground.

John Murray's extraordinary stories unfold to reveal whole lives - people caught between the past and the present, between different cultures, and between their intellect and emotions. Muscular, atmospheric, by turns hilarious, horrifying and unbearably moving, these stories show their author to be a formidably talented writer.

About this title

Review:

John Murray trained as a doctor, and his debut collection of stories, A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies, reveals its author's background. Not all of his characters are physicians, but they tend to share a doctor's ability to concentrate on details and compartmentalise emotions. In "The Hill Station", the American-born daughter of Indian parents returns to India, where she speaks at a conference on infectious diseases. She is charged with new, ungovernable feelings when she finally meets actual patients suffering from the disease in which she is a specialist; previously, she had only known cholera under a microscope. Murray bumps his heroine into a new, looser way of living as she travels deeper into dirty, disease-ridden India.

In the title story, a doctor mourns the loss of his sister and comes to terms with his family history, all the while examining butterflies. In "Blue", a climber ascends a Himalayan peak under dire circumstances and encounters ghostly memories of his father. These stories of frustrated, intelligent achievers can recall Mark Helprin, and Murray has, too, some of Helprin's ambitious scope. These stories aren't as crystalline as Helprin's, but that's a small complaint to lodge about an elegant first collection. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com

Review:

"A terrific collection. -- Washington Post Book World

"Writing that bristles with emotive power." -- Library Journal

"Stunning short story collection.writer to watch." -- Booklist (starred)

"Ambitious, varied, and strong.. To say that Murray.is a prodigious talent is something of an understatement." -- Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books

"Iridescent" -- The Observer (UK)

"Beguiling.an astute debut collection." -- Book Forum

"Vibrant debut story collection.Murray's prose is strong and agile.the affecting portraits make this collection emotionally resonant and enormously gratifying" -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Iridescent"--The Observer (UK)

"Fiction that holds firmly to scientific principles and comes with a harrowing edge of reality."--International Herald Tribune

"Compelling, compassionate, and quietly inspirational, each of these modest tales is as satisfying as a novel ...exquisite."--Daily Mail (London)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0141010479
• ISBN 13: 9780141010472
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288