A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies: Stories

by John Murray

From AudioFile "My grandfather was never able to believe that Darwin was right," muses the narrator in one of these intricately crafted stories. "In his mind, the perfection of butterflies, their elaborate patterns and colors, exceeded the requirements of mere survival." These fictions take place in a world that science will always fail to explain or control. Many of the characters are descended from Indian immigrants, and Stephen Spinella moves easily into and out of the accents of uprooted Brahmins. "Last night Maya locked herself in the bathroom again with her copy of the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE . . ." The universe outside the bathroom door is sometimes splendid, sometimes tragic, but always a shock. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine Product Description In this remarkably assured and satisfying debut collection, John Murray seamlessly meshes fact with fiction, taking his inspiration from the worlds of science, medicine, and nature. The stories are set in intriguing locations across the globe -- a cholera tent in the slums of Bombay, a United Nations refugee camp in the mountains of Africa, a Key West hideaway -- where his characters, among them doctors, nurses, research scientists, explorers, and collectors, can be found reading The Manual of Clinical Microbiology or Gray's Anatomy or the Complete Textbook of Psychiatry.And yet, despite the pull of the outer world, these stories are all about the internal world of emotions -- love, loss, obsession, and conflict -- and about families and how they survive. They unfold to tell of moments when people catch glimpses of their real selves, their pasts, and have flashes of understanding about their lives. In "The Hill Station," an American-born scientist is drawn to Bombay, the homeland of her parents, where she breaks free from the confines of her well-ordered life. The title story tells of an aging surgeon who uses his grandfather's collection of butterflies to try and make sense of his past. In "Blue" a young man -- still haunted by the tragic death of his father years earlier -- traverses the Himalayan mountain that would have been his father's last climb. In "Acts of Memory, Wisdom of Man," the son of Indian immigrants relives the summer of 1968, and the events that determined his brother's fate.Vivid and alive, these stories reveal whole lives -- characters caught between the past and the present, between different cultures, and between their intellects and emotions. Global in scope, classical in form, evocative of place, this rich collection marks an exciting and original debut. From Publishers Weekly Spinella turns in a smart, crisp performance of these achingly personal stories that take place at the crossroads of a variety of characters' lives. The prerequisite here is a penchant for impersonation, as formal British, cockney, and, especially, Indian accents abound. Spinella, a veteran stage actor, handles them all more than passably, demonstrating a flair for the Indian characters in particular. That his reading is otherwise largely unremarkable is actually an excellent thing in this case, as the stories are so replete with vivid detail and finely etched characters that it seems a narrator's only fault could be getting in the way. Instead, Spinella eschews bombast (except in the case of a frustrated wife in the title story) and reads with a style that echoes that of the writing itself: simple, even and subtle. These are beautifully crafted, honest portrayals of people in the throes of life. And no matter how far-flung the locales-from the cholera-ridden streets of hardscrabble Bombay to a U.N. refugee camp under attack in Africa-the stories' messages are sure to hit home.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Murray reveals his training as a doctor in this debut collection, which must contain some amazing work to be getting such a big push from the publi

Get BookMosh