BOOK | FICTION | SHORT STORIES
A GATHERING OF BUTTERFLIES by Sean C. Wright
RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★
Tales of steely but vulnerable women of color will melt your heart while lifting your spirits…
Book Description from Amazon
A fierce grandmother keeps her grandson from the clutches of Old Scratch in Devil Does Dallas.
An alien abduction transforms a large, miserable woman in Hazel Hogan.
A country girl meets a city girl on her birthday, and struggles to decide if the girl’s heart is dark or light in Bubble Bath Twelve.
And methodical Genie forms an unlikely relationship in Heaven’s Halfway House while in a coma.
I am in wholehearted concurrence with Amazon reviewer Neferet when they opine that “[Author Sean C. Wright’s GATHERING OF BUTTERFLIES] is a nice collection of interesting and clever short stories….”
Nice, indeed.
And I feel nicer as a human being for having read this diminutive collection of pithy and powerful (a redundancy I know, but one worth repeating) folksy parables; and I could tell without a doubt from reading them that the author herself is nice…
Really nice.
I just wish there had been more nice stories to appreciate — there are only four and the collection as a whole weighs in at just over a hundred pages.
Three of the stories are good, written light and fast with limited (but enough) character and setting development as one would expect to find in such folksy parables and morality tales.
However, one of the stories — Bubble Bath Twelve — is exceptional. I got so very and happily lost within that wonderful, beautiful tale and I regretted it when finally finding myself at its end. It compares easily with the best of anything William Faulkner has written, if the boozy, self-hating grouch were to have written such nice, lighthearted stories that didn’t stress the reader out with their unrelenting and migraine-inducing dialect.
Yeah, the story’s that good.
Outside of expanding this fine collection with more stories, I would recommend the author consider a more professional book cover. Personal preference, perhaps, but I think such fine writing deserves something a little better than its present adornment.
So, fantastic work by Ms. Wright, work that I highly recommend. I also recommend checking out her website. While it’s a little confusing to navigate, there the determined reader can find a treasure trove of her equally fun and interesting flash fiction, which, if you recall, is how all who gather here first became acquainted with her fine work.
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Many thanks for this candid review, Kurt. A few interesting tidbits:
Bubble Bath Twelve was loosely based on my grandmother. She would have been 12 in 1934. She grew up in The Depression, and that was how I imagined her birthday: sparse on material gifts, but heavy on the love. Her father really did live in a separate house. We never knew why my great-grandmother booted my great-grandfather from her home, but something must have pissed her off pretty badly.
Hazel Hogan was based on two heavyset women I worked with who were beautiful. I tried to imagine what happened to them to make them eat their feelings.
Devil Does Dallas is my poor man’s Stephen King. :oP
Write on, sister.
You too, brother!
Excellent recommendation, Kurt. I just finished and was left hungering for more. Thanks for sharing. I’m glad I didn’t miss this book.
Good stuff. Thanks, Gina!
Hello Kurt – I’ll definitely read this book, even for the one brilliant story you mention. At the moment I am starting A collection of stories by Japanese authors – Tokyo Stories, so I will put “A Gathering of Butterflies” on my ever-expanding TBR list! Thanks for the review. and I will review “Tokyo Stories” when I’m finished it.
Hello Kurt – I’ll definitely read this book, even for the one brilliant story you mention. At the moment I am starting a collection of stories by Japanese authors – Tokyo Stories, which I will review when I haves finished it, so I will put “A Gathering of Butterflies” on my ever-expanding TBR list! Thanks for the review.
Thanks for stopping by and saying hello, PR.