| Author |
Murray, John |
| Year |
2003 |
| Publisher |
New York: HarperCollins |
| Number of pages |
288 |
| ISBN |
9780060509286 |
| Keywords |
|
Abstract
Amazon: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. 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.
Miscellaneous
Delete from database? (lack of substantial science content?)
