T
itle: The Butterfly Collector
Author: Fred McGavran
Publisher: Black Lawrence Press
Paperback: 191 pages
ISBN: 978-0 98159954
List Price: US$10.88
Fred McGavran collects writing awards like a lepidopterist collects butterflies—lots of ‘em: Raymond Carver Award, 2003; John Reid /Tom Howard Contest, 2004; Writers Digest Short Story Contest (for the best horror story) 2007; St. Lawrence Book Award for The Butterfly Collector in 2008; and last year, an Individual Achievement Award from the Ohio Arts Council.
And writing is not his day job. Mr. McGavran, a graduate of Harvard Law School, practices law in Cincinnati. He represents veterans and defends psychiatric malpractice claims, but also sustains a reputation as writer comparable to John Grisham. Law Professor M.H. Hoffheimer says, “These stories are required reading for lawyers with a sense of humor and all devotees of the art of short fiction.”
The Butterfly Collector is a collection of fifteen short stories, ranging from wacky to pedestrian to weird, clustered behind a scintillating cover of butterflies, all colors, sizes and shapes. What’s inside? A writing style both lyrical and bloody shocking. An imagination which flutters from kinky to surreal to mundane. A wry, unsettling view of how much evil even the most benign of characters can stir up.
By the end of the book – which I did not really want to finish but found difficult to put down – a reluctant, slowly evolving respect emerged for the author’s ability to tweak us into a new way of looking at ourselves.
Reviewed by Gloria MacKay
This entry was posted by Gloria on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Book Reviews.
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