There's an Indian
legend that if you capture a butterfly and whisper a wish to
it, the butterfly cannot reveal the wish to anyone but the
Great Spirit, who hears, sees and knows all. In gratitude for
giving the beautiful butterfly its freedom, the Great Spirit
grants its wish...
--from Dream Lives of Butterflies
The
characters in Jaimee Wriston Colbert's novel-in-stories are
not "happy people with happy problems" (the premise
of most TV sitcoms). They are troubled souls who struggle at
the margins of society, looking for a place to stay, or a garden
patch in the city, or respite from the pains of war. "Dream
Lives of Butterflies" features a cast of marginal human
wrecks, and while they may be far from any place where they
would be truly at home Colbert's characters are still striving.
Their stories are sad and funny; we want them to pull through.
The
locale that confines many of these people is a housing project
in St. Louis, Missouri. There is Marybeth, expecting a personal
visit from Jesus, whom she
believes waits outside her window. The manager's son (as he is known in the
book - he doesn't like his name), who has returned reluctantly to St. Louis
from the woods of Maine, sent on an errand by his father to evict a pregnant
girl named Neville. And there's Pablo, an Irish kid with a Spanish name who
might be the father of Neville's unborn child.
Pablo makes a cluttery sound in his throat, clearing it as
if he's about to make a speech, then in a voice that's flat
and hard and suddenly very grown up, like he's already gone
to college, had a work life and come out of it all on some
other side, far away from this St. Louis, under these low-rent
stairs, he says: The way I see it, in this life you're either
a deserter or the one who gets deserted. He swivels full around
and stares at me straight. So the thing is, Neville, I guess
I don't know yet which I am.
--from Dream Lives of Butterflies
But not all the persons in these stories suffer from lack
of accomplishment. Julia is a biologist who is living in St.
Louis while she teaches at a local university and cares for
an aging mother who seems to be descending into dementia. Julia
is an expert on butterflies, a passion that began during her
childhood in Hawai'i. In the title story of "Dream Lives
of Butterflies", Julia is struggling with depression and
finds her contact with students to be unrewarding. "Writing
books is one thing, it's private and you don't have to dress
for it," she tells herself. "I became a naturalist
because I like nature, something I've always believed functions
more rationally, more naturally, without people." Butterflies
bring lightness and beauty to her life.
Julia may not be strictly autobiographical but her life parallels
the author's. Jaimee
Wriston Colbert was born in Hawai'i, she
has studied entomology, lived
in Maine, worked as a fashion model, was a Distinguished Visiting Writer at
the University of Missouri - St. Louis and is now an Associate Professor of
Creative Writing at Binghamton University. Among her writing courses at BU
are "Loving the Unlovable - A Character Study" and a class in technique
and style called "Writing the Wild". She is recipient of the 1997
Willa Cather Fiction Award for her novel-in-stories "Climbing
the God Tree" and her 1994 collection of short stories, "Sex, Salvation and
the Automobile" won the Zephyr Prize. Several of the stories that were
woven into "Dream Lives of Butterflies" appeared first in prestigious
literary journals, including Prairie Schooner and Green Mountains Review.
Jaimee
Wriston Colbert joins Bill Jaker on OFF THE PAGE to read from "Dream
Lives of Butterflies" and tell about her literary world and her work.
To join in the conversation, call during the live 1:00 PM broadcast to 888/359-9754
or post an e-mail comment to WSKG.Radio@Gmail.com. |
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