This book has an absolutely lunatic premise. It is said that a decapitated head can remain in a state of consciousness for 90 seconds. In heightened states of emotion or agitation, people can speak at the rate of 160 words per minute. Combine the two and you have the micro stories in this book.

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Recommended by folks into microfiction; seems to be one of those books that people either totally love or absolutely hate. I sampled about 1/4 of it at the bookstore over the course of a week, trying to get myself to buy it. I couldn't. Brilliant writing, but I agree with other reviewers--I couldn't get over the disconnect between what the pieces were and what the pieces were supposed to be (i.e. the thoughts that can take place during the last 90 seconds in the brain of a decapitated head). ( )

This odd little book is more a collection of thoughts than stories. Severance by Robert Olen Butler is inspired by two quotes:
After careful study and due deliberation it is my opinion the head remains conscious for one minute and a half after decapitation.
- Dr. Dassy D'Estaing, 1883

In a heightened state of emotion, we speak at the rate of 160 words per minute.

- Dr. Emily Reasoner, A Sourcebook of Speech, 1975
Putting 2 2 together, Butler concluded that a severed head would be able to speak (or think) 240 words before expiring. Thus explains this collection of 62 pieces about what goes through the mind of a severed head. Each story is exactly 240 words long. The heads are historical (John the Baptist, Walter Raleigh, Nicole Brown Simpson), fictional (Medusa, the Dragon slayed by St. George) and fanciful (a prehistoric man, a chicken, and the author himself). Over history people are beheaded by angry kings (Henry VIII) and angry mobs (the French Revolution) as well as by murders and in horrible accidents. The thought are often not about the beheading, but focus on a vital moment in the life of that person as the author imagines it. The text is written in a primal stream of consciousness, all one sentence no periods. I don't know who all the characters are, but in some ways the people I know nothing about are all the more fascinating to read about in just 240 of heightened speech.

It's an interesting concept for a book and it works, although I suspect that Butler takes a lot of liberties with the personal histories of the actual people included in his books. This is especially a concern for those who may still have family alive like Brown Simpson or a woman killed in the World Trade Center attacks (the latter includes a bad pun about Paul Anka singing "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"). Barring squeamishness though, this book is an intriguing examination of humanity in extreme situations. ( )

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“After decapitation, the human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for one and one half minutes.”

“In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute.”

Using these two concepts, Butler writes a short story for each decapitated victim using only 240 words. Little to no punctuation was used, which made it slightly uncomfortable for me to read. The language, however, is very descriptive and poetic.

I was impressed at the cast of characters, fictional and factual, that Butler chose to write about. These characters included a dragon, Marie Antoinette, Medusa, a chicken, and even the author himself. Some of the characters were beheaded by accident, like John Martin, a boy who was “decapitated by subway after lifting sidewalk grate and falling onto the tracks below.” Others were beheaded as punishment, most notably from the French Revolution. Each of these mini-narratives had an individual voice, unique to each character. Just by the language, you could tell what their education was, their place in history, and their culture.

My favorite passage was that narrative of Pierre-François Lacenaire, “criminal and memoirist, guillotined for murder, 1836.” He described the guillotine as his fiancée, very eloquently. “…all her thin body is rouged for me, all but her bosom which is naked and unadorned, polished bright…” This unlikely juxtaposition was the most poetic and descriptive of all the stories.

Overall, this compilation of short stories was well written and strangely compelling. It was a very short, yet enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone. ( )

Butler gets a big gold star for a clever idea. This book is a series of essays cataloging the final thoughts of people between beheading and death - roughly two pages per person. The people are interesting (Marie Antoinette, for example), the thoughts intriguing. However. He makes no distinction between people who know that they're going to die and those who don't. I think it's a huge line that must be drawn, and it's a critical error. ( )

An interesting concept with some wonderful writing, but unengaging as a whole. ( )