John Murray (2) (1963–)

"A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies" is a psychological tragedy. You cannot help but feel sorry for the first person protagonist as he slowly loses his grip on his once secure life. As a plastic surgeon married to a neurosurgeon twenty years his junior he has turned to the bottle to reconcile the memory of the death of his sister, his grandfather's suicide brought about by mental illness, his wife's miscarriage and his own handed-down obsession with butterflies.

"Watson and the Shark" show more is a different kind of tragedy. A doctor volunteering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is witness to the brutal injuries a boy suffers at the hands of machete-mad soldiers. He begins to operate on the critically wounded boy when hundreds of other severely wounded men, women and children are brought into his operating tent. In the beginning of the story the narrator feels like god, controlling the lives of the mangled patients under his knife. He has the power to stitch them together and potentially give them their life back. But, as he watches the multitude of mutilated suffer and die he begins to feel a hopelessness creep in. show less

This was a beautiful, thoughtful and interesting group of long(ish) short stories that often took my breath away. I am a bit new to the short story genre, but these struck me as unique, both in location and subject matter. Each of the eight stories deals with some similar themes, e.g., loss (usually of a parent), acceptance of hardships and issues of parenting (from either a grown child's perspective or a parent's perspective) and often the struggle between being a parent and pursuing show more individual needs and desires. There are also themes of what we become, and why, either to follow in our parents' footsteps or conversely, consciously avoid that path. The stories often weave in exotic locations, India, Africa, the Himalayas; and also usually involve some facet of the medical profession (even if just the learning) as the author is a doctor. The thing I loved is that I felt I learned a little bit about something with each story, whether beetles, butterflies, carpentry, surgery, volunteering in a war-torn country, etc. The stories do tend to wander a bit, they don't have a cohesive beginning/middle/end, but that said, I think that is part of their beauty. Characters walk in, walk out, and some never reappear, much like life. Although I liked them all, I believe my favorite story was "The Carpenter Who Looked Like A Boxer" - about a self-labled ugly man who marries a beautiful physician with some dark secrets that bubble up early in their marriage. He is left with the couple's two children and he just tells of the simple joys of being a father, artist, carpenter and homeowner. He accepts his flaws and as the story grows, he learns to like who he is and what he provides for his children and others. It's a beautiful story. My second favorite was "All The Rivers In The World" about a chubby, stuck-in-middle-life man who road trips from Maine to Florida to try to figure out why his father left his mother and sold everything to live/work on a fishing boat in Florida. As is often true of life, things were not what he thought, and he gains new understanding and empathy about his father and himself. I highly recommend this book, especially if you like something a bit off the beaten path. show less

I find the intricacy of his prose, the exotic situations narrated in a flat, matter-of-fact tone--tantalizing. But I do agree with the reviewer (Megami?) who says that the situations seem to vary little from story to story-- there is always the brilliant, distant father; the neurasthenic, unhappy mother; the son (or daughter) caught between these two opposing forces. Still, I know I'll finish the book, if only because I can't get over how someone with a name like JOHN MURRAY could channel show more Ruth Prawer Jhabvala... show less

A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies by John Murray (a physician) is an impressive collection of short stories, each of which provides a remarkable glimpse into the complexitiesof relationships of various types. It is a serious, yet uplifting book - with beautiful and powerful portraits of difficult emotions.