A strong book inspires strong opinions

books:

	• Tabloid Dreams: Stories Robert Olen Butler Holt Paperbacks, 1997 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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Make A Connection

This collection of short stories is one of the most poignant pieces of modern literature I have ever read. It explores the idea of connecting with your fellow man in an age that is hell-bent on separation. It begins with the story "Titanic Victim Speaks Through Water Bed;" a story about a man who realizes the importance of having a physical being, only after he loses it, and ends with the tale of a "Titanic Survivor Found In Bermuda Triangle." This is the story of a woman who has devoted her life to one cause, and when that cause is gone, she sees that her ceaseless devotion has left her empty and unfulfilled. This collection speaks to all the hopes and fears that live deep within ourselves. After all, who wants to reflect on their life and see that it has all come to nothing? After reading this book, if you do not have a deeper appreciation for your friends and family, you have missed the point entirely. Make that connection and live your life with no regrets.

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Offbeat & Original

"Tabloid Dreams" is like the sit-com version of the works of Edgar Allen Poe. There are so many dead bodies by the time we get to the end of the collection that we marvel at all the different ways they've died. In "Titanic Victim Speaks Through Waterbed," we see an Englishman who falls in love if only for a moment on the deck of the Titanic and urges the lady to get into a lifeboat and live. He dies and has numerous observations on life as he wafts around in a ghostly existence. The collection concludes perfectly as with bookends with the same incident told through the eyes of the woman in "Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle." After having gotten into the lifeboat and mysteriously slept decades before rescue, she decides life really isn't worth living and offs herself in a bathtub. We see a widow who enters a cookie baking contest and sets her apron on fire, a parrot who is the reincarnation of his wife's dead husband fly into a window, a nymphomaniac put a meteor through a guy's brain who is busy kissing her feet, a nine-year old hit man who leaves a trail of bodies, a woman with a death kiss whose lovers drown, get baseballs smashing their brain or die in auto crashes, JFK who wasn't killed at an auction of Jackie's belongings who did die, and the whole planet gets blown up when struck by a meteor. 2 stories do not have dead bodies like the boy with the tatoo of Elvis and the court reporter with a glass eye who puts it in a glass of water to spy on her husband having an affair; but they probably would have liked to kill someone! Butler does a great job of making us look at the world from a different perspective. This collection is delightfully offbeat and original. Enjoy!

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A strong book inspires strong opinions

I was surprised to read some other readers' negative reviews of this book, because I think it's one of the very best short fiction collections I have ever read. But there's no accounting for personal taste, I suppose.
These stories are linked together by a common device --all are based on (real or imagined?) tabloid headlines. Some other readers have felt this is phony and contrived, but I don't see why. You only have to read a couple paragraphs of the first story to realize that Butler's stories transcend and subvert the genre of the supermarket tabloid. These are exquisitely crafted, character-driven stories. Sure, the titles promise a superficial laugh, but the tales themselves portray the deepest joys, hopes, fears and angst of the human condition. That is the irony of the somewhat slapstick titles; the stories are funny in parts, but not in the least bit fluffy.
It occurs to me that maybe it was the use of such "low culture" references as tabloid headlines that made some readers hate this book. Perhaps those readers who pride themselves on reading highbrow literature (Butler is, after all, a Pullitzer prize winner) are offended by any allusions to "baser" forms of writing.
In any case, I recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys good writing, is not a snob, and has a sense of humor. The writing is masterful, the characters are outlandish but fascinating and, for the most part, believable, and the stories themselves are alternately hilarious and heart-breaking. Trust me --this book rocks.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

A New York Times Noteworthy Paperback, 1997