Robert Butler’s Titanic survivor is an early 1900s women’s rights campaigner. After “waking up” in a lifeboat off the Miami coast in the 1990s, she realizes that there is no place for her in the modern world. Women have been emancipated, and her family and friends are all dead. A gender-confused misandrist, the only man she has ever had strong feelings for (other than her father) went down with the Titanic. Having lacked the courage to express her feelings at the time, she decides to find him again. Themes: change, father-daughter relationships, finding purpose and meaning in life, sexuality, love. More…
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A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
In this story by Robert Olen Butler, an aging Vietnamese-American immigrant prepares for death. As he bids farewell to his family, the restless ghost of his once good friend, Ho Chi Minh, visits him over several nights, triggering memories of the past. He is proud of his daughter, who maintains Vietnamese traditions, but not so his son-in-law and grandson, who have been involved in a political murder. All he wants now is to be reunited with his wife and other dead loved-ones in the “village square”. Themes include aging and death, memories, family, friendship, tradition, politics and war. More…