Severance: Stories

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 264 pages
• Published by: Chronicle Books April 30, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0811860981
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0811860987
• Book Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 10.4 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Lively writing and a catchy conceit make this collection from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain a thought-provoking, if morbid, read. Sixty-two entries, each in the voice of a beheaded historical, mythical, animal or modern figure, make up the collection. Each is exactly 240 words, Butler's estimate of the number of words that could be spoken by a decapitated head before oxygen runs out. Among the post-mortem monologues Butler imagines are John the Baptist, Medusa, Cicero, a chicken, Nicole Brown Simpson, Maximilien Robespierre, Valeria Messalina and himself, "decapitated on the job" in 2008. Though clever in arrangement (Butler convincingly constructs the mind of a dragon, then puts his killer, St. George, on the next page) and complex in its considerations (religious faith is an ongoing theme, from the apostle Matthew's recollection of conversion to a Yemeni executioner's discovery that "the mercy of God seeks sinful love before righteous hatred"), the collection's darting attentions and fractured narratives may frustrate readers. Several entries take a light tone, but what lingers is an unsettling sense of the absurdity—and prevalence—of violence. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* No, this isn't about postemployment pay packages. Severanceis about the severing of heads from bodies. Butler is a commanding and ingenious writer with a love of high-concept undertakings--think Tabloid Dreams (1996) and Had a Good Time(2004). But even for Butler, this collection of unpunctuated prose poems is daring, a book based on two heretofore unrelated facts: theory has it that consciousness lasts for one and a half minutes after decapitation, and people can utter 160 words per minute when agitated. Butler did the math, so each spurt-of-consciousness story is 240 words long. And he did the research, unearthing 62 individuals who lost their heads in executions, at the hands of murderers (most often husbands), and in accidents (Jayne Mansfield). The results are compositions of disquieting beauty, cathartic wit, and transcendent empathy. Most of the decapitated men and women Butler portrays devote their last synaptic firings to memories of sensuous pleasure, while others, including Cicero and Marie Antoinette, return to childhood. The stories grow more viscerally disturbing as Butler moves forward in time. There's Nicole Brown Simpson, for example, and Tyler Alkins, the civilian truck driver beheaded in Iraq. Butler's singular perspective on human bloodshed and the power of the mind make Severance not only unique but also unforgettable. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Severance: Stories (Hardcover) There are a lot of things to admire about this collection--Butler is very creative with his choices of heads and often tackles the question of what final thoughts may go through a mind in its final ninety seconds between decapitation and death (according to the famous epigram by Dr. Dassy D'Estaing) in intriguing ways . Butler manages to surprise often in this historical sequence, from convicts to unfaithful (maybe) spouses to beasts and myths to royalty. The premise itself is intriguing--a sequence of monologues from decapitated heads working on the conceits that a head can live for ninety seconds after decapitation and humans speak at a rate of 160 words a second when in a "heightened state of emotion," for a grand total of 240 words for each monologue. Butler also mixes humor and pathos through many of these choices, to deal with the horror of violence (as in the monologue from Nicole Brown Simpson) to the lighter side of decapitation (as in a chicken chosen to be an evening meal). But despite all of this praise, I must admit that I found the basic motif a little tiresome in its less than stellar moments. Butler is very much of a formalist, and sticks to his guns when it comes to form rather than exploring within it. Butler's best book, _A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain_, suffers less for this and only stifles itself in minor moments. In collections like _Tabloid Dreams_, however, the conceit (in this one, Butler takes _Weekly World News_ headlines and uses them as the ground situations of stories) wears thin after some gems because he remains rooted to that premise rather than exploring the boundaries of it. This book suffers the same fate. While the choice of subject matter is intriguing and promising, and his attitude of pathos and humor is wonderful, and monologues like Nicole Brown Simpson and Cicero and a mythical dragon are inspiring, and even though there are some thoughtful correlations made here between the French Revolution and Henry VIII and the modern 'war on terror,' it is the 240-word formula of the monologues that wears thin after a while. Rather than play with the limit, the monologues become 'just another 240 words,' and Butler doesn't seem to play with what defines 240 words but restricts himself to formality in this respect rather than creativity. In the end, my attitude may just be curmudgeonly, but I would rather read the work and be delighted by it in all ways rather than be reminded constantly of its format.