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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Passion to Write Well, July 9, 2003
I've met so many doctors over the years who have incredible talent in other areas. Some manage to balance a full career and still pursue their painting or their love of the cello until they retire to live amazingly long lives, fueled by their passion on which they can now totally focus. I don't know what Dr. Murray's agenda will be, but I hope he can manage the balance between writing and a medical career. Murray understands the human heart. He has a great understanding of that one large or small situation or life event that hurls a person into choices they might never have made. Add to this his knowledge of the exotic world and its suffering about which most of us are totally in the dark, his facinating data, probably collected over a lifetime, regarding entymology, and finally his amazing ability with language, and you've got a tremendous reading experience. I envy anyone who has yet to read this debut of short stories. I grabbed it from the library after reading two Sunday newspaper reviews. I was so struck by his writing that I immediately sought out a signed edition. I can open it to any page and start reading prose that is closer to poetry.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than the sum of its parts, April 17, 2003
John Murray is an Australian physician with a distinguished career in public health. He has traveled widely and worked in extraordinary, challenging situations that provide him with a wealth of material for these remarkable stories. He is a master of stunning, exquisite detail. To the delight of this reader, he has used his experience and knowledge, not to dazzle us with exotic tales, nor to create clever insider stories, but to reflect on the human condition. On those occasions that he recounts the horrific experience (and there are some) of a well-intentioned and perhaps heroic professional in a foreign land, it becomes a source of reflection on how we perceive ourselves and how we manage our lives, wherever we live. It made me think. Displacement is a theme in many of the stories. In an interview ...when asked why he was so interested in the immigrant experience, Murray responded that it was partly because he, himself, is an immigrant. His experience working with the displaced of the world has obviously also influenced his thinking. He posits that "the century we're living in is the century of displacement." But his vision is larger, I think. This is a century of displacement, not just for refugees, or emigres, but for all of us. Most of us are "on our own" these days, free from traditional constraints of the past. And we can identify our own dilemmas in those of his characters. They struggle with place, cultural inheritance, inclinations, their vision of themselves and who they insist they are. Is that familiar? The stories are layered, moving in time and place across years and continents - there are stories within stories, all of which contribute to the density and realization of the central figure of each. And the delicacy of the writer's hand, the wonderful and specific details that are incorporated in the stories serve, not (just) to awe us with the wealth of his knowledge, but to construct beautiful, translucent containers that illuminate their contents - the characters he has created. These are wonderful stories. The strength of the writing, the poetry, the surprising and often lovely images, the breadth and seriousness and the author's sensitivity make this collection a truly notable first offering. I am looking forward eagerly, to more. Penny Altman ...
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thematically Focused and Written in a Lean Style, June 6, 2003
From the first sentence, these stories have a simple, direct tone that is reminiscent of Hemingway. "On the first morning of the training in Bombay, just minutes before she collapsed, Elizabeth Dinakar stood in front of two hundred people in the conference hall, pointed up at the cholera bacteria magnified on the wall in front of her, and said, 'this is your enemy.'" Every event feels urgent and full of vitality. Though the characters may have feelings that are often ambiguous, the style has a clarity that pulls the reader into the story. Often in a collection of stories, there is little to indicate how or why these particular stories fit together. Such is not the case here. Thematically, the stories in A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies overlap quite a bit. The first story, "The Hill Station," crosses cultural boundaries, expresses an intimate familiarity with medical professions and explores the emotional isolation of a career professional. Variations on these themes are treated throughout the stories in this collection. In exploring these themes, the protagonists are frequently introspective. They think and remember and think some more before taking the one decisive action that is pivotal to their lives and the climax of the story. These intensely analytical characters express their emotions through their obsessions. They are beetle collectors, mountain climbers and third world volunteer doctors. As focused as the themes are between the stories, the settings are diverse. From the top of the Himalayas to the American Midwest, the author captures the essence of these locales and many more besides. Each location has its own distinct personality that is conveyed by the vegetation and the weather, the sounds and smells, even the very feel of the wind and sun. All this adds richness and depth to this fine collection of stories. The stories in this collection capture the poignant solitude that everyone faces in their lives from time to time. This is the bright start for Murray's writing career. Overall, this collection of poignant stories is a treat. They show growth occurring through painful realizations of inadequacy.
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