Severance: Stories
by Robert Olen Butler
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 131)
Read in June, 2008
I’ve said this before, but Robert Olen Butler is my favorite writer; I think he’s one of the most gifted writers around in terms of technical prose; and I think no one does stream of consciousness better than him. All that said, his last novel was terrible (Fair Warning), and the novel before that was mediocre (Mr. Spaceman). It’s clear now that he has decided to stick to his strengths – this work is another creative writing exercise for his talents. The premise behind Severance is the c...more
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Read in December, 2006
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 90 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...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
horsemen
Whether or not this is deserved, I associate Chronicle Books with titles like "Photographs of Kitschy 1970s-Era Cartoon Themed Garden Implements" and "Naughty Ilustrated Haiku By Cheesecake Models of the Mid-Fifties." This book is kind of in that vein, except the theme here is decapitation (and there are, thankfully, no pictures).
This here, consistent with my stereotype of Chronicle Books, is a gimmick. The gimmick is the idea that a person remains conscious for a minute ...more
This here, consistent with my stereotype of Chronicle Books, is a gimmick. The gimmick is the idea that a person remains conscious for a minute ...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
morbids, poetry lovers, history buffs who like poetry a little, agnostics
a collection of "short stories" from variously famous and unknown victims of decapitation in the moments after they've lost their heads.
he calls them short stories but i say they're poetry. they each follow a structure (a set amount of words which he estimates a person could think in the amount of time which people are estimated to be able to think after decapitation), and the imagery is often intense and beautiful.
i found the best way to read this was one or a few of these ...more
he calls them short stories but i say they're poetry. they each follow a structure (a set amount of words which he estimates a person could think in the amount of time which people are estimated to be able to think after decapitation), and the imagery is often intense and beautiful.
i found the best way to read this was one or a few of these ...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
poetry readers, people who like quirk with substance
I'd like to give this book four and a half stars. It's a fascinating experiment, and quite successful in everything except that, for me, it felt like an experiment all the way through. I wasn't counting to make sure every piece was exactly 240 words, but I couldn't completely suspend my disbelief either (mostly, I was bothered by the question of how you would leap directly from the experience of having your head cut off to thinking in a prose poem about things that happened to you years ago).
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Read in March, 2007
Severance combines two theories: that consciousness is retained after decapitation for 90 seconds, and that, in heightened emotional states, people speak 160 words per minute. The book is sixty-two stories, at exactly 240 words each, from the heads of decapitated people: kings, queens, farmers, girls, businessmen, jihadists, authors, and mythological women, men and animals. It’s a fantastic book in its originality, its concept and, yeah, its execution.
I can’t remember the last book of po...more
I can’t remember the last book of po...more
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Read in May, 2008
This is an incredibly interesting collection of short-short stories based around the idea of what would someone say in the minute-and-a-half of "consciousness" that a head is supposed to retain after beheading. Sounds kind of gruesome, but it's not a horrific collection by any means. Assuming that a person in a heightened state can utter 160 words per minute and applying that to the 1.5 minutes of consciousness, the author tells stories that are all exactly 240 words in length of chara...more
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I thought these stories were pretty great, although, you have to be willing to look past the gimmicky factor involved. All the stories here are first person narrations of the protagonist's decapitation, and they are all exactly 240 words, his estimate of how long a head could talk before the loss of blood and oxygen kick in. A far fetched conceit, but when it works it works beautifully. Our protagonists range from John the Baptists to a chicken (oh, yes, Butler really couldn't do this collecti...more
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Read in January, 2008
A post-modern post-mortem -- 240 word entries of severed heads last thoughts. It sounds tremendously morbid, but it is a fascinating window into the intimacy of thought made more vivid through the use of truncation. We read a few of these short pieces while reading The Tale of Two Cities and the students I teach were hooked. They what-if and questioned one after another and the tantalizing realization of never knowing the rest of their life or tale was hammered into them in a way I could not hav...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Debbie by:
Jennyrecommends it for: history buffs, writers who want to learn about flash fiction
In an excited state, a person can talk at a rate of 160 words a minute. It has also been theorized that a decapitated head remains conscious for a minute and a half. Robert Olin Butler put those two factoids together and offers a series of stories that are all 240 words long and from the minds of recently beheaded individuals.
As with any whort story collection, not all of the stories hit the mark--so to speak. But many do. As does the arrangement of the stories. They are listed in chron...more
As with any whort story collection, not all of the stories hit the mark--so to speak. But many do. As does the arrangement of the stories. They are listed in chron...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Katharine by:
Madeline gave me this book.
Very logical: if the brain lives 1 1/2 minutes after being cut from the body, and the agitated person speaks at a rate of 160 words/minute,the thoughts of a beheaded person will form a story exactly 240 words long. This is the book of such stories. Most stories are told by "real heads" but some are fantasy (the thoughts of a chicken, for instance. Hey, how many words does a stressed chicken speak in a minute?). It's an entertaining -sometimes moving, sometimes funny -exercise that I en...more
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Read in May, 2008
Recommended by folks into microfiction; seems to be one of those books that people either totally love or absolutely hate. I sampled about 1/4 of it at the bookstore over the course of a week, trying to get myself to buy it. I couldn't. Brilliant writing, but I agree with other reviewers--I couldn't get over the disconnect between what the pieces were and what the pieces were supposed to be (i.e. the thoughts that can take place during the last 90 seconds in the brain of a decapitated ...more
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Read in July, 2007
Thought the idea behind the book was interesting but none of the poems I read live up to the concept. I thought the author would take the concept more literally - what are the FINAL thoughts of a beheaded person - but he seems to have diluted it with thoughts that prelude the big conclusion. Would be interested in a collection of poems from a collection of poets who all had a go at this idea in their own way.
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Short stories narrated by the severed heads of the famous and infamous. Great premise: that the mind still fires for a short period of time after beheading and that, when severely stressed, a person can utter a particular number of words. So, each narrator gets just a short amount of time to sum up their life, now that it is been severed from their shoulders.
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3 comments
Great read! Fascinating, tiny short stories all told from the perspective of someone who has just lost their head. From a chicken beheaded for dinner...to Anne Boleyn...to the author himself...each of the monologues are interesting and poetic and quick. This book shouldn't take more than two to three hours to finish.
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like prose poems without punctuation.
Another gimmicky collection from Butler, who writes well when he stays closer to traditional forms. The book reads like the writings of a history major who has just discovered the prose poem form. None of the stories are particularly compelling and they're told in the same voice. Couldn't finish.
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Simply amazing collection; disturbing and beautiful and painful and absolutely alive with human diversity and compassion. I read it in bits and pieces over the course of a month and then as soon as I finished it I re-read the entire thing again in one night. Butler is extraordinary!
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wish i'd had the idea to have freshly severed heads spout off intricate, gorgeous streamofconsciousness monologues. everyone from king george's dragon to john the baptist gets a say. not as morbid as it sounds.
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Read in March, 2008
A series of fictional clips about what thoughts go through a person's consciousness when he has been decapitated. The idea of the book is original, and the writing is concise and emotionally gripping.
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Read in June, 2007
Very moving, poetic set of vignettes that represent the last thoughts of a series of historical figures who were beheaded. Not to fear---they are ore existential than bloody.
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