Butterflies Dance in the Dark

by Beatrice MacNeil

Destined for limbo because of her illegitimacy, and labeled “retarded” because of a learning disability, young Mari-Jen Delene retreats into silence. Around her revolves a vividly drawn cast of her mother Adele; Misha, a Polish Jew; the willful, bitter Mother Superior; and her powerfully intelligent twin brothers, who sleep beside a map of the world they long to explore. Brilliantly imagined and buoyed by the clear-eyed perceptions of youth, it is an eloquent and profound story from a gifted writer.

Genres: Book Club, Canada, Fiction

332 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2002

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually chose to read BUTTERFLIES DANCE IN THE DARK by Beatrice MacNeil because of the yellow dress the girl is wearing on the cover and the word BUTTERFLIES in the title. This time choosing a book by its cover "paid off."

"Beatrice MacNeil's writing resembles painting, a beautifully textured, wondrously detailed painting..."
- GEORGE ELLIOT CLARKE

With her colourful detailed writing, Beatrice MacNeil transported me back to 1953 in the fictional Acadian village of Ste. Noire, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The characters came to life. I loved 5 year-old Mari-Jen with fiery red hair, and her intelligent and rebellious twin brothers, Alfred and Albert, made me smile, sometimes laugh aloud, and other times shake my head in disbelief. I liked their mama, Adele Delene, Daniel Peter, the kind-hearted holocaust survivor, and Sister Theresa, a teacher at school. Mother Superior and Uncle Jule, who I disliked immensely, brought uncertainty and fear.

I observed life and the interactions between Mari-Jen and her family, and people of the village for nearly two decades.

Here are my favourite quotes from this book.

"My words buzzed around and around like a fly trapped in a jar."

"WHAT IS PAIN, but knowledge learned backwards?"

"Elegantly written and profoundly touching, Butterflies Dance in the Dark stands as a testament to the vibrant resiliency of youth and the enduring powers of the imagination."
- Quote from the Overview

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and must give it 5***** because it shocked me and brought me laughter and tears.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met the author, Beatrice MacNeil when we went on a cruise from Boston to Halifax & Sidney Nova Scotia. She was a very nice lady and told me why she wrote books about handicapped children. I found her fascinating. I bought two of her books. The other one was "The Geranium Window". I haven't read that one yet.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautifully written!

[Fred Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strong religious ethos hovers over this child's life and book. The church and sinfulness play a dominant role. Mari- Jen is an illegitimate child as are her two fatherless twin brothers. Their mother struggles bringing up her children. superstition and fear influence their daily lives. Mari-Jen is labelled as retarded at school by an unrelenting Mother Superior who seem to have it in for the child. Mari-Jen lives in a lonely, friendless, silent world which she allows herself to slip into. entering adulthood Mari- Jen receives help and she leaves her silent mode to embrace life a bit more fully.
A wonderful read and study of a quiet, shy lonely little fatherless girl.

[Courtenay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple and entertaining read, yet there is actually substance to is as well. I think what really kept me turning the pages is that it reminded me so much of the stories my mother has told me about going to catholic school in New Brunswick. She had a teacher like Mother Superior (thankfully only for one year) and mischievous, older twin brothers to take care of her too.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author from L'Ardoise, Cape Breton Nova Scotia.... I was easily drawn in by this local Author.... as much almost as when I read the book KIN by Leslie Crewe. Going to look for more books be Beatrice MacNeil

[Mary Stetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing situation. Who was paying attention to these children?

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the main character and really felt for her.

[Digitally Lit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia: This book is Set in a remote Acadian village on Cape Breton Island in the 1950s, the story is narrated by Mari-Jen Delene and follows her from age 5 to adulthood. Mari-Jen and her twin brothers are their mother Adele`s mortal sins: all are illegitimate and from two different fathers. Mother Superior tells Mari-Jen that illegitimate children can never enter heaven, but must remain in limbo. At school, Mari-Jen`s learning disability earns her the label `retarded,` and she withdraws into another limbo, that of silence.

Around Mari-Jen revolves a cast of brilliantly drawn characters: her mother Adele, whose `sins` now have voices and needs and souls of their own; Misha, a Polish Jew, who landed at Pier 21 in Halifax in 1947 and settled in Cape Breton and whom the villagers refer to as the DP and the twins christened Daniel Peter because they thought his mother couldn`t spell; a willful and bitter Mother Superior who teaches lessons that are painfully remembered; twin brothers Alfred and Albert, powerfully intelligent, who sleep beside a stolen map of the world that they burn to explore.

I enjoyed this book a lot, it is very thoughtfully written and paints a beautiful picture! I however found this book hard to get into in the beginning but it was still a good read.

I rate it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5 stars

[Stacy culler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad story of catholic guilt used to shame three illegitimate children in a catholic school in the 1950’s. A cruel Mother Superior uses her position to take out her personal frustrations on Mari-Jen and her twin brothers Alfred and Albert. Her constant nosy, intrusive questions do nothing to uncover the horrors that exist in the daily lives of the children. Her strict rules do nothing to encourage the education of either the gifted twins, or the shy timid Mari-Jen, who is struggling with a learning disability and labeled as “retarded.” An entire religious community looks the other way on judgement as Mari-Jen descends deeper into the madness surrounds her. The women in the story continue to be saddled with the penance of their choices, while the men live lives of thinly veiled depravity without consequence.

It is only through the intervention of another community outcast, a Jewish Polish Holocaust survivor Daniel Peter, and the quiet yet persistent attention of a kindly nun, Sister Therese that Mari-Jen and her brothers find any hope of a future. The story was well written but sad, and although it ends with some hopefulness, I really wanted Mari-Jen to find love.

[Russell Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beatrice MacNeil’s Butterflies Dance in the Dark is a delicate novel. The author’s heroine Mari-Jen, growing up in the 1950s and 60s, is delicate yet full of strength. Dismissed by the Mother Superior at her school, Mari-Jen is labeled “stupid” and “retarded,” not only by her Mother Superior and her classmates, but by her own devoutly Catholic mother. But others believe in Mari-Jen, and this is her story of awakening. She blossoms into an intelligent young woman eventually, mostly because of those who believe in her and also because she herself refuses to accept these labels, quietly teaching herself and growing. MacNeil’s prose is stunningly beautiful. She captures the voice of this young girl as she grows into a young woman. Some of MacNeil’s phrases can take your breath away, painting the landscape and feeling so delicately, so intimately, so heartbreakingly, so intensely. Butterflies Dance in the Dark is a magnificent novel, an astounding work full of heart.

[Robin Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book depressing, until the end. Then I realized why Mari-Jen went thru what she did. But the book did not cast a favorable look at the Catholic Church. I’m not Catholic so although it bothered me, not in a personal way. My mother and aunt had gone to Catholic Church so some of the punishments weren’t a surprise. But then there were some that did get to me. Like the binding of the breast. Mari-Jen must have felt as free as a butterfly when that came off! And her mother always wanting to protect her from badness. Life happens!

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Cape Breton Island in the 1950's where punishment in schools were still administered with a strap. Mother Superior has little sympathy for an illegitimate child and continues to belittle Mari-Jen by referring to her as retarded and placing her in a group of misfits, and she slips increasingly into a protective limbo of silence. At a crisis point in her life, Mari-Jen gets the help she needs in her journey to adulthood and begins to re-establish her dialogue with the outside world.

[Crystal Fawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapters 30-32 dragged ooooooooooooon & I started losing hope for this one. The last chapter changed my rating back to a 4.5 outta 5 teacups. The ending was my very favorite part.

[Harold Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Beatrice MacNeil novels but the ending of this one was too long...the wrapping up, so to speak.

[Carol Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very hard story beautifully written

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A snapshot of a very difficult time.

[Marie Bertholf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a happy ending!

[Christie Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely stunning. A beautiful read.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first read from Beatrice! The visual description was phenomenal. A wonderful story that I’m sure is very relatable for many Capebretoners during that time.

[Cynthia Roach · Rating 5 out of 5]

MacNeil’s lyrical portrayal of the fictional village of Ste Noire and all of the characters that inhabit it had me savouring every single sentence.

[Angie Fehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

So this Butterflies Dance In The Dark book by Beatrice MacNeil I read recently was interesting in that though it was a modern book, its tone seemed very Dickensian to me. The story takes place in 1950s St. Noire, Cape Breton area, Canada. Nearly nothing happy happens to anyone in this story and yet I was compelled to keep reading out of hope that things might turn around. There were a number of elements I like in my books in this one. There was the good nun / bad nun element (Mari-Jen, the main character, spends the majority of the book being berated in Catholic school), the mysterious, sad, foreign neighbor -- everyone wondering what his story is, the kids desperately seeking love from a distant mother, the mother with her own sad story, and a surprising sort of turnaround near the end, brief as it was. For having so little cheer, I was surprised this book kept me reading til the end.

The good nun / mean nun idea that I've read in other books before was actually presented a little differently here. It's not really like "good cop / bad cop", where the behavior is meant to get information or damning behavior out of someone in the hopes of helping someone else. The Mother Superior puts Mari-Jen through strange interviews in her office, but there's no clear reason for it. The Mother Superior just seems like she's full of bitterness, bitterness about the path her life has taken, bitterness against God. She and Mari-Jen's born-again mother both feel God is making them pay penances for something so they oddly feel vindicated in taking everyone down with them in a way. The penance deal is how they explain the patterns of bad luck in their lives. They both seemed to like to play the martyr card. But I always tend to wonder, as far as "bad luck" goes, how much of it we bring on ourselves? I liked that this book had me thinking about how when we meet people that seem chronically angry and bitter, how much of that is due to a past experience they can't get over or let go of? Are they truly that mean-hearted on the inside, or is there someone sweet in there inside of the screaming to get out but they don't know how to flip that switch? See what I mean about Dickens?

Mari-Jen finds comfort in the company of "good nun" Sister Therese, her older twin brothers, who seem to let everything roll off their backs, and her neighbor, Daniel Peter, a Polish immigrant who came to Canada after having lost his entire family in WW2 concentration camps. Sister Therese encourages Mari-Jen's talents (while Mother Superior insists Mari-Jen has a learning disability and is somehow unteachable). Mari's brothers keep her laughing and Daniel Peter gives the kids reprieve from their depressing upbringing by reading them Gulliver's Travels, letting them dream of better days, encouraging the fantastical thinking all children should be allowed.

I felt for Mari-Jen when her brothers decide to leave home, remembering when my older brother (my only sibling) did the same when I was little. It's a tough feeling being so young and feeling like it's you against the world. It's hard to watch your siblings move on, leaving you to feel like you're losing those that understand what you're going through better than anyone because they're the only other people that had that same situation in just the way you did. Of course you get past the hurt, the sense of abandonment, and you learn it's all part of life. And so does Mari-Jen here, but reading that part, I did remember those days and feel for her there.

MacNeil has a real talent for words here. She presented what I think is one of my favorite metaphors I've ever read -- "lonely as a Sunday morning dog". LOVE that! The image it creates!

A quick read and worth a look, some really stunning writing here.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, depressing. Sad story. Dysfunctional family. I had to finish it to see how it ends. 300 pages of sad, sad, sad....the last few pages were somewhat happy....I guess the author didn't want the reader would not take the bridge.

[Carolyn Beaugrand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be all over depressing and gray - although I did finish it.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

book club book

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book although it is quite dark.