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The title refers in part to a smutty joke but also to the irony of rich people brought low. It all starts in '80 when factory owner Carl is kidnapped. A ransom returns him traumatized, but he never quite recovers. Decades later we find out how this event torqued his wife and children, now grown and clueless, who make bad decision after bad decision. Son Nathan is worried about his law career; his wife is planning a lavish bar mitzvah for their twin sons; Other son Beamer wants to revive his flagging screenwriting career, fueled by drugs and wild sex; daughter Jenny is trying to create distance from her family by giving her money away. The factory that manufactures polystyrene molds gets into serious trouble and all their money is gone. It's a book about the grotesque excess, peppered with sardonic Jewish humor. Schadenfreude squared, sometimes a little much but I kept reading with horror fascination.
In Sarajevo in ’92, violence between factions intensifies. Zora, an artist, stays put to continue teaching and work on her paintings, primarily of bridges. She’s sent her family away to safety. Neighbors in her high-rise building support each other as best they can and she develops a deep connection with Mirsad, who keeps his bookstore open until it becomes impossible. When insurgents set fire to the college’s magnificent library, it’s the last straw but she’s stuck there with great privation until she can finally make a last-minute escape. Those butterflies in the title refer to charred pages, fluttering out of the sky like bizarre snow flurries. Vivid and elegiac.
Phoebe has had it with life and decides to make an exit (with her dead cat’s tranquilizers) at a swanky hotel she’s always wanted to visit. There she finds it’s filled with wedding guests and when the bride to be, Lila, learns of Phoebe’s plan, she has a hissy fit. No one must ruin her very expensive weeklong event. Phoebe gets swept up with great reluctance into the myriad activities and discovers relationship rifts which don’t bode well for the nuptial pair. Lots of opportunities for satire here but also for tender attention to what really matters.
On the English coast Cole, trying to leave behind tensions and hurts in London, hopes to find tranquility working as a forest ranger. Two girls on a trek to draw attention to attacks on women disappear very close to his cottage. A short distance away, Leo (short for Leonora) is working on an art project. She and Cole connect, and we start to discover what lies under his mild exterior. The denouement is one of the most tricksy I’ve ever encountered. Atmospheric and creepy.
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