The Butterfly Lampshade

A Novel

By: Aimee Bender

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

The first novel in 10 years from the author of the beloved New York Times best seller The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, a luminous, poignant tale of a mother, a daughter, mental illness, and the fluctuating barrier between the mind and the world.

On the night her single mother is taken to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode, eight-year-old Francie is staying with her babysitter, waiting to take the train to Los Angeles to go live with her aunt and uncle. There is a lovely lamp next to the couch on which she's sleeping, the shade adorned with butterflies. When she wakes, Francie spies a dead butterfly, exactly matching the ones on the lamp, floating in a glass of water. She drinks it before the babysitter can see.

Twenty years later, Francie is compelled to make sense of that moment, and two other incidents - her discovery of a desiccated beetle from a school paper, and a bouquet of dried roses from some curtains. Her recall is exact - she is sure these things happened. But despite her certainty, she wrestles with the hold these memories maintain over her, and what they say about her own place in the world.

As Francie conjures her past, and reduces her engagement with the world to a bare minimum, she begins to question her relationship to reality. The scenes set in Francie's past glow with the intensity of childhood perception, how physical objects can take on an otherworldly power. The question for Francie is: What do these events signify? And does this power survive childhood?

Told in the lush, lilting prose that led the San Francisco Chronicle to say Aimee Bender is "a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language," The Butterfly Lampshade is a heartfelt and heartbreaking examination of the sometimes overwhelming power of the material world, and a broken love between mother and child.

©2020 Aimee Bender (P)2020 Random House Audio

Awesome to listen to!

A sensitive novel, and was enthralled with the story and the sensitivity used to describe how it feels to live with someone who struggles with mental illness. 10 out of 10 would recommend! Also the narrator has a wonderful reading voice!

This wasn’t a good read choice during a period of social isolation

Fear is real to those who are held captive y it in their minds. This story illustrates the imprisonment of the mind of a daughter whose mother fights her struggle with mental illness. Is she really like her mother? Caution ! The back and forth of this story is madding .

Pushing and Pulling Time Mixed with Memories

The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender did not go far enough for me. The beauty of the writing was not enough to save this novel. This is the rare instance when a brilliant author writes a work with amazing potential but in the end leaves the reader unsatisfied. The ideas are great and the mood is perfect to tell a story blending magical elements with ordinary settings and extraordinary situations. In the end, there just wasn’t enough there to make a complete novel with a coherent story. I was struck and surprised by other reviewers elevating this novel to the level of Proust. The impact that mental illness has on the entire family is an important subject for talented writers like Aimee Bender to explore. For me, simply delving into the subject was not enough. I would recommend this book to only the most devoted fans of the author. The narration performance by Julia Whelan was okay but did not add anything to this material. In fact, the performance was so detached that it brought me further away from understanding the characters.

Outstanding Read

First modern novel I've read that takes on the experience and repercussions of mental illness on the family. Characters are Aimee Bender all the way. I could not love her writing more.

Quite a Journey!

Wow! This story truly took you on an intense ride! You are able to look inside the mind of someone who has been the victim of a family member with mental health issues. She is clearly struggling with several ways and you never know up until the very end if she also suffers from mental illness. eye opening and enlightening. And Julia is an incredible narrator- delivers the story beautifully!

Boring

I could not get through this book. I love Julia Whelan but I didn’t feel the like this was our best work either. I didn’t feel like the story went anywhere and Even though I usually struggle to finish the book. I can’t do that with this one.