I'm a sucker for any anthology that ends with Richard Petty accepting the National Book Award. . . This one also has a lot of heart. The first of what promises to be an annual collection of stories promoting "a rebirth of beauty and life-affirming values," the Silver Rose Anthology offers a strong mix of voices and attitudes. Not every story here will appeal to every reader (the opening story, for instance, does little for me), but the collection overall is outstanding. Personal favorites (in addition to George Singleton's outrageous "Richard Petty Accepts the National Book Award") include Robert Olen Butler's seamless "Rafferty and Josephine," Julie Orringer's touching "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" Patry Francis'"Limbe," and Patricia Hackbarth's provocative "A Brief Geological Guide to Canyon County."
Move over Bill Henderson, Katrina Keneson, and Larry Dark. Watson's in the house!

When Kevin Watson gathered the stories for this anthology, he was doing us a public service. This is a hard world: hearts break, and lives are shattered. Stories that don't deal with those realities aren't true to life. But there's so much more to life--and should be to art. These stories are "life-affirming" in the best kind of way: They don't stay sunk in gloom, but they don't stoop to easy answers. Each one shows us a new facet of getting on with life, making things work, following the path. The individual stories are excellent--I especially like the story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler, although it's one of several strong stories--and in their cumulative effect, the collection becomes (and I mean this in the best kind of way) inspirational.

i only gave this book 5 stars because i could not give it more. i went to a reading of one of the writers and soon went on to read the rest. it has a good mix of voices, but by far the best writer is Heidi Shayla and her story "The Coffin Builder's Romance", it is a beautiful story of quilts, boxes, and of course, coffins. it is my all time favorite anthology, and i would definetly recomend it.

In this collection of somewhat similar stories, Butler ranges from the comic to the tragic. All the characters are Vietnamese Americans living in Louisiana, and Butler did his homework. He's so conversant with the customs and histories of his characters the book reads, in places, like an anthropological study. Highly recommended collection of short stories. A nice break if you've been gorging on Carver or one of the other American blacklung writers.

When I first learned that Butler was a Caucasian man living in Louisiana, I was a little reticent about reading the book. As a Chinese immigrant, I have read numerous accounts of the "Asian experience" from the non-Asian perspective. Often times, the writers oversimplify their subjects' feelings and don't have a good sense of the material.

Nothing could be further from the truth about Butler's book. After I read it, I bought numerous copies and sent them to my friends. Butler has an acute understanding of the Vietnamese experience, and in particular, the immigrant experience in the US. How did he know these feelings? How did he get such a good grasp of the culture?

It is a extremely moving book. Several times I had to put the book down because I was so choked up. Butler is an incredible writer. Each chapter is a self-contained short story. Sometimes told from the perspective of a woman, other times a man. In either case, Butler's keen awareness of Vietnamese culture is apparent from the sensitivity of his stories.

Butler, whose ear for dialogue is ordinarily one of his strongest assests, also relies here on a previosuly unsuspected depth of descriptive passion. The lush jungles and villages of Vietnam are as easily evoked as the muggy bayous of southeast Louisiana. Butler's narrators all seem authentic; the voices are so strong that the question of whether the author is Vietnamese or American is quickly made irrelevant. The author writes like a dream, and the pace and strength of these stories rise smokelike throughout the novel, culminating in a final paragraph that rivals "The Great Gatsby" for Greatest American Final Lines.

Walt Whitman once said: "It is the job of the poet to resolve all tongues unto his own." In this regard, Robert Olen Butler is a true poet in the way he goes inside the head of a teenage Vietnamese American boy to create a living, breathing character that anyone with a heart should be able to identify with. This book should be taught in American high schools. (P.S. For a fascinating non-fiction companion to this book, read "Born to Kill" by T.J. English, the true story of a Vietnamese-American gang.)

Butler has written a great piece on an Amerasian's experience in New York City during the 80's. The author shows the main character's struggle with figuring out his identity and the different types of people who live on the fringes in New York City. A great fusion of 1970s Saigon and 1980s New York.

"The Alleys of Eden" was first published in the early 1980's. Its revival is due to the later works of Robert Olen Butler, including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner, "A Good Scent from a Faraway Mountain." Few writers have delved into the psychological lives of Vietnam vets as Butler has. This novel tests the love between an American deserter in Vietnam and a Vietnamese woman, who are bonded by the extremities of the war. When the couple try to start over in America, they are faced with a different set of challenges. This novel is remiscent of Le Ly Hayslip's autobiographies, "When Heaven and Earth Change Places," and "Child of War: Woman of Peace." The irony is that it took more than a decade for Butler's refreshing novel to surface, and that is largely due to the efforts of the Vietnam vets' struggles to be heard and the public's recent interent in literature related to Vietnam.

Butler steps in and creates a whirling erotic novel that makes one appreciate all the subtleties of sexual relationships. Ira Halloway, the protagonist, lives for love (and sex, of course); he breaths it; he thrives on it. He carries the memories of his former lovers, memories that lie as secrets inside him. These women's voices whisper to him, reminding him of intimate moments: back in Vietnam as a soldier among cocoa-skinned prostitutes, in Illinois as a hormone-driven boy, in New York as a father-lover. The prose flows smoothly like his thoughts and Butler must get credit for this. Beautiful language. And most of the story takes place in Halloway's mind, where his brain tries to make sense of his landscape of lovers. He remembers the parts of women's bodies as though they are religious idols: the insteps, the toes, the rounded shoulders, the rose-tinted nipples, and just about every other crevice and appendage that a woman has. All these memories create nervous conflict. His wife, once the victim of incest, turns deeply religious---fanatical---and Halloway must tread lightly around her struggles or risk losing both her and, more importantly, their son. I enjoyed the book, and if I have anything critical to say about it, I'd have to accuse it as being long-winded and monotonous at times. Read it anyway and form your own opinion.

butler is another louisiana writer i have come to appreciate. not many male writers can write female characters well...this guy is so good it, makes you wonder if he lives inside their heads...maybe he grew up in a house full of women?.....the dialog is excellent...and the female characters are as intriguing as the protagonist...some people griped about the glorification of prostitution...but it is a necessary evil...it's more honest for a guy to pay for sex, than it is for him to wine and dine a woman, giving her expensive gifts, to get her into bed with him....

i thought fiona's story was excellent , yet sad....

I could not put this book down for a minute and I could not beleive that a male author could write so eloqently, sexually and emotionally, about his love for women. The novel was very moving and I'm looking for other books by Butler with erotic themes.

I rate this as a mediocre writing effort. To me, the characters were not really well developed and the story, while emotional, was not that interesting. It was worth reading, but I wasn't really sorry to finish it, so I can move on to something better.

If you want to read a better, even great, Vietnam novel, I'd recommend you try Fields of Fire by Webb, or Close Quarters by Heinemann, or Better Times than These by Groom. Fragments pales in comparison to those works.

A breathtaking story bout a group of Soldiers in Vietnam. Fuller made me care about the soldiers and the villiagers that the soldiers wee trying to help.

Robert Olen Butler is an excellent writer, so one can almost understand his desire, first with "Tabloid Dreams" and now with "Mr. Spaceman" (an expansion of one of the stories in "Tabloid Dreams"), to escape the melancholic Vietnam memoirs he'd become known for.

"Mr. Spaceman" as a feature-length exposition goes a lot further toward redeeming his wanderlust than the dozen short stories in "Tabloid Dreams." At least here he takes the time to develop the rhythms of his characters, and to bring some "humanity" to his oddball cast and that, ironically, includes the forlorn but ultimately likable Spaceman himself, Desi. Through a series of interviews with his abductees, Desi (and the reader) learn of the lives, loves and fears of this busload of gamblers, and it is their stories, not Desi's, where Butler's humanity and compassion most reveal themselves.

But alas, the overriding premise is tough sledding. The nuggets of Butlerisms are cold comfort in a novel this obtuse, and ultimately one wishes Butler would choose to exercise his gifts in a format with less baggage.

Perhaps, having gotten it out of his system, next time he will.

This is a wonderful work that extends from Butler's collection of short stories, _Tabloid Dreams_. Like in the short fiction, he uses the tabloid/sci-fi plot as a starting point for a work that really explores character over plot. In many ways it reminds me of Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange Land_ without the hyper-political and and overly male point of view.

The alien Desi works as a wonderful device to get inside the heads of a real variety of characters; as we share and re-live their experiences, we get the full force of what they went through followed by interesting commentary and observations of the outsider Desi. Much of it is humorous and touching as we dip into the unique voices of all these characters. We see truck drivers, Harvard graduates, young teen rebels with piercings and everything in between. Butler's skill at presenting all these different types of people is astonishing.

An interesting critical point is the way in which Desi struggles with words themselves; Desi comes from a culture that has long since abandoned speech and the written word, and he is constantly questioning it's abilty to convey what we really mean. Despite this, Desi finds a real source of beauty in language and comes to unique undestandings about how we relate to one another.

The author of the beautiful Pulitzer-winning "Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" sends his readers on another incredible journey with "Mr. Spaceman." Not afraid to tread new ground by taking his literary voice into the science fiction genre, Robert Olen Butler has written the perfect novel for the new millenium. "Mr. Spaceman" is deeply satisfying -- funny, moving and always surprising. I couldn't put it down and felt a huge sense of loss when I finished reading. A slim book, it speaks volumes about our commercialized society, about dreams, about families, about religion and about love. This is a unique and very funny voice, writing at his best. Mr. Spaceman will stay with you for a long time.

I enjoyed this book tremendously! I read it in one sitting, even though I "knew" the outcome, I couldn't wait to see how it was handled. It was a beautiful, complex story full of history, culture, dreams and fairytales. This was my first Robert Olen Butler book and I can't wait to read another one. I'm always pleased to come across a sensitive love story by a male author. And, this one touches all the senses!

I have never read anything so deeply poignant and beautiful as this love story between Ben and Tien. This was a fabulous, touching book and I loved the weaving-in of Vietnamese culture. I didn't expect the ending, perhaps I was being a bit naive. I highly reccommend this book.

Robert Olen Butler has explored an "unspeakable" topic in this novel. This is a beautiful love story between Ben, a forty-four year-old Vietnam Veteran, and Thien, a twenty-six year-old Amerasian woman. Though a generation apart, they complement each other with their searches for fulfillment: Ben, for a closure which he supposedly finds, and Thien, for the love of her life. Butler is a master storyteller who excels at giving voice to his two protagonists. The prose is lyrical, sensual, and rawfully honest. The most harrowing aspect of the novel is that it raises more questions in the end than it answers. If that is Butler's intention, then he has succeeded. A romantic at heart, I cried for the torn lovers... It's a novel worth losing sleep over...

First of all, Robert Olen Butler is an excellent writer, so when he undertakes a project you know there has to be some real potential in it.

Unfortunately, "Tabloid Dreams" seems to be the exception. The gimmick here is that he has fashioned a dozen stories to explain a dozen tabloid headlines (real or made up? It doesn't really matter.) The problem is, with such outrageous premises, the stories do little more than expand on an already-ridiculous idea, and the reader is never fully "vested" in the story. There are some clever turns, and here-and-there he approaches the tenderness and compassion of his earlier short stories, but on the whole this collection falls flat with a resounding thud.

Now that one of the stories ("Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover") has been expanded into Butler's next novel ("Mr. Spaceman") I'm revisiting "Tabloid Dreams," but I'm afraid my opinion of it hasn't mellowed any since I first read it 4 years ago.

A far cry from his poignant stories about Vietnamese immigrants in "Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" Butler's latest collection tells the stories behind the headlines we all love to make fun of. Be it marriage to a space alien, a glass eye spying on a cheating spouse for its owner, or the soul of a Titanic passenger being discovered in a couple's waterbed; these stories are a collection of wacky/sad/funny/creepy tales that are a must-read for any short story connoisseur.
Ray Schmitz III

In this collection of short stories, Butler leaves (for once it seems) his experices of Vietnam behind and writes what can only be considered a series of fun and funny stories. If you are looking for deep, thought-provoking literature, read one of his other works, but if you are looking for a fun collection written by a great writer--Tabloid Dreams is for you. People look down on this collection because it isn't as poignant or "intellectual" as some of his other works...but who cares? It's fun...a great read.

I think this is one of those books that will appeal more to women than to men. It is the story of a forty-year-old New York auctioneer who seems to think an awful lot of herself. She has the usual romantic complications, including a banal liaison with a cliched Frenchman, whose "secret," when we find out what it is, is pretty silly. This is not an offensive book; just not very interesting. There are some lines of dialogue here that will make you roll your eyes and groan.

Readers will be attracted to Mr. Butler's latest effort after being enchanted by 'A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.' However, Fair Warning, while not without merit, does not live up to the Pulitzer prize-winning Good Scent/Strange Mountain.

The stories in Good Scent/Strange Mountain are told from the perspectives of Vietnamese immigrants, both male and female, living in the United States after the war. Fair Warning is told from the point of view of an attractive, successful young professional woman in modern New York. Neither is the vantage one expects from a white American male. I found this approach astonishing in Good Scent/Strange Mountain, but just entertaining in Fair Warning.

The subject of the latter book is the worthy matter of peoples' relationships to objects of possession. This is potentially its most interesting aspect, but is treated too lightly to be completely fulfilling.

There are moments of wry humor in Fair Warning, but not quite enough to overcome the lack of originality in the characters. I would recommend Fair Warning only as light reading. It is not for the reader seeking emotionally stimulating, thought-provoking literature.

Fair Warning is the first of Butler's novels that I have read and therefore, I came to the novel with no expectations, other than the hope of finding a good read. Fair Warning is an enjoyable, quick read--a sort of sophisticated romance novel. I think, based on reading other reviews on these pages, if you come to this work expecting something like Butler has done before, you may be disappointed. If, however, you want to read a romance for grownups, this is your novel. It is the story of Amy Dickerson, a 40 year old auctioneer with some personal issues to resolve--her father, her mother, her failed love life. She becomes involved with two men as the novel progresses and begins to resolve some of those issues. She eventually falls in love. Not much else, but it is a quick compelling read which some readers will probably really enjoy. You just have to be careful that you are one of them.