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The butterfly lampshade

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Book

First Edition.

"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"--

Available copies

  • 16 of 16 copies available at Westchester Library System.

Current holds

0 current holds with 16 total copies.

View other formats and editions

Book 1 Large Print Book 1 English 2 All formats and editions 2
Location Call Number /
Shelving Location
Barcode Status /
Due Date
Bedford Free Library FIC BEN (Text)
Fiction
31002150807658
Available
-
Bedford Hills Free Library BENDER (Text)
Fiction
31003151566186
Available
-
Greenburgh Public Library BENDER (Text)
Fiction
31009154681476
Available
-
Harrison Public Library BENDER, A. (Text)
Fiction
31010300223171
Available
-
John C. Hart Memorial Library BENDER (Text)
Fiction
31030154951636
Available
-
Lewisboro Library FICTION BENDER (Text)
Fiction
31032151398043
Available
-
Mount Kisco Public Library FICTION BENDER (Text)
Fiction
31017151923056
Available
-
New Rochelle Public Library BENDER (Text)
Fiction
31019156536719
Available
-
Ossining Public Library FICTION (Text)
Fiction
31021153336242
Available
-
Pound Ridge Library District FIC BEN (Text)
Fiction
31026150990545
Available
-
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LDR 03095cam a22003858i 4500
0015151762
003WEST
00520200527135859.0
008200207s2020 nyu 000 1 eng
010 . ‡a 2020005930
020 . ‡a9780385534871 ‡q(hardcover)
020 . ‡a0385534876
035 . ‡a(OCoLC)1136958911
040 . ‡aDLC ‡beng ‡erda ‡cDLC ‡dOCLCO ‡dOCLCF ‡dUtOrBLW
042 . ‡apcc
05000. ‡aPS3552.E538447 ‡bB88 2020
08200. ‡a813/.54 ‡223
1001 . ‡aBender, Aimee, ‡eauthor. ‡0n 97106067 ‡0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n97106067
24514. ‡aThe butterfly lampshade / ‡cby Aimee Bender.
250 . ‡aFirst Edition.
263 . ‡a2007
264 1. ‡aNew York : ‡bDoubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, ‡c[2020]
300 . ‡apages cm
336 . ‡atext ‡btxt ‡2rdacontent
337 . ‡aunmediated ‡bn ‡2rdamedia
338 . ‡avolume ‡bnc ‡2rdacarrier
520 . ‡a"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"-- ‡cProvided by publisher.
655 7. ‡aPsychological fiction. ‡2fast ‡0(OCoLC)fst01726481 ‡0http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1726481
655 7. ‡aPsychological fiction. ‡2lcgft ‡0gf2014026492 ‡0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026492
77608. ‡iOnline version: ‡aBender, Aimee, ‡tThe butterfly lampshade ‡bFirst. ‡dNew York : Doubleday, 2020. ‡z9780385534888 ‡w(DLC) 2020005931
938 . ‡aYBP Library Services ‡bYANK ‡n16614377
938 . ‡aBrodart ‡bBROD ‡n126412235
994 . ‡aZ0 ‡bVVW
948 . ‡hNO HOLDINGS IN VVW - 3 OTHER HOLDINGS
901 . ‡a5151762 ‡bOCoLC ‡c5151762 ‡tbiblio ‡soclc

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