Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot
by Robert Olen Butler
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See Also
- Theory of Short Fiction (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
- Robert Olen Butler (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Robert Olen Butler (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- Robert Olen Butler (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Olen Butler
- First Published: 1996
- Type of Work: Short story
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Husbands, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Wives, Love or romance, Twentieth century, Escapes, Communication, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Obsession, Adultery, Revenge, Reincarnation, Texas
- Locales: United States, North America, Houston, Texas
The Work
As the title promises, the story revolves around a compulsively jealous husband, who is, as the story opens, sitting on a perch in a cage in a pet store in Houston, reincarnated somehow as a parrot. The reincarnation of the human narrator’s consciousness into the animal body is established as the opening premise with the very title and is never explained. However, once Butler makes this stipulation, the story proceeds realistically. Rather than simply imagining a person in a parrot suit, Butler imagines the limitations of the parrot’s brain and nervous system. When...
(The entire page is 767 words.)
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