God Gave Me Butterfly Wings by Taylor Eaton: Review
As the title suggests, there's plenty angelic and heavenly in this collection of flash fiction (available at Amazon UK, and Amazon US too). The occasional echoes of Márquez's magic(al) realism, or Liam O'Flaherty's short story His First Flight, suggest that many have mined similar seams. I don't know what Taylor Eaton reads, but her frequently dreamlike style and original choice of subject matter make this collection well worth a look. Thematic drivers appear to be wings, the divine, and what we call Heaven. Eaton's surreal tack is often irreverent, very fast-and-loose when it comes to divinity, without ever crossing over into sacrilege. An expressive and assured voice throughout makes for some terrific lines, to the point that some of the phrases and sentences could well become aphorisms. This image of a dead dragonfly completely misrepresents the magic of Taylor Eaton's collection, but what do you expect? I'm NOT a photographer! One story reminded me...