The Ballad of Butterfly Joe is marketed as a fun-filled, action-packed adventure across America in which Joe meets some amazing characters from all walks of life. This actually a didactic tale, in some respects, about life and how to live every day as though it is your last. It really does a great job of defying classification too, but it's best described as part road trip adventure, part crime fiction and part satirical exploration of the concept of the American dream. The characters are beautifully drawn and three-dimensional and Joe himself is such a vivacious, uplifting lead that you really care and want the best for him in the long run.x

While on the surface this appears to be a frivolous romp across the US with the reader partaking in Joe's journey too, it actually cleverly explores a number of universal themes which everyone can relate to in one way or another: freedom, redemption and truth versus perception, nature versus nurture. I strongly feel that it is the novels effective composition, entertaining plot, quirky, unforgettable characters and inclusion of witty observations about life that make this such an engaging and absorbing read. It's these aspects together that result in such an eminently readable novel.

Many thanks to Picador for an ARC.

‘I looked down at the map of America. It was a land big enough for Joe. A land big enough to accommodate all our delusions.’

It is a well-used trope in literature: an outsider, someone a bit lost in their life, is accepted into a family or social group – usually made up of eccentric or larger-than-life characters – and experiences adventures or events which change their life. In ‘Butterfly Joe’, which is set in the summer of 1987, we meet Llewellyn Jones, a Welshman staying at his aunt’s house in the Catskill Mountains, who encounters the brother and sister pairing of Joe and Mary-Anne Bosco. Thus starts Llew’s extraordinary journey as he is taken on as Sales Manager for the Bosco’s ‘business’ of selling dead butterflies in display cases, and he is re-named Rip Van Jones by the exuberant and chaotic Joe. The whole Bosco clan are generally oddballs - from the domineering matriarch Edith to the other sister Isabelle, and the various waifs and strays that have been taken in over the years – and their house is a ramshackle mansion that used to belong to an arms manufacturer.

Part road trip, part satire on the American dream, part crime novel – it’s hard to classify the book, and in the background are several references to Greek epics and in particular Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. Truth and reality are often elusive, as the book makes much of different versions of truth and family history. The figure of the Bosco’s father (who we finally meet near the very end of the book) is the subject of much of these variations of truth, and the book makes much of its themes of family and inheritance. Indeed, the book itself – as we come to learn – is Llew’s own way of trying to pin down exactly what did, or didn’t, happen, interspersed as it is by the framing device of him being in prison for reasons yet to be explained.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book; the cast of characters are well-drawn and carry the story along in a roller-coaster ride. By the end Llew does indeed seem to be a changed man, more willing to step forward and take chances in life now that his time with the Bosco family is over. This is well worth a read for sure, its sheer vitality will sweep you along.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.)

An interesting read on several levels - old-fashioned romp of an American road trip, engaging characters, complicated family dynamics - dominated by the charismatic ‘Butterfly Joe’, his infectious, upbeat personality and entertaining playfulness with the English language.

The notion of trapping, killing and displaying butterflies is not appealing these days but the fact that this is the family’s business underscores one of the novel’s main themes - freedom - and provides plenty of opportunity for extended metaphors of metamorphosing from one kind of life to another and of flying free from family history and obligations, and from authority.

Another theme is truth and how to recognise it - how family stories are rewritten and embellished over time, how a salesman adapts his pitch according to what he thinks will appeal to the customer. Joe is the consummate salesman, of his butterflies and of himself and his personal view of the world - utterly beguiling, exhausting company, but is he wearing this personality as a mask and, if so, what is behind it?

The novel’s structure is effective. We know early on that things are going to go wrong and there are hints in Rip’s narrative along the lines of “I should have guessed something wasn’t right and run a mile, but of course I didn’t” that kept me hooked.

Quite different from the only other book I’ve read by this author (The Aftermath, which I admired very much), equally well written but so much more fun.

The Killing of Butterfly Joe is a quirky novel about butterflies, lies, and a road trip. Llew Jones is a Welshman in America, looking for an American adventure he could write about. A chance encounter with Joe Bosco, charismatic butterfly salesman with an unusual family and morphing past, sets Llew—newly christened Rip Van Jones—across 1980s America in search of butterfly fortune. However, all does not go to plan, and telling the truth becomes vital.

Filmic in its combination of road trip, thriller, and morality tale elements, this is a novel that is bold and charming like its titular character. Considering it is centred around selling dead butterflies, it is surprisingly gripping, using a framing device of Llew telling the story to prove his innocence combined with a story that doesn't seem like it's going to end in death. A real focus of the novel is upon truth, lies, and telling your own versions of stories, from sales techniques to finding out people might be exactly as described. This gives it a nice metafictional aspect along with a narrator clearly trying to craft a narrative.

It is the combination of elements—characters, tension, road trip, telling stories—that really make The Killing of Butterfly Joe come together into an unusual novel, a charming and fun read. It is a book for people who enjoy personal mythology and a character being pulled into the world of an eccentric family, but also a narrative with tension and entertainment.

There's some really good characters in this ... a whole family of them in fact.
There's some good scenarios too... I found the whole butterfly thing quite interesting.... all the species,the laws of how they're caught and sold.
How they're caught.
Really the book as fairly decent.
Just didn't have anything extra to get me excited about it.