The book is a playful, linguistically and philosophically complex work that experiments with meaning, coherence, and the relationship between language and story.
This review appreciates the novel’s intricate and challenging nature, describing it as a series of thought experiments that explore how meaning and coherence can shift depending on language and perspective. The reviewer notes the book’s humor and playfulness despite its convoluted and sometimes seemingly incoherent style, framing it as a rewarding intellectual exercise rather than conventional narrative fiction. They highlight how the book invites readers to question the nature of language and storytelling itself, offering a unique literary experience that is both challenging and engaging.
Quick quotes
Harlequin Butterfly is a novel about language and story-telling, theory put into varieties of practice in a knotty, shape-shifting disquisition.
Convoluted, involuted -- and, fortunately, also with a sense of humor --, Harlequin Butterfly is very playful fiction -- playing both linguistically and philosophically.
It does not offer the easy satisfactions of straightforward narrative fiction, but it certainly offers others.