The Butterflies of Grand Canyon

by Margaret Erhart

Set against the backdrop of the brooding and sensual canyon, a young woman's heart awakens and a decades-old mystery is solved When Jane Merkle arrives in the tiny town of Flagstaff, Arizona, with her much older husband on a summer day in 1951, she hasn't any idea that her life is about to change forever. After all, one of Jane's favorite sayings is "When in Rome, remember that you're from St . Louis." But over a summer spent with her sister-in-law,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452295491
• ISBN13: 9780452295490
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Merry Infidelity

When Jane goes to stay with her sister-in-law and her husband in their home on the Grand Canyon, she isn't prepared for how much she will grow to love the place. She also isn't prepared for the new way she will start to look at her marriage to a much older man when she is suddenly faced with a suitor in her own generation. Elzada and her young assistant, Lois, have been called to the Grand Canyon to assist in clearing an acquaintance of murder. The two women are naturalists and would rather be exploring and gathering local plants, but instead find themselves thrust into the position of amateur sleuths, trying to figure out why a local resident would have a thirteen-year-old dead body in his possession. The two stories, plus many others, overlap in this light and amusing tale of people who discover themselves and mostly follow their hearts with remarkably little reluctance. I liked the quirky cast of characters and the way they interacted. The murder mystery took one or two too many twists and turns for me to keep things straight, further complicated by the fact that so many characters had similar names (Elzada, Euell, Edith, Ethyl, Emery, Ellsworth). I really enjoyed the tone of this book, and considered the mystery part unnecessary, so perhaps I didn't give that plotline the attention it deserved.

Floats like a ...

I'm not particularly drawn to murder mystery novels and didn't recognize that The Butterflies of Grand Canyon was in that genre when I undertook to review it. But what fun! This is a lovely little tale that stretches well beyond the organizing question of whodunit. Margaret Erhart wanders into entomology, river running history and practice, the politics of National Parks and the history of The Canyon, marital ethics and difficult questions about the rational boundaries of love and enduring relationships. This book is diverting and thought-provoking and tender, even sexy in a very delicately handled way. I haven't read other reviews yet, but noted in passing that the star chart ran low. My bet with myself is that others found fault with the mystery angle if they are mystery buffs. There are some plot problems with the history of the victim's remains and the "surprise" at the end. So if you're a regular mystery reader with high expectations concerning believability you may be disappointed. A bit more literary than gripping.

Giddy on the Brink of the Precipice

Some novels have a landscape that shapes everything in them. BUTTERFLIES OF THE GRAND CANYON is a stellar example; the events described here (infidelity, murder)are universal but the way they unfold could happen nowhere else. The Grand Canyon is a great slash in the earth that defies imagination even when one stares at it. To look at it is a spiritual and sensual experience that drives one to the edge of one's own character. Some go more than a little mad. That's exactly what is happening to all the characters in BUTTERFLIES. A young woman, Jane Merkle, married to a much older man, Morris Merkle, arrives at the Grand Canyon in 1951 to stay with her in-laws, Oliver and Dotty Hedquist. Jane's motto at that point in her life is: 'When in Rome, remember you are from St. Louis.' On the same train, a pair of elderly and eccentric lady naturalists arrive to research the question of the skeleton in Emery Kolb's garage. It is believed to belong to Lowell Dunhill, Dotty Hedquist's lover, who disappeared decades ago. Nearly everyone in the novel, except Jane, is a naturalist of some stripe and spends their time observing the mating habits of various exotic and repulsive fauna. Jane discovers the art of netting butterflies and in the excitement of the chase and the delight of pinning what she catches she discovers that there is more to life than being Morris Merkle's wife. Morris is at home in St Louis, talking to his dog. He's in the insurance business. The murder mystery unravels at about the same pace as Jane's marriage. The author's style may not be to every reader's taste; she can be maddeningly indirect, discursive and even muddled on occasion, but and this is a BUT, she also has forensic powers of observation and deft comic timing. Her style meanders like a lazy river and then electrically stimulates the funny bone. One could not ask for a better or more humorous guide to the labyrinth of human emotion known as marriage.

Science cannot quantify love

Mr. and Mrs. Morris Merkle have arrived at Flagstaff, Arizona. They live in St. Louis. Dotty Hedquist meets the couple. Oliver Hedquist has accompanied his wife to the railroad station. Jane Merkel's trunk, wardrobe, is lost. The air is thin, unoppressive. Oliver has just retired. Dotty and Morris are siblings. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter Cutter are traveling to Park Headquarters at the Grand Canyon pursuant to Louis Schellbach's, the park naturalist's, request because Emery Kolb has a skeleton stashed in his garage and Schellback fears there will be a scandal. Emery Kolb, when confronted by Dr. Bryant, Park Superintendent, and Mr. Schellback asked for Dr. Clover. Oliver recalls the Merkle wedding five year ago. He likes his sister-in-law, Jane. She is a generation younger than Oliver, Dotty, and Morris. After lunch Jane and Oliver search for butterflies at Yaki Point, the edge of the Grand Canyon. Acquiring a tennis backhand has prepared Jane for a life of collecting. Jane learns from the Hedquists, belatedly, that Morris is allergic to bees. Jane would rather read about Anna Karenina than Emma Bovary, but at the moment MADAME BOVARY it is, and so she works at the reading diligently. When the Hedquists go camping for a week near the North Rim, Jane goes with them, (Morris having returned to St. Louis). By the time of the trip to the North Rim Jane has become an enthusiastic butterfly collector. Oliver has described Jane as a fast moving amateur. Euell Wigglesworth and Hugh Huddleston, ranger naturalists, are to go to the vicnity of the North Rim for a few days to catch bugs. Euell can't stopping thinking of Jane Merkle, (and she is married). Euell is invited to eat with the Hedquist party for two days running. Oliver notices that Euell brings Jane to life. To Morris Merkle his wife is a mystery. Elzada Clover reads Ngaio Marsh books before bed. In the Marsh books the investigator is Roderick Alleyn. Elzada wonders why Emery Kolb decided to keep the body of Lowell Dunhill, adeath taking palce thirteen years ealier. How did the body come to rest in Emery's garage Elzada thinks. This is one of the questions considered by the book's characters. Jane Merkle wants to discover what love is and she also seeks an explanation for the curious behavior of her sister-in-law, Dotty Hedquist. In the nivel the Grand Canyon National Park is both a place, destination and setting, and a work site. Visitors and employees interlock there and have histories. Furthermore, every other person, (character), is a scientist and uses the scientific method to conduct his or her affairs and explorations. The result is brilliant, colorful, loving.

"...those who bear secrets are often the last to know the secret's true nature."

The Butterflies of Grand Canyon: A Novel names many of the beautiful invertebrates: Rheingolds, cloudless sulfurs, painted ladies, pygmy blues, green darners, and queens. Near the great natural gash in the earth's crust, some of the human collectors of these delicate creatures find themselves passing through stages of development similar to those of the specimens they've netted. For example, twenty-five-year-old Jane Merkle, who has come with her older husband, Morris, to visit his sister, Dotty, and her husband, Oliver Hedquist, is arguably pent up in a chrysalis but may be on the verge of emerging and flying. Then there is Elzada Clover, a botanist whose penchant for studying the flora of the Grand Canyon floor is being overtaken this summer of 1951 by a need to solve a thirteen-year-old unsolved murder of a local; she feels as if, for all her professional accomplishments, she has never been able to fully develop her personal inclinations. In other words, she hasn't made it to the final stage of butterfly transformation. And inasmuch as butterflies are considered legally blind because their resolution is a hundred times worse than humans', this novel often refers to figurative human blindness -- to each other, to nature, to love, to ourselves. Just another way that the "butterflies" in this book aren't just of the insect Lepidoptera order. In this small Arizona community where rangers and naturalists seemingly outnumber storekeepers and postal clerks, the sometimes awkward mysteries of the human heart surface is all sorts of ways. One of the most amusing takes place during Jane's foray to buy groceries. She and young ranger (and inexperienced romancer) Euell Wigglesworth strike up a conversation about whether she ought to buy three or four inches of liverwurst sausage. They can't help feeling the effects of natural attraction as they grope for what to say. While in town Jane also gives in to the temptation to open someone else's mail, and then concocts an ingenious, though underhanded, way to save herself the embarrassment of having to confess. Overcome with curiosity about the assignation being arranged in the letter, she finagles a way she can eavesdrop on the rendezvous. These two examples suggest Jane is scruples-challenged, but don't judge her too harshly. The plot moves forward quite regularly due to overheard conversations; Jane isn't the only culprit. And the degree to which marriage can or should forestall other attachments is a significant theme of this book, involving many characters. The author, Margaret Erhart "is a river and hiking guide in the Grand Canyon and southern Utah" according to biographical sketch provided in THE BUTTERFLIES OF GRAND CANYON, and one feels confident of the natural backdrop to this story. However, the characters and their odd, usually restrained conversations don't always seem as convincing as the scenery. Yet, their cautious repression and bumbling "blindness" as they go through the habits of the