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Jealous Husband Returns in the Form of a Parrot
A re-imagining of a short story by Pulitzer Prize winner, Robert Olen Butler. A man dies suddenly and is reincarnated as a parrot. As a parrot, he struggles to find the words to say when he runs into his human wife.
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About the author
Robert Olen Butler
86 books451 followers“I’ll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period.”
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 16, 2021
I listened to the short story Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot through the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. In this odd little tale, a husband is reincarnated as a parrot and bought unknowingly by his widow who is now dating the man that the husband had been jealous of. In fact, that jealousy had led to his death and he pines away for his wife, as a lack of communication then and now prevents him from ever being happy with her.
October 17, 2024
I think this is the best short story I’ve ever read. I don’t think any other text has made me feel so much pity and empathy as this one. So gentle and tragic!
October 31, 2021
In this clever, poignant story, a jealous husband falls from a tree while trying to spy on his wife, hits his head, dies, and wakes up as a parrot in a pet shop. His wife visits the pet shop and purchases him in parrot form. The man must watch her continue her life with new lovers, while he tries desperately to communicate his feelings to her. However, as a parrot, he can't manage much more than "Hello" or "Pretty bird." His thoughts gradually become less human and more birdlike.
The author wisely leaves the question unanswered of whether the wife really has been unfaithful. He focuses instead on how the husband's inability to express his feelings poisoned the marriage (and perhaps doomed the man to this form of karmic retribution). The husband truly loved and cherished his wife, but he expected the emptiness he had inside to be matched by a corresponding emptiness in her. A psychology student could have a field day analyzing the husband's drive toward self-sabotage.
Listened to on the podcast LeVar Burton Reads (Episode 101) and originally published in the New Yorker.
The author wisely leaves the question unanswered of whether the wife really has been unfaithful. He focuses instead on how the husband's inability to express his feelings poisoned the marriage (and perhaps doomed the man to this form of karmic retribution). The husband truly loved and cherished his wife, but he expected the emptiness he had inside to be matched by a corresponding emptiness in her. A psychology student could have a field day analyzing the husband's drive toward self-sabotage.
Listened to on the podcast LeVar Burton Reads (Episode 101) and originally published in the New Yorker.
February 28, 2023
The humor is not as clever as it is silly, but I respect how it incorporates despair and longing.
October 12, 2021
I have a feeling that this is a 'It's not you it's me' situation.
I just could not connect to the protagonist (aka the husband/parrot). I did feel bad for him for what his wife did to him during his life, how he died (that was morbidly funny), and what he had to see and hear as a parrot in his wife's home after he was reincarnated - That is nothing that anyone would/should ever want to go through/witness.... But other than that, I wasn't very wowed or moved. I'm glad he finally left though
I just could not connect to the protagonist (aka the husband/parrot). I did feel bad for him for what his wife did to him during his life, how he died (that was morbidly funny), and what he had to see and hear as a parrot in his wife's home after he was reincarnated - That is nothing that anyone would/should ever want to go through/witness.... But other than that, I wasn't very wowed or moved. I'm glad he finally left though
January 24, 2025
Would you still love me if I was a parrot?
Read for class and it made me sad :(
Read for class and it made me sad :(
April 10, 2021
One of my very favorite short stories. Like a masterclass in the creative use of Point of View, it's a must for any writer who wants tips on how POV can help shape your character, and your narrative. (I used this story repeatedly in my Creative Writing class ...)
Watching as the consciousness of the Jealous Husband drifts away from the human he once was (and, indeed, the jealous human he once was ...) and become more and more birdlike, is just brilliant -- hilarious and sad, and very vivid. I hadn't read it for almost 10 years, so I was delighted to discover that it lived up to my very fond recollections of it.
Watching as the consciousness of the Jealous Husband drifts away from the human he once was (and, indeed, the jealous human he once was ...) and become more and more birdlike, is just brilliant -- hilarious and sad, and very vivid. I hadn't read it for almost 10 years, so I was delighted to discover that it lived up to my very fond recollections of it.
February 20, 2024
I enjoyed reading this short story about being reincarnated as a parrot and the consequences of that reincarnation on the parrot’s relationship with his wife in his new form and how humans and animals convey their love to humans and how people change and go on with their lives after the death of a loved one.
April 20, 2020
What a hoot - no pun intended. A jealous husband spies on his unfaithful wife from a tree, dies and is reincarnated as a parrot. He attempts to express his feelings in limited parrot vocabulary... I loved the "cracker" comment!! Kristi & Abby Tabby
November 11, 2021
1. 6.5/10
Well, this was interesting. Read this short story as a tutor so I could help a student with her essay.
Well-written and weird.
Well, this was interesting. Read this short story as a tutor so I could help a student with her essay.
Well-written and weird.
August 27, 2021
**Read for my short essay class**
This is really the best short story (besides “The Yellow Wallpaper” I have ever read. Pretty sad.
This is really the best short story (besides “The Yellow Wallpaper” I have ever read. Pretty sad.
December 13, 2021
This was surprisingly funny and amusing.
November 25, 2024
Despite being a short story, it’s probably one if the best pieces I’ve ever read. A must read. It won’t feel like a short story.
July 26, 2025
Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot by Robert Olen Butler
Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
I am very proud and honored to say that the author himself has recommended this short story to this humble reader…no less.
And we are friends on Facebook, for what that is worth nowadays.
In fact I can tell you that this is actually the achievement of the decade for me, if not much more than that.
- It is perhaps a small, but still a miracle to have a wonderful writer come down from the higher spheres of literary Paradise to shake hands with a mere mortal, even if only virtually and from a long distance…
Just being noticed and by someone of this magnitude is nothing short of sublime and proves that geniuses can be kind human beings…although it was not the case for Jean Jacques Rousseau, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, Karl Marx and too many others.
Maybe because I have a blue and gold and a red and green macaw I empathize with the main character and the bird.
Actually, I am not sure if we are talking about a spirit, a human trapped in a feathered body or a parrot with imagination.
Parrots are very intelligent.
If you doubt that, you better watch this and/or search for Alex and Dr. Irene Pepperberg to read about astonishing research in the field of “bird brain” and the most famous bird in the world:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO6Xu...
of course, after reading Jealous Husband Comes Back in Form of Parrot I wonder if the acclaimed Alex does not have another husband trapped inside, jealous or not…
I do not believe in reincarnation, albeit I am favorably impressed with the Buddhist religion and my macaws make me wonder if they are more than just birds, especially now, after reading Robert Olen Butler’s narrative.
In the excellent account of the Jealous Husband the man ends up in the body of a bird in a pet shop which is visited by…his ex-wife.
What a joy after death! Well, somewhat diminished, if not annulled by the presence of one of those characters that caused the death of the Jealous husband.
After he climbed up into a tree, to catch his spouse in the act he fell and alas, since he had no wings he crashed and died.
But All Is Not Lost- unlike in the movie with Robert Redford, perhaps his last nomination for an award- since the two meet again.
Jealousy is still present, coupled with a feeling of powerlessness and impotence, since the bird can’t do anything about the woman’s lovers, albeit he certainly wished he could fly and express his anger.
It is both funny and sad to witness the emotions of the man-inside-the-parrot as he hears his love having sex with hunky and unlikeable men.
One day, our protagonist tries to fly out, forgetting about the glass and as he is hurt this reader was very emotional reading about it:
“There was something invisible there between me and that dream of peace. I remembered, eventually, about glass, and I knew I'd been lucky, I knew that for the little fragile-boned skull I was doing all this thinking in, it meant death.
She wept that day but by the night she had another man. A guy with a thick Georgia truck-stop accent and pale white skin and an Adam's apple big as my seed ball.”
But there is more humor and an attempt to communicate with the couple, the Jealous Husband telling the man how he despises him and to his former spouse trying to render the emotions, the regret that he did not do more, or perhaps what was needed to make the woman happy.
The Jealous Husband says to the man:
- “Hello cracker” and later on, addressing his nakedness: “peanut”
In a desperate effort he tries to “talk” to the wife:
“For a moment I still think I've been eloquent. What I've said only needs repeating for it to have its transforming effect. "Hello," I say. "Hello. Pretty bird. Pretty. Bad bird. Bad. Open. Up. Poor baby. Bad bird." And I am beginning to hear myself as I really sound to her. "Peanut." I can never say what is in my heart to her. Never.”
You better read the whole short story here:
http://www.webdelsol.com/butler/rob-5...
Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
I am very proud and honored to say that the author himself has recommended this short story to this humble reader…no less.
And we are friends on Facebook, for what that is worth nowadays.
In fact I can tell you that this is actually the achievement of the decade for me, if not much more than that.
- It is perhaps a small, but still a miracle to have a wonderful writer come down from the higher spheres of literary Paradise to shake hands with a mere mortal, even if only virtually and from a long distance…
Just being noticed and by someone of this magnitude is nothing short of sublime and proves that geniuses can be kind human beings…although it was not the case for Jean Jacques Rousseau, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, Karl Marx and too many others.
Maybe because I have a blue and gold and a red and green macaw I empathize with the main character and the bird.
Actually, I am not sure if we are talking about a spirit, a human trapped in a feathered body or a parrot with imagination.
Parrots are very intelligent.
If you doubt that, you better watch this and/or search for Alex and Dr. Irene Pepperberg to read about astonishing research in the field of “bird brain” and the most famous bird in the world:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO6Xu...
of course, after reading Jealous Husband Comes Back in Form of Parrot I wonder if the acclaimed Alex does not have another husband trapped inside, jealous or not…
I do not believe in reincarnation, albeit I am favorably impressed with the Buddhist religion and my macaws make me wonder if they are more than just birds, especially now, after reading Robert Olen Butler’s narrative.
In the excellent account of the Jealous Husband the man ends up in the body of a bird in a pet shop which is visited by…his ex-wife.
What a joy after death! Well, somewhat diminished, if not annulled by the presence of one of those characters that caused the death of the Jealous husband.
After he climbed up into a tree, to catch his spouse in the act he fell and alas, since he had no wings he crashed and died.
But All Is Not Lost- unlike in the movie with Robert Redford, perhaps his last nomination for an award- since the two meet again.
Jealousy is still present, coupled with a feeling of powerlessness and impotence, since the bird can’t do anything about the woman’s lovers, albeit he certainly wished he could fly and express his anger.
It is both funny and sad to witness the emotions of the man-inside-the-parrot as he hears his love having sex with hunky and unlikeable men.
One day, our protagonist tries to fly out, forgetting about the glass and as he is hurt this reader was very emotional reading about it:
“There was something invisible there between me and that dream of peace. I remembered, eventually, about glass, and I knew I'd been lucky, I knew that for the little fragile-boned skull I was doing all this thinking in, it meant death.
She wept that day but by the night she had another man. A guy with a thick Georgia truck-stop accent and pale white skin and an Adam's apple big as my seed ball.”
But there is more humor and an attempt to communicate with the couple, the Jealous Husband telling the man how he despises him and to his former spouse trying to render the emotions, the regret that he did not do more, or perhaps what was needed to make the woman happy.
The Jealous Husband says to the man:
- “Hello cracker” and later on, addressing his nakedness: “peanut”
In a desperate effort he tries to “talk” to the wife:
“For a moment I still think I've been eloquent. What I've said only needs repeating for it to have its transforming effect. "Hello," I say. "Hello. Pretty bird. Pretty. Bad bird. Bad. Open. Up. Poor baby. Bad bird." And I am beginning to hear myself as I really sound to her. "Peanut." I can never say what is in my heart to her. Never.”
You better read the whole short story here:
http://www.webdelsol.com/butler/rob-5...
Read
July 24, 2021 3.0⭐ “I’m sitting on a perch in a pet store in Houston and what I’m really thinking is Holy shit. It’s you.”
**spoilers**
♡ LBR 2021♡
It’s LeVar Burton Reads season 9, and we’re gifted with "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot” by Robert Olen Butler.
What I like most about this story, is it entertains that perverse desire in most of us to let that mother fucker know what he lost. What he didn’t deserve, but still received without the slightest inclination to rise to the occasion and earn. Or at least appreciate.
Wearing less, going out more, gettin the money right, and spicy evening insta stories are a parade for ourselves and our friends. The target audience never even bought a ticket. In the age of being able to see who's seen what, exes are too proud, or didn’t give a shit in the first place to see how their once better half is living.
We crave the stunt, right? The mug in my coffee is still hot, there’s still gas in my tank, and I’m still making moves without you. What grander validation is there after a hurt?
This story forces that audience member not only to buy a ticket, but to have to show up for every moment. He has no choice but to stew on what he lost, to appreciate it a little more still each day, and know he can never have it again.
At the same time, the story isn’t petty. It’s painful. Human emotions coming through a literal bird’s eye understanding.
Thanks for reading and If you wanna chat about the latest LBR episodes, hit me up in the comments and meet us at the LeVar Burton Reads: The Official Community on Facebook.
- 📚☕♥
Goodreads Official Star Representation
5 - It was amazing
4 - I really liked it
3 - I liked it
2 - It was okay
1 - Did not like it.
**spoilers**
♡ LBR 2021♡
It’s LeVar Burton Reads season 9, and we’re gifted with "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot” by Robert Olen Butler.
What I like most about this story, is it entertains that perverse desire in most of us to let that mother fucker know what he lost. What he didn’t deserve, but still received without the slightest inclination to rise to the occasion and earn. Or at least appreciate.
Wearing less, going out more, gettin the money right, and spicy evening insta stories are a parade for ourselves and our friends. The target audience never even bought a ticket. In the age of being able to see who's seen what, exes are too proud, or didn’t give a shit in the first place to see how their once better half is living.
We crave the stunt, right? The mug in my coffee is still hot, there’s still gas in my tank, and I’m still making moves without you. What grander validation is there after a hurt?
This story forces that audience member not only to buy a ticket, but to have to show up for every moment. He has no choice but to stew on what he lost, to appreciate it a little more still each day, and know he can never have it again.
At the same time, the story isn’t petty. It’s painful. Human emotions coming through a literal bird’s eye understanding.
Thanks for reading and If you wanna chat about the latest LBR episodes, hit me up in the comments and meet us at the LeVar Burton Reads: The Official Community on Facebook.
- 📚☕♥
Goodreads Official Star Representation
5 - It was amazing
4 - I really liked it
3 - I liked it
2 - It was okay
1 - Did not like it.
June 9, 2020
My mother recommended this short story to me because of the irony and humor. As I was reading, I couldn't help thinking about how heartbreaking this story is and not the humor in it. Don't get me wrong, I am able to recognize the humorous parts of the story, but it is incredibly sad. The writing is fantastic though. Robert Olen Butler does a superb job of making the husband parrot come to life and captures the essence of both the parrot and the former husband.
July 14, 2021
Available online at Narrative Magazine
https://www.narrativemagazine.com/iss...
and read online on the podcast LeVar Burton Reads at
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fUr...
https://www.narrativemagazine.com/iss...
and read online on the podcast LeVar Burton Reads at
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fUr...
July 29, 2021
A husband is reincarnated as a parrot and from his cage, he watches and tries to communicate with his wife as she lives her life without his human presence.
You can use this link to read it
You can use this link to read it
March 7, 2025
4.5 stars.
I really enjoyed this story. It's just so funny at first, the idea of a jealous husband being trapped in the body of a parrot. But it eventually feels like it's almost a special kind of hell. So it's funny and sad all at the same time.
I really enjoyed this story. It's just so funny at first, the idea of a jealous husband being trapped in the body of a parrot. But it eventually feels like it's almost a special kind of hell. So it's funny and sad all at the same time.
August 22, 2017
Quite interesting, odd style of writing somehow, but I really liked the plot
July 4, 2021
Listened to on Levar Burton Reads. Very sad, made me cry.
December 29, 2021
Listened to on LeVar Burton Reads.
Mainly enjoyed for Burton's narration and the fascinating evolution (/devolution?) of perspective as the story progressed.
Mainly enjoyed for Burton's narration and the fascinating evolution (/devolution?) of perspective as the story progressed.
February 18, 2022
What it says on the tin
June 22, 2022
OmG, this is one of the best short stories I’ve ever heard on the LeVar Burton Reads podcast!
April 16, 2023
LeVar Burton read this to me. It did not live up to its tantalizing title.
May 23, 2023
if you're a bird, i'm a bird or whatever
August 15, 2023
Fun and sad story. Have to explore more by this author.
November 14, 2023
I dunno, this just didn't do anything for me.
January 23, 2024
While it wasn’t a favorite story for me personally, the writing was very well done and the imagination behind it was intriguing. I enjoyed the craft behind it!
February 24, 2025
5 pages 2/3
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews