Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments

by Gayl Jones

A wide-ranging collection, including two novellas and ten stories exploring complex identities, from the acclaimed author of Corregidora, The Healing, and Palmares.

Gayl Jones, who was first edited by Toni Morrison, has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century and was recently a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. This new collection of short fiction is only the second in her rich career and one that displays her strengths in the genre in many facets. Opening with two novella-length works, “Butter” and “Sophia,” this collection features Jones’s legendary talents in a range of settings and styles, from the hyperrealist to the mystical, in intricate multipart stories, in more traditional forms, and even in short fragments.

Her narrators are women and men, Black, Brown, Indigenous; her settings are historical and contemporary, in South America, Mexico, and the US; her themes center on complex identities, unorthodox longings and aspirations. She writes about spies, photographers, playground designers, cartoonists, and baristas; about workers and revolutionaries, about environmentalism, feminism, poetry, film, and love, but above all about our multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial society.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Audiobook, Novella, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2023

About the author

Gayl Jones is an African-American writer from Lexington, Kentucky. Her most famous works are Corregidora, Eva's Man, and The Healing.

Jones is a 1971 graduate of Connecticut College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English. While attending the college she also earned the Frances Steloff Award for Fiction. She then began a graduate program in creative writing at Brown University, studying under poet Michael Harper and earning a Master of Arts in 1973 and a Doctor of Arts in 1975.

Harper introduced Jones's work to Toni Morrison, who was an editor at the time, and in 1975, Jones published her first novel Corregidora at the age of 26. That same year she was a visiting lecturer at the University of Michigan, which hired her the following year as an assistant professor. She left her faculty position in 1983 and moved to Europe, where she wrote and published Die Vogelfaengerin (The Birdwatcher) in Germany and a poetry collection, Xarque and Other Poems. Jones's 1998 novel The Healing was a finalist for the National Book Award, although the media attention surrounding her novel's release focused more on the controversy in her personal life than on the work itself. Her papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University. Jones currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she continues to write.

Jones has described herself as an improvisor, and her work bears out that statement: like a jazz or blues musician, Jones plays upon a specific set of themes, varying them and exploring their possible permutations. Though her fiction has been called “Gothic” in its exploration of madness, violence, and sexuality, musical metaphors might make for a more apt categorization.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A master at language use. It’s not hard to see why Ms. Toni Morrison was so fond of Gayl Jones. Her use and manipulation of language is stunningly beautiful and often simply brilliant. There are some bright shining moments in this too short collection, but at all times her prose is poetic and intoxicating. Even in the flash fiction pieces, called fragments in this collection the prowess is still evident. In the fragment Ravenna, she tells of a pending adoption, and manages to infuse moving emotion in a few short pages,

“Both girls were ten. (they wondered how ravenna got so old before anyone wanted her.) But the other girl was not a beauty. she was Black in the days when Black wasn’t considered beautiful. and in all honesty, her face looked like a frog’s, though if she’d been lemon yellow or even beige that feature might have been quietly overlooked.”

This is quite an impressive collection and one I highly recommend.

[Gregory Duke · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Only Gayl Jones completionists should read this. The titular novella is the best thing about this. This collection feels like something a publisher would produce for a popular author posthumously. The style oscillates between clever/playful and bereft of much style. The fragments don't amount to much. I wish all of these pieces were dated to understand how these works are contextualized within Jones' larger body of work, particularly since she became such a hermit. All of these new Gayl Jones reissues/new books amount to a body of work that does not go so far as to tarnish her amazing first four novels but adds very little overall.

[☆ lydiature ☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

book #35 of 2025

these honestly should’ve stayed in the drafts. the only interesting, distinct pieces were “a spy story”, “the costume maker”, and “ravenna.” and those weren’t even that good. they were just better than the other pieces.

the general writing style was very dry and static. the narrators all blended in with one another. i was so bored reading this collection. the only thing that impressed me was jones’ interest in art, literature and culture. that actually inspired me to look more into those things (especially art and photography). but her interest in these topics didn’t necessarily come across as passionate or engaging.

i’ll try her other works (mainly because they are more complete stories).

[Amy [adleilareads] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little collection of short stories, novellas and fragments. I loved the wide diversity of characters that centred around Black women, with so many different stories to tell. I was so enamoured by some of the stories and was gutted to find they only lasted a few pages as I could have kept reading - which is telling for how superb the writing was to be able to capture your attention in such little words 👏🏼

Great for those with limited time or fans of short stories. Thanks to the publisher for my beautiful gifted copy.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of stories, mostly centered around mixed-race Black women and the ambiguity of race when you don't know another's background. The ranking and social position of color.

There are a couple of longer stories called novellas, but also some very short pieces called fragments which may be only a page. These are exercises of voice and character. Gayl Jones does a good job of capturing a person's essence in a few sentences.

[Isobel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t love this one overall, but I did quite enjoy a few of the fragments and stories

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strength of this book is the writing. It is superb. Many characters populated this book and I loved hearing their many voices. Ironically, the novella Butter was my least favorite section of the book. Although it was well written, I had a hard time relating to it.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that this book isn't more highly rated. It may not be everyone's style, but the writing is crisp, and the characters are memorably eccentric and endlessly fascinating, even in the shortest of the stories.

Jones crafts her characters as intelligent, aware, and feisty. The MC's have an incredible number of thoughts bounding in their heads at all times, and access to a seemingly endless library of revolutionary and feminist writings, poetry, essays, and most importantly: work by those who can claim multicultural and multitacial heritage.

Jones' characters rarely stay in one place. They have to move physically as an expression of their busy minds. Some of these stories almost seem linked, as geographical references are repeated, yet each of the characters is distinct and amazingly well-formed in the condensed space.

If you enjoy characterization over plot, and complex, bouncing, dizzying interiority, this will be a smorgasbord for you. It certainly was for me.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating short story collection that feels like reading a writer's stolen notebook. As with the subtitle, here are -- if not stories, then paragraphs. If not paragraphs, then surreal ideas, sketches, stray descriptions from phantom novels. Starts and stops using provocative images and conversations. Often they feel like enough-- such as the title story about a photographer. Certainly not as brilliant as other titles from Jones (I'm still thinking about her recent book 'Unicorn Woman' that I'll probably re-read soon) but a deliriously intimate peek at the thought processes of an author I greatly admire. If her name means something to you, you have this already. If you want to lure a young reader into her world, I'd almost push Eva's Man or Unicorn as a better beginner's title and save this as a gift for after they've fallen in love with her work.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I love most about Gayl Jones’ vision in fiction is that it’s global; no protagonist belongs exclusively to any one nation or city, but rather is connected and belonging to others across ethnic, racial, continental, or linguistic lines (and im learning to see the world this way, too). Her characters are photographers, painters, candy makers, artists, who are multiethnic and multicultural, visitors in foreign lands, wrestling with questions of identity, running away or towards love, familial or otherwise, and they are each uniquely interesting, eccentric, thoughtful. Still, outside of being perfectly measured and smooth, her writing for me just expands the world, joining seemingly disparate pieces of it together in a single, usually Black character, and forcing the reader to stretch their conceptions of what is possible for that sort of person with that certain identity. Like I’m halfway convinced she wrote these just for me. I really really enjoyed

favorites: Sophia, Shuger’s wife, A spy story, Garlic bread

[Kati Karloff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize these were short stories till the first one ended and I was like, "Wait, what?" I don't usually care for short stories because of that: I get to know characters and I'm starting to understand what makes them tick, then it's over. So, these characters were very interesting, I just want more, please.

[Nathan Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never read anything by Gayl Jones before, so can't compare it to anything. A lot of this material seems like it was put together just to publish _something_ - so there are a lot of undeveloped little sketches - but sketches by someone with a masterful eye and imagination. This is more of a 3.5 - but it's definitely got me interested in reading Jones's longer works.

[Christian M · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 —

Yeah, Gayl Jones can’t be any better. This is some of her clearest writing I’ve read thus far. If you’re new to her, this would not be a bad place to start. But, start anywhere. She’s a goddess.

[Cathie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably should have started with one of her novels - this is a collection with a couple of short novellas, a few short stories, and fragments. I gave up after a while; they seemed to be almost stream of consciousness and talk of dreams and nothing really happens.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hadn't read Gayl Jones before, and I don't think this book of stories was the place to start. Couldn't get into them.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sped through this, liked all the different settings and characters. The novellas were my favorite.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the first two - butter and Sophia - but then lost interest as a the collection went on. Gayl can write however :)

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

With an eclectic cast of diverse, intelligent, and worldly characters, this collection is entertaining, but it only hits surface-level for me.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted the novellas to be novels, the stories to be novellas, and the fragments to be stories.

[James F · Rating 2 out of 5]

an odd collection of novellas, stories, and fragments

[Robyn]

Notables #27

[Octavia]

Exhilarating and Superb!

Gayl Jones 🥀.

To love the Works of her hands is to Love Everything about Gayl Jones. She is the “voice” which speaks the thoughts of most people. This Phenomenal author exhibits that Flowing literary “voice” in ‘Screen Test: A fragment’ for readers to embrace her unwavering writing stance. This one will always be greatly Cherished.

{Excerpt}
VOICE: You’re very sensual.
BUTTERFLY: These actors in this movie like they were all so beautiful you know, but like there ought to be like some way to respond to these non-Western people’s beauty without like saying ‘sensual,” like reducing people’s beauty to sensuality, you know. 🦋

‘The Historian, The Actress, And The Playwright,’ was the most LOVED read within this collection (Pg. 169). It reminded me that it’s now time to revisit her novel, ‘The Healing’ (1998).

Lastly, ‘The Horse-Believing Woman' just tickled me and ‘Ravenna’ just left me in Deep thoughts…

I Loved every single page from this Intriguing Collection by Gayl Jones 🥀.

[Navin Leonidas · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book opens with a very enjoyable novella, but does not reach that same quality after in my opinion. The rest of the entries feel a bit meandering, however the writing is well done along with the language.