BUTTERLY DREAM

The stories and non-stories in Kristine Ong Muslim&rsquo,s Butterfly Dream avow mutilation as rebirth, ruin as indestructibility, and safety as an illusion. In &ldquo,Artificial Life,&rdquo, a girl is persistent in her belief that her doll will soon come to life. &ldquo,The Six Mutations of Jerome&rdquo, documents the grotesque transformations of an everyman named Jerome, while &ldquo,The Lonely People&rdquo, follows a group of individuals fleeing from the accoutrements of the modern world as manifested by carnivorous floors and a marauding giant worm. Part travelogue on the vagaries of human consciousness, Butterfly Dream is a glimpse into a reality marred by causal logic and wakefulness._,