Many people scorn the wildly sensational headlines of the tabloid weeklies that many supermarkets place close to their checkout stands, and yet as they wait to purchase their groceries, many become curious enough about the oddities and tragedies emblazoned across the newsprint to actually buy the papers.

Celebrities frequently sue tabloids for misrepresentations or falsehoods that have been printed, and many ordinary folk at times try to make some money by offering to sell tragic personal stories or pictures of odd people or outlandish phenomena.

At first glance, by gathering a dozen stories with sensationalistic titles into a volume entitled Tabloid Dreams, Butler may seem to be doing no more than "cashing in" on popular low-brow appetites for sex and violence. However, his persistent sensitivity for the needs of the human heart and soul shows through-in each of the stories. The apparent rambling of a character's...