Customer Reviews

Butterfly Warrior

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"Butterfly Warrior: A Novel" by Juan Blea is an original murder mystery set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, tracing the bond of four friends with common roots in the Los Arbolitos Barrio. Together they form a society of the Butterfly Warrior, the feminine Aztec deity Itzpapalotl, who is empowered to grant to the dead the experience of returning to earth to collect and consume sacred nectar, their eternal reward. The four friends are Cuate, a clown, Anna, his logical twin sister, Whitey, the "wannabe," and Manny, the musician who mysteriously commits suicide. Though all friends have gone their separate ways, the death of Manny brings them together in unforeseen ways to examine their bond and the reason for death and life. Highly recommended for mystery buffs, "Butterfly Warrior" is a novel well grounded in place and cultures, filled with vivid bits of detail that enhance the story and the conflict of the characters.

Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (8/06)

The night that Manny Lopez turned 35, he celebrated the event by killing himself. As his family and friends gather to bury him, his widowed mother, Dona Lopez, pleads with his three best friends from childhood to discover what happened to him at the medical research laboratory where he worked that would make him do such a thing. She knows that Manny, brought up with a strong faith, would never do such a thing voluntarily. To kill yourself was to place your eternal soul in jeopardy.

The three friends, who have not seen each other in several years, each go their separate ways in the investigation. Only one of the three believes passionately that Manny would never kill himself. The others understand what you can do when under the influence of drugs and try to stand aloof...until there is a killing and Dona Lopez takes matters into her own hands.

This story is set in the Hispanic community in Santa Fe, NM, weaving through the lives of the four children, all of whom are drawn to each other by a common love of guitar music, poetry and The Butterfly Warrior - key player in an ancient Aztec legend.

I would have liked to see more storyline set in the medical laboratory itself and more fleshing out of the characters. I would have especially liked to read more about what demons drove Cuate's behavior. Other than those two relatively minor points, the novel was very good. Once I started reading it, I didn't put it down until it was finished.

Received book free of charge.

Juan Blea's world view was a Spanish up to age of five. In order to translate across cultures, he creates a metaphoric token that can be understood by both cultures. In "Buttlerfly Warrior" Blea gives us an allegory taken from an Aztec myth of soldiers killed in battle who then return as butterflies. The opposing force becomes the wasp.

The crux of Blea's book is that "As cultural identity decays, so does psychological health," as Juan Blea explained to the SW Writers Group in Albuquerque (August 2006). His entire book balances on the two metaphors of the wasp (non-psychological health) and the butterfly (psychological health). He traces deterioration and gives us a kiss of hope at the end.

"Butterfly Warrior" is a book of power, wit, and poetry. Slim, as most allegories are, yet such a soul-tickler that you'll be thinking about it for some time to come. A whole new take on Santa Fe, acculturation, and where we are headed in the grand scheme of themes.

Janet Grace Riehl, author, Sightlines: A Poet's Diary