The Butterfly's Wing

By Martin Foreman

Andy McIllray and Tom Dayton are a well-matched gay couple in their thirties, still happy after four years together. Andy has a high-flying job with an international organisation, while Tom has given... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0854492232
• ISBN13: 9780854492237
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Heretic Books
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Love's Hostages

First published in 1996, The Butterfly's Wing is an affecting and engaging novel about a relationship between two men, and what happens when an act of terrorism forces them apart. Andy, an officer in a world aid organization, is kidnapped and held hostage in Peru, leaving Tom alone in England, not knowing what is happening to his lover or if he will ever see him again. The power of this story lies in the two voices that are telling it. Tom, who has been alone on their jointly-owned English smallholding for over a year now, tries to relieve his pain by starting a journal, in the form of a long letter to Andy. This device is wisely chosen by the author, for Tom, who has had a hardscrabble life moving from one waitering job to another, lives an existence that is centered on Andy, and the second-person narrative powerfully conveys his need. Elsewhere in the world, in a miserable cell where he doesn't even have enough food or blankets, Andy at least has pen and paper, so he's writing as well. He's a well educated man and his journal takes a more conventional form, though there is raw emotion there too. All of this means that reading this book is no walk in the park. And yet, if that's a downside to the book, it's also part of the upside. There is nothing inauthentic in these pages. Martin Foreman has done important work in HIV in the developing world, and his grasp of world politics and economics convincingly informs Andy's writing and his arguments with his captors. Just as tellingly, every detail of Tom's life on a struggling farm seems real. To an important degree, this book and these lives have been lived by the author. Tom and Andy also reflect on their lives as gay men. When Tom came out he was disowned by his family, while Andy met with only grudging acceptance from his parents. The two men are, in their own ways, amazed by the love they have found for each other. But there is nothing private in their world, and when the media "break" the news that Andy is gay and has a lover waiting for him at home, the new angle to their story has the potential to harm them both. Will Tom's sexuality gain him ill favor among those who would otherwise help him? Will Andy's captors kill or torture him because he is gay? The well-read Andy is familiar with the work of Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene, and invokes those names in his journal. I would add Malcolm Lowry to the short list of fiction writers who have painstakingly explored the intersection of the political and the personal, seeking out those profound moments when something as slight as the stir of a butterfly's wing changes lives on the opposite side of the world. Oh, and add Martin Foreman's name, too: he has earned it.

Differences that Strengthen

Foreman, Martin. "The Butterfly's Wing", Lethe Press Reprint, 2009. Differences that Strengthen Amos Lassen One of the more beautifully written gay-themed novels that I recently read is Martin Foreman's "The Butterfly's Wing"' the story of two men. They are partners and lovers and very different one from the other but these differences make their union stronger while challenging it at the same time. Tom Dayton, a worker and Andy McIllray, a worker for an international aid organization live together on the farm the own on the English countryside. Their home is idyllic until Andy is kidnapped by Peruvian guerillas while on assignment in Peru. Written as a diary, the book begins by introducing Tom a year after Andy has disappeared and it is through what he writes in his diary that we get to know him. He tells us of his happy life with Andy and what he hopes the future will bring and how he is coping with the loss of his partner and living on the farm. At the same time Andy is keeping a log of his imprisonment while writing in notebooks that his abductors have allowed him to have. He is in a struggle to convince the Shining Path movement to set him free. Foreman uses the wonderful technique of having the characters "write about themselves" and that is how we get to know them. Thus we get characters that are multidimensional and we feel their emotions. Foreman also has the gift of being able to write beautiful description and it is so real that I pictured myself right there with Andy and Tom. It is interesting to look inside of the mind of one whose lover is alive but is forced to be separated from him. Equally interesting is what goes through the mind of the man captured---we feel the reality of what is going on in the lives of the two men. "The Butterfly's Wing" is quite an achievement and is one of those books that is hard to forget. It moves at a quick pace and as it does it slows a bit so that we can get to know our characters. Now I have to find other writings of Martin Foreman as this book has made me quite a fan.

Not Your Typical Gay Novel

I was at first skeptical of this novel when I read the book jacket, but within the first couple of pages I was completely engrossed in the formation of these beautifully drawn characters. Martin Foreman skillfully develops two very unique and distinctive voices, detailing the day to day lives of the main characters. It is his eye for the little touches that really makes this book work. This is not an action adventure story, as one might presume of a kidnapping story, but an in-depth analysis of the traumas and mundanities of the time spent waiting for the release of a hostage.... With it comes a layman’s understanding of world sociology. A worthy read.