The Butcher Boy: A Novel

Well, this one certainly turns the old Bildungsroman genre on its head. We definitely get the coming-of-age story of the main character, Francie Brady, but it is characterized by a distinct lack of growth. Francie describes the stasis of his development. And his inability to cope with his world changing around him, as well as his nature, leads him down his macabre path.McCabe writes well, using Francie's eye to evoke both the commonplace and the ghastly. His first person narrative is also remarkable in its ability to convincingly portray a delusional youth. The frame of the narrative, though, is pretty thin and the reader is left to wonder at the current state of the story-teller. Specifically, one wonders if Francie, in his older life, has come to understand or regret his actions.One has to think the answer is no. As Francie tells his story, he seems to conceive of the disparity between his past dialogue with others and his concomitant inner monologue as evidence of his own cleverness, rather than as a fraying disguise. Of course, to the reader, this is a source of mounting tension.This is an excellent book, deserving of the accolades it received. I'm not sure why I'm disinclined to give it five stars. It approaches perfection in its intent and execution. I'm afraid my reluctance may be just a matter of taste; I wasn't dazzled as I read it, even though I knew it to be stellar.

A beutifully written book with a lot of Irish idioms that I normally find distracting but in this case work very well indeed. Written from the viewpoint of a person who is very obviously off kilter mentally right from the beginning but still sees the world through that great sense of Irish humour. So, as the guy continues to go further and further off the tracks, the suspense is punctuated by bouts of really funny observations. This is the first book by Mr. MCcabe that I have had the good fortune to read but it certainly won't be the last. Highest reccomendation!

This is probably one of the most disturbing books I've read in a very long time. As noted, it is very much like a major accident that you don't want to look at because you know that you will see mangled bodies, etc., but you just have to look. So many times during the narrative, I just wanted to get the boy out of his misery and find him a decent home, but upon reading, he didn't want that either. Above all, I just wanted to smack some of the people around him and ask them just what they were thinking insofar as the way they treated Francie. It was probably their fault all along that things turned out the way they did. This, along without the proper mental care in place, led to horrific consequences.

Such powerful writing! I fell right into understanding Francie's innocence of mind. The horrible stigma of society inflicted against him from whence he came, the overpowering sad ugliness of his parents respective lives, and the palpable horror of the too often dysfunction found within the priesthood inflicted upon young boys. This book ' nearly did me in'. I do not recommend it for the faint of heart. I was knocked down feeling horrific pain for the children who suffer such terrors at the hands of others.

Reading! I was impossible to read such rubbish!

This book proves that blurbs should be taken with a grain of salt. It's an interesting, if not new, technique of allowing an obviously mad narrator dribbling out details of his horrible crime which, in the end, proves to be unoriginal anyway. Sometimes Francie's voice is realistic but most of the time he sounds like an author trying to be clever and it shows. I struggled to get to the end. Whenever I read something "new" like THE BUTCHER BOY, I always fall back onto a classic novel to revive my senses. I'm glad I read it if for nothing else than to save myself from wasting my time on the movie. HA HA

Love this book. A bit dark and creepy at times but you just can't help dive into the character's mind to try and figure out his personality.

This is the story of Francis Brady, a wayward youth who can't seem to stay out of trouble for very long.

Terminei de ler esse livro semana passada. Entrega foi mto rápida, o livro possue uma capa dura com um designer lindo ( um dos mais bonitos que eu tenho até esse momento ). Mas deixando de falar do externo, vamos até o interno, ele começa com o personagem tendo uma especie de flashback da sua infância, é onde a historia inicia-se, Francie nosso personagem principal vive em uma casa muito humilde, com uma mãe depressiva e um pai alcoólatra. O garoto tem uma inimiga em sua vida, sua vizinha, eles conflitam bastante sobre vários aspectos, no geral é isso que Francie retrata: ódio. No livro vamos acompanhando toda essa tragetoria até o final, com diversos fatos que vão direcionando Francie em um caminho perigoso. Enfim, escrevi do meu jeitinho, mas a única coisa q tenho pra dizer é que esse livro é necessario, mudou meu pensamento sobre varios assuntos do cotidiano.( se vc for uma pessoa sensivel é importante que saiba a existencia de violência em geral na obra)Espero que tenham uma boa leitura!! Até logo, e talvez em mais alguma avalição de livros.

Last year the Booker prize winner was Milkman by Anna Burns and what a disappointing read that proved to be. Set in Belfast this was a book of gossip told in the first person by "middle sister" in a very claustrophobic and confusing style. Why should I tell you this? quite simply it is only to draw a comparison between a book that did not deserve the prize and a book published in 1992 that was Booker shortlisted but did not win....and what a pity it didn't...... The Butcher Boy is a highly entertaining tour de force novel set in a small Irish Village. The prose is direct and very similar in style to The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks where the main character is also the narrator. In The Butcher Boy our narrator is Francie Brady probably best described as a bit of a scallywag, a good-for-nothing who with his best friend Joe spend their days in a carefree way more an inconvenience to the residents than a real threat. When they make the acquaintance of a local lad Philip Nugent and act in a somewhat dishonest way, refusing to return his comics, Mrs Nugent steps in to rescue the situation and in so doing changes the life of not only Francie but indirectly hers which is only revealed when the book concludes. This is a startling novel giving great insight into life in a small Irish community in the early 1960s. Through the eyes of Francie we soon become acquainted with the somewhat joie de vivre attitude of the locals none more accommodating than Brady himself. However the second part of the novel displays a bitter and disturbing series of events; events that will have a long reaching affect on not only our narrator but an unsuspecting target. What starts off as a jovial account suddenly changes direction with impromptu violence and a very dark ending, with echoes of Charles Manson. Along the way it is easy to see how it only takes a little act to upset the balance of peace and how such an act can have deadly consequences...nothing is what it seems, people are not what they seem...With a very snappy dialogue that crackles along the book deserves to be read in one sitting..."He had a big breeze block of a head and a pair of eyebrows like two slugs trying to stand up"...."it was funny that face it slowly grew over the other one until one day you looked and the person you knew was gone."....."Oh ma I said the whole house is burning up on us then a fist made of smoke hit me a smack in the mouth its over says ma its all over now".....Highly recommended.

Oh wow! What a helter-skelter of a read. Left me breathless as I followed the stream of consciousness flowing in Francie's brain. At times I felt great empathy with him, at times a huge sorrow for him as he never stood a chance in life.I need to read it again, after I have allowed a space of time for the story to settle in my brain and understanding.An excellent piece of writing, so insightful.

The Butcher Boy is similar in some respects to Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory. Both are narrated by troubled juvenile boys from dysfunctional families and whose actions are driven by emotional poverty; a tragic lack of love and hope. Authors like McCabe and Banks have an incredible talent for creating a compassion for the narrator even as he shocks and revolts us.I loved The Butcher Boy. What I particularly enjoyed was the deliberate dearth of punctuation which called attention to the sing-song hysteria of Francie. It gave it immediacy and honesty; the innocence of youth so startlingly pure, spoiled.I have wondered (and at times worried about) why I am drawn to these deeply dark, twisted, violent and disturbing books. I think ultimately it is because of the adenaline infused emotion of being placed right smack inside of the warped mind of the protagonist while at the same time being aware of what is going on outside of the delusion and ignorance. It is a ride like no other!Irrespective of genre, a good book is one that lives with you and never fully goes away. It leaves an imprint on your consciousness, for whatever reason. This book will remain with me for some time.

Now I will not be reading another McCabe novel as I do not think this can be bettered. Visceral and chilling rendered in a vernacular spectacular the boy McCabe has written a masterpiece. A number of writers try to better their last output and fair enough bills to pay and so on and on and on. With the butcher Boy and this onslaught of poetic rhythmic narration McCabe has delivered, it is enough, it is brilliant. A writer need only produce one masterpiece, it really is enough. the others are ghosts or worse shadows, McCabe has produced it, a ferocious talent, an incandescent sizzling novel.