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The Butcher Boy
 
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The Butcher Boy (Paperback)

by Patrick McCabe (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Customers buy this book with The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (12 Mar 1993)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330328743
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330328746
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.4 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 119,253 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > M > McCabe, Patrick

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

"I was thinking how right ma was--Mrs Nugent all smiles when she met us and how are you getting on Mrs and young Francis are you both well?...what she was really saying was: Ah hello Mrs Pig how are you and look Philip do you see what's coming now--The Pig Family!"

This is a precisely crafted, often lyrical, portrait of the descent into madness of a young killer in small-town Ireland. Short-listed for the Booker Prize.



Product Description

Set in Ireland, this book tells the story of teenage hero Francie Brady. Things begin to fall apart after his mother's suicide - when he is consumed with fury and commits a horrible crime. Committed to an asylum, it is only here that he finally achieves peace. Shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize.

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Modern Gothic in full flow, 2 Oct 2007
By Barney McGrew "Charlie" (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
After reading McCabe's Modern Gothic classic 'The Dead School' for my A-level English Literature course, I was inspired to search out his other works. I have just finished reading 'The Butcher Boy' and don't quite know how to react! I can only describe the style of narrative as a kind of 'fragmented stream-of-consciousness' - the narrator is a disenfranchised boy, Francie, living in late-1950s Ireland who loses his mother and father to suicide and drink respectively and subsequently becomes violently obsessed with well-brought-up schoolboy Philip Nugent, whose own family is in many ways the antithesis of Francie's.
Packed full of bizarre characters such as the paedophilic priest, 'Tiddly', who Francie exploits whilst having a spell in approved school (for defecating on Mrs Nugent's carpet no less!) and Francie's Uncle Alo, with his unrequited love for Francie's mother making him just one example of the sad and deluded lives contained within the book. The tale has enough of the gothic within it to remind me of 'The Wasp Factory', whose narrator leads a similarly confused existence, however the end is far more cruel and will surely have you feeling pity for Francie, no matter how monstrous he has become.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, 13 Oct 2000
By A Customer
McCabe shows us francie's life exclusively through Francie's eyes. As we go through life with him it becomes impossible for us not to feel the pain he feels. When he commits the final murderous act on the woman whose son he has always wanted to be, yet who at the same time he has always seen as being the source of his misery, it seems inevitable and almost comes as a relief. the constant pain and lonliness that the character feels and the extremes he will go to to seek out love make him seem heartbreakingly fragile and vulnerable.McCabe's depiction of Francie's slow but undeniable descent into insanity is seamless. There are no gimmicks and no false attempts to shock, every word in the book is true to the characters and to the situations. This book left me thinking two things: 1. i would love to ask the author what the inspiration for his book was and; 2. i wonder how many people who as adults seem monstrous would seem that way if we could see life through their eyes.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You just have to know what happens to Francie Brady!, 17 Nov 2000
By A Customer
This is a creepy, yet funny novel of a boy who has a tragic life. It keeps you reading right until the last page to know what happens to the young lad in the novel. Patrick McCabe clearly has a winner with this book. It is a novel about the terrible life of a child and how his life effected him. After his mother's death/suicide which he blames himself for he becomes consumed by these thoughts. He has no where to turn so he turns to a life of crime. Francie is a horrible child but somehow McCabe makes you feel sorry for the child, you are compelled by his story, his life. The book is a gruesome, depressing, sad story, yet it is filled with humor and compassion. The best part is when Francie can finally come to terms with what he has done and what has happened to him, when he finally finds his peace!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A little dissapointing
I bought this book because I really liked Breakfast on Pluto and because it won a Booker (never trust the Booker!) but I felt a bit let down to be honest. Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. Guimaraes

3.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Insanity
This is the compelling story of a young man's desent into madness set in an Irish town in the late 50s and early sixties (a thinly disguised Clones). Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. Thomas Cooper

5.0 out of 5 stars the tragedy of fading love
Well, I read this book many years ago but it still resonates with me today. It's the unusual mix of innocence and hurt expressed via a young lad with a great turn of phrase.. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2006 by M. L. Sheppard

4.0 out of 5 stars Uncomfortable reading with some wry smiles thrown in
The story of a young Irish boy called Francie who never quite gets the help he needs and ends up killing someone in a particularly brutal way. Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2006 by B. Remy

4.0 out of 5 stars thats so irish!
Patrick McCabe manages to convey Francie Brady's childhood so well he makes us relate it to our own. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars a very sad but very readable book
At first I found this difficult to read, no punctuation was very strange. But once I had got the hang off it I couldnt put the book down. Read more
Published on 13 May 2001 by akelaanne@hotmail.com

4.0 out of 5 stars a poignant tragedy
the butcher boy can I think be accurately described as "The wasp factory" meets "A clockwork orange" via holden cauldfield all transposed onto 50' rural... Read more
Published on 27 Mar 2000

3.0 out of 5 stars Typical teenager behaviour
This book defines the inner dementedness of boys of that age. I might be a boy but a can't understand what makes them go. Read more
Published on 27 Mar 2000

3.0 out of 5 stars this book is exciting but gorey and some may take offense
well to begin with i would like to say that i thought the book was not as good as the film although this maybe is a typical teenage response! Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for vegetarians!!
Life through the eyes of a confused young boy. Growing up with an alcoholic father and depressive mother he turns to the escapism of comic books. Read more
Published on 15 Dec 1999 by n.brown@lineone.net

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