Literary Horror discussion
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The Butcher Boy
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June 2022 Monthly Read: Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy
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Fantastic! I have the book in hand. I’ll start it as soon as we are ready. 😁👍🏼
Ready to go - saw the film not long after it came out, but don't think I ever got round to reading the novel.
Hello everyone,Although I did vote for the world below. I’ll go with the group decision and read the the butcher boy. Looks like a good read !
Hey! Brand new here, but I’ll gladly join the read. Can’t wait to see how this goes!
Note on availability: the novel doesn't seem to be on the Kindle store. But there are other options for a pdf or similar. For example:https://archive.org/details/butcherbo...
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24830...
Speak up if you might need more time to score a copy. (Several audiobook options too, if that's your thing.)
Oh goodness! thanks Bill for the heads up! I may have to get this in a audiobook (: if not if I order this book on Amazon I’ll pay for expedited shipping I’ll be ready to read this weekend (:
Great, I have a copy of this somewhere - I will look for it and hopefully start it today!
I have found my copy and it has a quote from Roddy Doyle on the front cover that says: "Brilliant, unique...reading fiction will never be the same again". Now THAT is a lot to live up to!
Picked up a copy and will join the discussion as I start reading this one.
Just borrowed the book from the Internet Archive. I'll have a few chapters read by Saturday.
Hi everyone ! So I started listening to the audiobook earlier and I’m on chapter 2. This is my first time listening to an audiobook. This story has me like what in the world !?!? Between the mom, dad and the son has considering therapy lol. So far so good !
Hellos!I finished this book earlier and needless to say this was not my favorite. There was a lot of jumping around and moving parts in the book which didn’t make sense until later. I agree with Randolph.
Randolph you can blame me for nominating it but I don’t think I understand why you don’t understand how this title doesn't fit into this group? Maybe it doesn’t maybe it does. For this one, particularly with the themes of spiraling madness and horrific conditions posed to the characters seems to fit the broadly defined horror genre. Sure… this one could fit in other categories, but horror would be one of the boxes checked. Perhaps I no longer understand what fits in this group or what does not. I’m all ears. 😁👍🏼
I've been taking longer to make progress on the book, partly because the archive.org viewer is so annoying. I think it's appropriate for the group, but then I tend to be more flexible on what constitutes horror.
I do like the narrative device here with a Holden Caufield like perceiving of reality through the eyes of a kid who seems to be at odds with the world. It definitely has its awkward moments of hilarity. The set up in terms of enmity between Franchie and Ms. Nugent is pretty immediate. I’m curious to see how things spiral out of control.
Regarding the question of genre, people have called McCabe's work, "bog gothic," "black pastoral," and "dark satire," while others have noted the influence of horror films in his books. The Butcher Boy centers around familial madness, ubiquitous violence, cultural paranoia, and the creation of monsters. You can even argue there is a supernatural element depending on how you interpret Catholic visions, Tír na nÓg, and Francie's imagination. I think it is easy to get so caught up in (or hung up on) the narrative style and Francie's voice/tone that we can underestimate what McCabe is doing with this novel. For example, just because the narrator has little understanding of history or politics, that doesn't mean the reader should ignore how profoundly these forces are shaping the identities, communities, institutions, and events depicted.
I’m not a big fan of the ethnic “yarn” genre that this seems to lend itself to. I guess the author is putting us on about that too...
There seems to be a lot of topical material about domestic abuse, diddling priests, etc. that was emergent or shocking at the time but doesn’t date well as dark humor is concerned.
Isn't this the point of satire though? The humor lies in the casual/cheerful discussion of something absurd or previously hidden, but the power comes from drawing attention to that which we tacitly accept.
I don't know if there are any edition collectors who would be interested, but Suntup have put out a really nice edition of this.God i wish I had money to burn haha
https://suntup.press/the-butcher-boy
Joseph wrote: "I don't know if there are any edition collectors who would be interested, but Suntup have put out a really nice edition of this.God i wish I had money to burn haha
https://suntup.press/the-butch..."
Would have been more fitting to bind it in pig-skin rather than lamb!
I have the Suntup artist edition. It is a lovely book and the illustrations are terrific.
The novel was short-listed for the Stoker Award and Man Booker prize. A couple reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/199...
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
The Butcher Boy is available on paper and as an ebook. Let's start close to next weekend, around the 10th.
(Our June 2022 monthly read poll resulted in a tie. As the mod who set up the poll, I'm making the decision in favor of The Butcher Boy. If you're interested in David Peak's novel as a buddy read, please speak up.)