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Butcher's Crossing

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John Williams' 'Butcher's Crossing' is a novel set in the 1870s following Will Andrews on a buffalo slaughter expedition in Colorado. The narrative details the journey from the dreadful slaughter to being snowed in, exploring themes of man's relationship with nature, the impact of the wilderness on individuals, and the consequences of greed. Williams' writing style is described as spare, detailed, and well-researched, providing a cinematic account of the harsh realities faced by the characters in the unforgiving wilderness.

Characters:

The characters are flawed and complex, embodying typical western archetypes while displaying profound internal conflicts.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is evocative and detailed, effectively combining lyrical descriptions with the harsh realities of the setting.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot centers around Will Andrews, who leaves Harvard for the West, joins a buffalo hunt, and confronts the stark realities of nature and human greed.

Setting:

The setting is the American West in the 1870s, capturing both its natural beauty and the degradation caused by exploitation.

Pacing:

The pacing begins slowly but builds tension effectively during the hunting segments, culminating in a gripping conclusion.
The coach from Ellsworth to Butcher’s Crossing was a dougherty that had been converted to carry passengers and small freight. Four mules pulled the cart over the ridged, uneven road that descended sli...

Notes:

The novel is set in the 1870s during the decline of the buffalo herds.
Will Andrews, the protagonist, leaves Harvard to seek adventure in the West.
The story explores themes of futility and man's relationship with nature.
John Williams contrasts the romanticism of nature with the brutal reality of the buffalo hunt.
Characters in Butcher's Crossing are well-drawn and complex, unlike those in Williams's earlier novel, Stoner.
The buffalo hunt is depicted in stark and graphic detail, reflecting on greed and obsession.
The narrative includes elements of survival as the characters face a harsh winter in the mountains.
The book is known for its poetic descriptions of the landscape and emotional depth.
Williams’s prose is noted for its simplicity and vividness, creating a strong sense of place.
The novel has been compared to Melville's Moby Dick in its exploration of obsession and nature.
Despite being a Western, the book critiques the romanticized view of the American frontier.
Butcher's Crossing is regarded as a literary Western that delves into philosophical themes rather than just action.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

The book contains medium content warnings due to its graphic depictions of violence, particularly regarding the buffalo hunt, and the exploration of themes like greed, isolation, and existential despair.

From The Publisher:

In his National Book Award-winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher's Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.

It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek "an original relation to nature," drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. Butcher's Crossing is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher's Crossing to find a world as irremediably changed as they have been.

Ratings (20)

Incredible (5)
Loved It (10)
Liked It (3)
It Was OK (1)
Did Not Like (1)

Reader Stats (55):

Read It (19)
Want To Read (33)
Did Not Finish (1)
Not Interested (2)

1 comment(s)

Incredible
3 months

Supongo que alguien tenia que responder a la pregunta de si se puede escribir un bildungsroman usando elementos de western.

Lo mas increible del libro es que mezcla paisajes descritos a groso modo con acciones descritas en lo mas pequeños de los detalles. Es algo que no deberia funcionar, pero funciona.

Cuando cambias de un detalle minusculo al paisaje, la sensacion es parecida a lo que me imagino que se siente con la agorafobia. La grandiosidad del lugar te abofetea.

 

About the Author:

John Williams was an author, editor and professor. Born in 1922 in Texas, he served in the United States Army Air Force from 1942 to 1945 in China, Burma and India. His first novel, Nothing But the Night, was published in 1948. After receiving his PhD in 1954, Williams returned to the University of Denver where he first studied to teach literature and creative writing for thirty years. It was during this time that he wrote the novels Butcher's Crossing (1960) and Stoner (1965). His last novel, Augustus, won the National Book Award in 1973. John Williams died in Arkansas in 1994.

 
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