Butcher's Crossing (New York Review Books Classics)
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Beschreibung
Beiträge
Could John Williams' first novel, widely regarded as the counterpart to the famous [b:Stoner|166997|Stoner|John Edward Williams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320600716s/166997.jpg|1559207], have left a more striking impression? I highly doubt so, and if only for its memorable, brutal honesty, Butcher's Crossing has earned a place among my all-time favorites. John Williams is no very well-known author, and most people connect him only to Stoner, yet in my opinion, this underrated novel is, from a general point of view, his true masterpiece. Butcher's Crossing focuses on Harvard student Will Andrews who heads west in the 1870's and finally arrives in the small Kansas town of Butcher's Crossing, where most of the people make their money by hunting buffaloes and trading their skins. In his restless state, Andrews longs for being confronted with the possibilities this world has yet to offer him, longs for discovering who he really is, and even though it does not appear to be his wisest decision, he decides to leave for a valley in the Colorado Rockies which is said to be home to thousands of buffaloes - getting all their skins could be a business deal with unbelievably positive consequences for his prosperity. Finally, among with three peculiar men - experienced leader Miller, one-handed and drinking Charley Hoge, and professional skinner Schneider -, Andrews embarks on his journey into the wilderness of the American landscape, entering a hunting which could have been imagined to be easier than it actually turned out to be. Those four characters could not have been any more different. Miller takes over the typical leader figure, establishing his decisions without taking care of the advice others give him - and yet everyone has to rely on what he has to say, because Miller is the only person who really knows this landscape. Then there is Schneider, experienced and professional, but not shy when it comes to being honest about his reluctance to accept Miller's decisions. Charley Hoge represents a lower level of education, a man reminiscent of Lennie Small from John Steinbeck's [b:Of Mice and Men|890|Of Mice and Men|John Steinbeck|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437235233s/890.jpg|40283] in his need to rely on other human beings. And on the other hand, there is Will Andrews, a man who has never known anything but the fast-growing city of Boston and who now discovers not only the beauty of the American outback, but also its dangers. Four men who are earmarked by their contradicting personalities and their difficult relationships to each other. In the 16th century, rougly 25-30 million buffaloes had been living in North America. At the end of the 19th century, only a few hundred of them were left scattered and critically endangered. This book focuses largely on the men's quest of hunting down those remaining buffaloes to get their hands on as much money as they could get from this business deal. Their main intention consists of killing those buffaloes and enriching themselves without even thinking about what this could do to the population of the animals. From a modern point of view, (still not enough) people are smarter about the fact that animals should never be allowed to be hunted down to extinction, but especially in this time period, animals were looked at as a way to earn money, and nothing else. This becomes even clearer as the author sheds light on Miller's attempts to understand the behaviour of the buffaloes; Miller fails miserably. Personally, I rooted for all those five thousand buffaloes to survive the hunting, but as stated in the introduction, John Williams is brutally honest about how it could have happened in this time period, and brutally honest can be equated with 'readers who don't like to read about dying animals should avoid this book'. Ultimately, Butcher's Crossing is a parable about what greed can do to a human nature, and one famous saying is part of this novel more than anything else: ,,It takes a lifetime to build something and only five seconds to lose it.`` This book is full of emotions. Even though the omniscient narrator never really looks inside the head of any of the characters, he does make you feel connected with them, he makes you feel the pain they are going through, the happiness they are allowed to feel, the devastation which comes upon them crawling like a beetle through the bush. He makes you know that something is off, makes you feel the upcoming turn of events, but when the turning point finally appears, it hits you in the stomach as unexpectedly as imaginable. This book is slow-building and full of long-winded descriptions, yet John Williams never allows his novel to get boring, always awaiting you with the next sensation to keep your eyes fixed on that page, wondering in disbelief whether nature could actually be as cruel as it is depicted here. If there is one thing I felt after reading this novel, then it was the realism behind it all. This book is historical fiction and John Williams was not even born until fifty years after the time this novel is set in; however, his words manage to make you believe that this could just as easily have been a nonfictional account of the terrifying events in the American wilderness. A single point of criticism can be found in the way the author never really gets into the mind of his main protagonist Will Andrews, who appears to be rather soulless in comparison to William Stoner from his novel counterpart, but apart from that, Williams shines with brilliant descriptions of an enthralling, brutal and unpredictable landscape as well as the straightforward, but beautiful language I was already well familiar with after reading Stoner. Many readers consider this book to be the counterpart to Stoner, as Butcher's Crossing basically consists of an account of a man's personal and physical transformation from the well-educated Harvard student into the hardened hunter of the mid-American wilderness, while Stoner focuses on a man's transformation from a farmer boy into the well-esteemed university teacher. But ultimately, both novels are strong enough to be looked at independently, and even though it might not be appropriate for all readers because of the huge amount of animals being killed, it can be recommended for those who enjoyed Stoner and are interested in realistic Western novels. So far, my unsurpassed favorite of all the novels I read this year, and besides a novel which is incredibly underrated.
Hörbuch.
An absolutely wonderful Western! And I'm not a fan of the genre, however, John Williams managed to stay within the genre and produce a piece of great literature at the same time. While on the surface this seems like a story about the buffalo hunt, it has many layers to it, mainly dealing with a person changing, internally and visibly, with loss, adapting to a changing society and environment and the disability to do so and much more. The story starts slowly and we get a lot of the prairie feeling, then it rapidly grows faster and faster and more and more drama is added. I can't wait to read more of Williams' works. Luckily there are still two books waiting for me :)
Beschreibung
Beiträge
Could John Williams' first novel, widely regarded as the counterpart to the famous [b:Stoner|166997|Stoner|John Edward Williams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320600716s/166997.jpg|1559207], have left a more striking impression? I highly doubt so, and if only for its memorable, brutal honesty, Butcher's Crossing has earned a place among my all-time favorites. John Williams is no very well-known author, and most people connect him only to Stoner, yet in my opinion, this underrated novel is, from a general point of view, his true masterpiece. Butcher's Crossing focuses on Harvard student Will Andrews who heads west in the 1870's and finally arrives in the small Kansas town of Butcher's Crossing, where most of the people make their money by hunting buffaloes and trading their skins. In his restless state, Andrews longs for being confronted with the possibilities this world has yet to offer him, longs for discovering who he really is, and even though it does not appear to be his wisest decision, he decides to leave for a valley in the Colorado Rockies which is said to be home to thousands of buffaloes - getting all their skins could be a business deal with unbelievably positive consequences for his prosperity. Finally, among with three peculiar men - experienced leader Miller, one-handed and drinking Charley Hoge, and professional skinner Schneider -, Andrews embarks on his journey into the wilderness of the American landscape, entering a hunting which could have been imagined to be easier than it actually turned out to be. Those four characters could not have been any more different. Miller takes over the typical leader figure, establishing his decisions without taking care of the advice others give him - and yet everyone has to rely on what he has to say, because Miller is the only person who really knows this landscape. Then there is Schneider, experienced and professional, but not shy when it comes to being honest about his reluctance to accept Miller's decisions. Charley Hoge represents a lower level of education, a man reminiscent of Lennie Small from John Steinbeck's [b:Of Mice and Men|890|Of Mice and Men|John Steinbeck|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437235233s/890.jpg|40283] in his need to rely on other human beings. And on the other hand, there is Will Andrews, a man who has never known anything but the fast-growing city of Boston and who now discovers not only the beauty of the American outback, but also its dangers. Four men who are earmarked by their contradicting personalities and their difficult relationships to each other. In the 16th century, rougly 25-30 million buffaloes had been living in North America. At the end of the 19th century, only a few hundred of them were left scattered and critically endangered. This book focuses largely on the men's quest of hunting down those remaining buffaloes to get their hands on as much money as they could get from this business deal. Their main intention consists of killing those buffaloes and enriching themselves without even thinking about what this could do to the population of the animals. From a modern point of view, (still not enough) people are smarter about the fact that animals should never be allowed to be hunted down to extinction, but especially in this time period, animals were looked at as a way to earn money, and nothing else. This becomes even clearer as the author sheds light on Miller's attempts to understand the behaviour of the buffaloes; Miller fails miserably. Personally, I rooted for all those five thousand buffaloes to survive the hunting, but as stated in the introduction, John Williams is brutally honest about how it could have happened in this time period, and brutally honest can be equated with 'readers who don't like to read about dying animals should avoid this book'. Ultimately, Butcher's Crossing is a parable about what greed can do to a human nature, and one famous saying is part of this novel more than anything else: ,,It takes a lifetime to build something and only five seconds to lose it.`` This book is full of emotions. Even though the omniscient narrator never really looks inside the head of any of the characters, he does make you feel connected with them, he makes you feel the pain they are going through, the happiness they are allowed to feel, the devastation which comes upon them crawling like a beetle through the bush. He makes you know that something is off, makes you feel the upcoming turn of events, but when the turning point finally appears, it hits you in the stomach as unexpectedly as imaginable. This book is slow-building and full of long-winded descriptions, yet John Williams never allows his novel to get boring, always awaiting you with the next sensation to keep your eyes fixed on that page, wondering in disbelief whether nature could actually be as cruel as it is depicted here. If there is one thing I felt after reading this novel, then it was the realism behind it all. This book is historical fiction and John Williams was not even born until fifty years after the time this novel is set in; however, his words manage to make you believe that this could just as easily have been a nonfictional account of the terrifying events in the American wilderness. A single point of criticism can be found in the way the author never really gets into the mind of his main protagonist Will Andrews, who appears to be rather soulless in comparison to William Stoner from his novel counterpart, but apart from that, Williams shines with brilliant descriptions of an enthralling, brutal and unpredictable landscape as well as the straightforward, but beautiful language I was already well familiar with after reading Stoner. Many readers consider this book to be the counterpart to Stoner, as Butcher's Crossing basically consists of an account of a man's personal and physical transformation from the well-educated Harvard student into the hardened hunter of the mid-American wilderness, while Stoner focuses on a man's transformation from a farmer boy into the well-esteemed university teacher. But ultimately, both novels are strong enough to be looked at independently, and even though it might not be appropriate for all readers because of the huge amount of animals being killed, it can be recommended for those who enjoyed Stoner and are interested in realistic Western novels. So far, my unsurpassed favorite of all the novels I read this year, and besides a novel which is incredibly underrated.
Hörbuch.
An absolutely wonderful Western! And I'm not a fan of the genre, however, John Williams managed to stay within the genre and produce a piece of great literature at the same time. While on the surface this seems like a story about the buffalo hunt, it has many layers to it, mainly dealing with a person changing, internally and visibly, with loss, adapting to a changing society and environment and the disability to do so and much more. The story starts slowly and we get a lot of the prairie feeling, then it rapidly grows faster and faster and more and more drama is added. I can't wait to read more of Williams' works. Luckily there are still two books waiting for me :)