Butchers Crossing

John Williams' well constructed western novel is minimal in sentiment and takes an even handed approach to the struggles between man and nature. Nature is not evil in Williams' world, like Hemingway he portrays nature as a neutral non-caring force that supports humanity as well as destroys humanity. In this regard, the novel could be compared to the more mythic Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Williams is careful to show that mankind may master many skills when dealing with nature but that a slip or mistake can have fatal non-forgiving consequences. This is an American novel, it speaks of the American national experience in realistic non-romantic passages that take the reader deep into the heart of the North American continent's heart. Williams' writing style is highly organized, there are no tangents or extra flourishes or unnecessary descriptions. Like William James and Nabokov, the story is as tight as a well constructed brick wall, facts and descriptions and experiences all are the precise building blocks for a novel with not a word out of place. I can imagine this novel would be appropriate for a college course on creative writing as an example of a novel that gets to the point, tells the tale, does not digress, makes its points and moves on. The novel is written in three sections and each section is further divided into short chapters. This structure gives the impression that the basic armature and direction of the entire novel was outlined with precision before the first paragraph was written. This is not a criticism; it is an observation that this novel's structure is strong but evident. The great exploration and exploitation of the American west in the 1800s is certainly part of the American myth. The beauty of this novel is that it explores the many themes of exploration and ruthless exploitation of the natural resources in a purely descriptive neutral voice. The great white whale in this novel is the vast power of snow storms in the Rocky Mountains and the untamed roaring rivers and the dry forbidding deserts. Those that hunt the whales in Moby Dick may encounter the great white whale. In Williams' world, those that hunt the buffalo may encounter the consequences of the natural world, the winter in the Rockies. The novel is written from the perspective of a neutral all-seeing narrator but the experiences of young Andrews, a Harvard drop-out, form the journey on which the novel is constructed. Andrews encounters the sage in the person of McDonald, a man who deals with buffalo hide blankets for the European market. Andrews becomes a party to a hunting expedition, which he finances through a small inheritance, with a fascinating charter, Miller, who exemplifies competency and survival instinct in the wild. They are joined by Charley Hoge, a one-armed, camp-cook, wagon driver who seeks protection for a Bible that he can not understand. They are also joined by a wild buffalo skinner, Schneider, a man uncomfortable in the wild and just as uncomfortable among his fellow man. The character of Miller is central to the novel. He is a skilled hunter and very knowledgeable of the wild and survival. He is careful and a leader. He manages and distributes resources, is fair, and controls controversy. The novel however puts Miller to the test for it is Miller's temptation for excess and his pride that put the entire expedition into peril. We witness the fall of the hero here for Williams gradually, chapter after chapter, reveals to us Miller's considerable strengths and abilities, and then as the novel comes to a peak, we now see how the fatal flaws of the hero result in the conditions that bring him down. When the hero is a leader of a tribe, the fatal flaws may bring down the entire tribe. Miller is not the enigmatic Captain Ahab. He is far more present as a fleshy muscular problem-solving pack leader that Ahab. He is more akin to a realistically drawn Ulysses, constantly called upon to offer the solutions that insure survival of the hunting pack. Miller exemplifies the limitations of human cunning and willpower. Some may think that nature seeks revenge against Miller for his excessive slaughter of the buffalo. But Williams' novel presents this peril not as the revenge of a personalized nature but as the simple consequences of excessive human obsession and pride. Williams carefully and beautifully describes the grandeur of nature but he never romanticizes and he never personifies nature. A careful reader will appreciate the considerable control William displays throughout the novel but especially in his resistance to describing nature in any other than natural, realistic, neutral prose. William Andrews, who drops out of Harvard after his third year, seeks the challenge of the west. It is to Williams' credit that Andrews is not a brainless romantic and that he is a fast learning in a world where fast learning is necessary for survival. There is a young pretty prostitute, Francine, and William Andrew's encounters with her before the hunt and after the hunt are testimony to the changes that have been wrought in his personality due to the experiences he had in the winter storms. The character of Charley Hoge is more than a side-kick, for Charley has been touched by nature when he hand froze in a previous expedition and had to be amputated by Miller in the wild. Charley now carries an old Bible which he reads often but understands less. For Charley, the Bible is a talisman against the consequences of nature. Comparisons may be made with Cormac McCarthy's novels but there is an essential distinction. McCarthy sees the evil human being as being more akin to the unfeeling force of nature than to his fellowman. Thus in McCarthy's novels there is often violence of man against man in epic battles not unlike Williams' description of the battle with winder in Butcher's Crossing. This book is exceptional and deserves a wide readership. It is the type of Western novel that is exemplary American literature.

If you're considering reading "Butcher's Crossing", chances are you might have already read and enjoyed "Stoner" and/or "Augustus" by the same author, John Williams. Such was the case for me. It was the awesome writing in those two books that recommended Williams' story of 1870s western America, though "...Crossing" could have been written by a completely different author for all the literary and historic distance from First Century BC Rome and mid 20th Century America. What they all have in common is the author's remarkable eye for character, background and, above all, the perfect use of language to evoke place and mood. "Butcher's Crossing" is, on one level, the pursuit of "the meaning of life" by a young man (Will Andrews) from a comfortable if repressed East Coast background. Andrews, like many an American of the period, is drawn to the idea of finding a more interesting reality and future on the Western frontier. His adventure begins with arrival in the Kansas outback village of Butcher's Crossing. The small tent settlement lives off the hunting of buffalo on the near by plains. Andrews falls in with an experienced hunter who takes him and two companions to a mountainous area of the Colorado Territory where there are still large herds of "unharvested" buffalo and where he believes that a great fortune is to be made through a mass slaughter of the animals. The bulk of the story is about what the four men encounter on the hunt and in its aftermath. This is ultimately a saga of tragedy and disappointment for three of the men, but a major shift in life path for the fourth. The narrative in this book is amazing and will not leave any reader unmoved. Author Williams' language brings the reality of each vignette into sharp relief and forces a reaction to it. The methodical killing of the buffalo described in naturalistic, graphic language is perhaps the most affecting part of the story for 21st Century sensibilities, but every conversation between characters, every step along the trail, every description of living through a mountain winter puts the reader in the moment. Wonderful book. A 4+ on the Amazon scale.

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de la littérature de l'Ouest américain et de la littérature tout court. Je suis tombée par hasard sur ce roman car je ne connaissais pas cet auteur. Si on parle avec insistance de certains auteurs américains pour le Prix Nobel comme Philip Roth ou Don DeLilo, John Williams l'aurait mérité amplement, mais, lui, est mort d'emphysème en 1994. Will Andrews, jeune homme de bonne famille de Boston quitte Harvard (Harvard College à l'époque) et débarque à Butcher's Crossing, bourgade du Kansas à la limite des immenses territoires de l'Ouest où le bison est encore (mais pour combien de temps?) roi. Il investit son argent dans une expédition vers une vallée luxuriante quasi mythique dans les montagnes du Colorado où un certain Miller, chasseur de bisons, a vu un troupeau d'au moins cinq mille têtes. Will se compare à ces explorateurs du 15ème siècle qui partent vers l'inconnu, vers leurs rêves les plus fous. Tel un chevalier des épopées du Moyen Age Will "traverse" épreuve sur épreuve avant d'atteindre son but, avec comme apothéose une "boucherie" ! L'auteur développe les grands thèmes de la littérature -- l'Homme face à la Nature, l'Homme face à son destin, le voyage initiatique, la découverte de soi, la fin de l'innocence . . . Ce que j'ai surtout aimé dans ce roman, c'est le rythme des phrases; parfois des paragraphes se déroulent devant nous en vagues successives comme l'herbe des prairies du Kansas, parfois en poésie pure comme devant le spectacle primitif et paradisiaque d'une vallée perdue et inviolée. En lisant ce roman vous aurez peut-être comme moi, le souffle coupé.

Williams reaches effortlessly into all our souls and illuminates unvoiced inner tensions and sublimities

An interesting book, I recommend it

Great book. Charles Bukowski describes hes life with a tune of sadness and glory. Like putting on slippers in the morning