3.5
Butcher
By Joyce Carol OatesPublisher Description
From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a women’s asylum in the nineteenth century, and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world
In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state—women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir’s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir’s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.
Narrated by Silas Weir’s eldest son, who has repudiated his father’s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.
In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state—women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir’s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir’s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.
Narrated by Silas Weir’s eldest son, who has repudiated his father’s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities17 Reviews
3.5
Gin
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“‘Arrangements were made. Arrangements between men. There are none other except arrangements between men.’ I loved Oates’ approach to this novel, blending Weir’s hagiographic memoir with the fragments of other characters’ testimony. Silas Weir’s characterisation was a great choice, straddling the line between being comically dense before being hit with the full force of his violent and destructive misogyny. This is a dark, and at times nearly unbearably grim, read, but one well told through Oates’ wit and humour.”
Tasha
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SuspensefulTwistyUnpredictable
Elvira QC
Created 21 days agoShare
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Soph💚
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Kristin Erhardt
Created about 1 month agoShare
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“This one was really difficult for me to finish. It made me roll my eyes constantly. The misogyny kills me and even worse the ignorance and arrogance made me want to rage. Even in the end when the woman get thier revenge I just thought "but what makes you any better now that you've done the same"!? It is understandable and obviously lesson learned;I appreciate that he never touched another patient in an experimental way, but lordy. As a woman I get it, I have worked in construction my whole life. It still blows my mind that men still view woman as inferior. I cannot hardly wait till we can all be mindful, understanding, and accepting of our differences as male and female and celebrate our strengths as who we are. It's wild to think that what is described in this book was almost necessary to progress in the field of gynecology 😭🙈💀 I hated this book tho. I had to take breaks. It really brought the mood lower than low.”Reviewed in:Get In Loser We're Reading
Believable charactersCharacters change and growDiverse charactersMulti-layered charactersDescriptive writing
About Joyce Carol Oates
JOYCE CAROL OATES is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Prix Femina, and the Cino Del Duca World Prize. She has been nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national best sellers We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, and the New York Times best seller The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Emerita at Princeton University and has been a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
Other books by Joyce Carol Oates
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