The Butcher Boy
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| The Butcher Boy | |
| Author | Patrick McCabe |
|---|---|
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Picador Books |
| Publication date | April 1992 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 224 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-330-32358-X (first edition, hardback) |
| The Butcher Boy | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Neil Jordan |
| Produced by | Redmond Morris Stephen Woolley |
| Written by | Patrick McCabe (also novel) Neil Jordan |
| Starring | Eamonn Owens Stephen Rea Fiona Shaw Milo O'Shea Brendan Gleeson Sinéad O'Connor |
| Music by | Elliot Goldenthal Ken Hecht Ernie Maresca |
| Cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
| Editing by | Tony Lawson |
| Distributed by | Geffen Pictures Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | July 13, 1997 |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Butcher Boy (1992) is a novel by Patrick McCabe and a (1997) film directed by Neil Jordan. The novel is considered by many to be the author's magnum opus. It was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize and won the 1992 Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The Butcher Boy is set in a small town in Ireland in the mid part of the twentieth century. It tells the story of Francis 'Francie' Brady, a schoolboy who lives with his mother and alcoholic father. In the early part of the book it becomes apparent that Francie's mother is abused both verbally and physically by her belligerent husband, on a frequent basis. Francie's father, Benny, was raised in a tough religious school in Belfast, and it is suggested that this experience left him mentally traumatised. This mental trauma has left Benny bitter and angry, and he takes this anger out on his wife, his fury fuelled by alcohol. Francie's mother considers suicide and is committed for a time to a mental health facility.
[edit] The Nugents
Francie seems largely unaware of the trouble at home, and spends the early part of the book in the company of his best friend Joe Purcell, hiding out in a chicken-house and shouting abuse at the fish in the local stream. The two have something of an enemy in fellow schoolboy Phillip Nugent, a studious boy who has none of their streetwise nature.
The enmity that Francie feels towards Phillip in part stems from his dislike of Phillip's sanctimonious mother, Mrs. Nugent. Francie recalls vividly an episode that saw Mrs. Nugent hurl a torrent of verbal abuse at Francie's mother, claiming that the Brady family were 'a bunch of pigs.' Francie takes this exclamation to heart, and begins to molest the Nugents when they are walking through the town, denying them access through a certain street until they pay the fictional 'Pig Toll'. So begins an unhealthy obsession that underpins the rest of the novel.
[edit] Alo
Word comes that Francie's uncle Alo is coming to town. Alo Brady is something of a celebrity in the town - he left Ireland for London some years before, and the town celebrate his subsequent success with pride, claiming he has a team of ten men under him. A party is arranged and most of the town turns up. Alo arrives and sings with his guests late into the night, and Francie observes his uncle with admiration. Eventually the guests leave, and Benny, drunk as usual, launches a verbal assault at his brother, claiming he is a fake and a liar, to the protestation and horror of Francie's mother. Alo is totally dejected and leaves.
Francie is horrified at the treatment of Alo, and runs away from home. He spends some time thieving in Dublin, and when he returns he discovers his mother has committed suicide. His father Benny blames him for this. Again Francie's mind turns to the Nugents. He attempts to harm Phillip after luring him to the chickenhouse, but is stopped by Joe. Eventually he breaks into the Nugent's house when they are out and, in a surreal and disturbing piece of narrative, pretends to be a pig, defecating on the floor of the Nugent's house while engaging in a bizarre hallucinogenic episode. The Nugents interrupt him and the police are contacted.
[edit] Punishment
Francie is sent to an 'industrial school' run by priests. During the course of his internment he is sexually abused by one of the priests and befriended by a gardener who claims to have been an Old IRA member and close associate of Michael Collins. He claims to have forgotten all about the Nugents, and is determined to get back to town and resume his carefree friendship with Joe.
On release Francie heads back to town, fully expectant of a friendly welcome by Joe. However he finds it hard to get in touch with his mate, and when he does Joe seems different. When Francie is attacked by Mrs. Nugent's brother, Buttsy, and his friend Devlin, Joe disowns him.
[edit] Death of Benny
Francie gets a job in the local abattoir, impressing the owner with his ability to unflinchingly kill a piglet, and dedicates himself to this job, aiming to make his father proud. He has also begun drinking at weekends with the local drunk Sean Fleury, and he goes to clubs with the specific aim of getting into fights. After some months the police enter his home to discover ,that his father has been dead for a long time, and Francie is committed to a mental hospital, possibly the same one his mother had visited some time before.
After he is released, Francie discovers that Joe is attending boarding school in Bundoran in Donegal. He decides to go there, and en route he stops off at a boarding house where his father had said he and Francie's mother had spent their honeymoon in bliss. He interrogates the landlady, and she informs him that his father had treated his mother terribly for the duration of their honeymoon. Francie resumes his travels and comes upon Joe's school. He breaks in and, coming face to face with Joe, realises that this is not the same Joe he once knew. He also realises that Joe and Philip are now firm friends.
[edit] Murder
Francie returns home. He resumes his job at the butchers and one day, while on his rounds, he calls at the Nugents' house. Mrs. Nugent answers and Francie forces his way in. He attacks her and shoots her in the head with the butcher's bolt gun. He cuts her open and writes the word 'PIG' over the walls in an upstairs room with her blood. He puts her into the cart in which he transports the offal and meat-waste, covering her body with the detritus. He casually resumes his rounds and makes his way back to the abattoir, where he is apprehended by the police. He leads them on a wild goose chase for Mrs. Nugent's body, and escapes from them for a time, but he is recaptured and eventually imprisoned after revealing where her dismembered corpse is.
[edit] Style
The novel is written in an unusual style. This style is a hybrid of first-person narrative and stream of consciousness, with little punctuation and no separation of dialogue and thought. McCabe is inventive in his use of language, and the narrative is at times hilarious.
[edit] Film Adaptation
The book was turned into a film directed by Neil Jordan in 1997. It starred Stephen Rea and Fiona Shaw. The film was released on DVD on February 13, 2007.
The film won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Director - Neil Jordan at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998 and a Special Mention for Eamonn Owens' "astonishing lead". It also won the European Film Award for Best Cinematographer for Adrian Biddle.
This was the final film produced by Geffen Pictures, which distributed its films through Warner Bros. Pictures. Geffen Pictures would be sold to Universal Studios years later.
