Butcher Boy [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

"I was thinking how right ma was--Mrs Nugent all smiles when she met us and how are you getting on Mrs and young Francis are you both well?...what she was really saying was: Ah hello Mrs Pig how are you and look Philip do you see what's coming now--The Pig Family!"

This is a precisely crafted, often lyrical, portrait of the descent into madness of a young killer in small-town Ireland. Short-listed for the Booker Prize.

"I was thinking how right ma was -- Mrs. Nugent all smiles when she met us and how are you getting on Mrs and young Francis are you both well? . . .what she was really saying was: Ah hello Mrs Pig how are you and look Philip do you see what's coming now -- The Pig Family!"

This is a precisely crafted, often lyrical, portrait of the descent into madness of a young killer in small-town Ireland. "Imagine Huck Finn crossed with Charlie Starkweather," said The Washington Post. Short-listed for the Bram Stoker Award and England's prestigious Booker Prize. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

The Irish McCabe's third novel--and American debut--is a journey into the heart of darkness: the mind of a desperately troubled kid one step away from madness and murder. Francie Brady is a schoolboy in a small town in Ireland. His father is a mean drunk and his mother a slovenly housekeeper, but Francie has a good buddy, Joe Purcell, and their Tom-and-Huck friendship is what sustains him. Then a seemingly trivial incident alters the landscape: Francie and Joe con the very proper Philip Nugent out of his prize collection of comic books, and Philip's mother calls the Bradys ``pigs.'' Henceforth, Francie will blame all his troubles on Mrs. Nugent; it doesn't help that the Nugent household is a cozy haven, maddeningly out of his reach. Matters get rapidly worse. His mother enters a mental hospital. Francie runs away to Dublin; he returns to find that his ma, whom he had promised never to let down, has drowned herself. He breaks into the Nugents' house, defecates on the carpet, is sent to reform school, and (the unkindest cut) loses Joe to Philip Nugent. Francie tells us all of this in a voice that is the novel's greatest triumph--a minimally punctuated but always intelligible flow of razor-sharp impressions, name-calling, self-loathing, pop-culture detritus culled from comic books and John Wayne movies (the time is 1962), all delivered with the assurance of a stand-up comic. Snaking through Francie's story is his longing for childhood innocence, now lost forever, and just an inkling of the gathering mental darkness that will make the gruesome climax inevitable. On a foundation laid by Salinger and Sillitoe, McCabe has created something all his own--an uncompromisingly bleak vision of a child who retains the pathos of a grubby urchin even as he evolves into a monster. His novel is a tour de force. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Readers of this novel will recall its hero, Francie Brady, whenever they hear the well-known eponymous Irish song. Both book and song are very sad. At the center of this tale is Francie, the "pig boy," who grew up in a poor small town in rural Ireland 30-odd years ago. A combination of factors, including an alcoholic father, a suicidal mother, and profound jealousy, make him an outcast. Eventually, he becomes totally unhinged. Though the subject does not recall the works of John McGahern, another Irish writer who sees the dark side of the Irish, McCabe treats us to lyrical prose. Like McGahern, he has a good ear for the rural Irish dialog. The characters talk their way into your memory. This work is recommended with reservations; it's a bit gruesome.
- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Patrick McCabe hat eine beklemmende Geschichte von Leid und Schrecken geschrieben. Er hat eine zerissene Welt voller Verachtung und Angst, voller Ignoranz und Gewalt geschaffen. Aus der angsteinflößenden Perspektive des Mörders Francie Brady, eines verwahrlosten, zornigen jungen Burschen, wird das ganze Gewaltpotential kleinstädtischen Lebens ausgebreitet. McCabe erzählt diese Geschichte mit waghalsiger Aggressivität und in einer derben, gewöhnlichen Sprache, die unterhält und verstört.

Set in Ireland, this book tells the story of teenage hero Francie Brady. Things begin to fall apart after his mother's suicide - when he is consumed with fury and commits a horrible crime. Committed to an asylum, it is only here that he finally achieves peace. Shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize.

Patrick McCabe wurde 1955 in Irland geboren. Er lebt mit seiner Frau und seinen zwei Töchtern in Sligo. Seine Bücher wurden bereits mehrfach für den Booker Prize nominiert und zwei seiner Romane erfolgreich von Neil Jordan verfilmt: Er erhielt 2007 die Auszeichnung Irish Novel of the Year.