The Butcher Boy: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Sad but honest take of a murderous Irish boy
Review: I saw Neil Jordan's screen adaption before reading the novel, but I must say that as good as the film is it doesn't compare to the quick wit and sharp words of the book. Francie Brady is a lad who very well could have grown up in the pop-culture, ultra-violence era that is today. As it is, he is a confused and lonely boy who places all his agression on one family. The family he could never be a part of. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: A haunting story
Review: Never have I been so touched and haunted by a character. Days after I finished the book I would find myself thinking of poor Francie and the emotional pain that drove him to madness. The final paragraph moved me to tears.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Study of a Descent into Madness
Review: I had to submit a review so that others coming here won't be put off by the two previous reviewers who clearly should stick to Jeffrey Archer novels. The Butcher Boy is as brilliant a study of the descent into madness as I have ever read. Is it dark? Is it difficult? Of course it is. If you can't handle that then stick to watching "Friends"!

Rating:
Summary: A thorough disappoinment
Review: As an avid reader of Irish literature, I had high expectations for Patrick McCabe's novel "The Butcher Boy", but I was sorely disappointed. Honestly, I can't understand how reading this repetitive drivel about an eleven-year-old sociopath could possibly appeal to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: One star is too generous
Review: I really don't understand what all the fuss was about over this book. Yes, the first forty pages or so are fairly entertaining with their childish humour, but after that, it was just one mind-numbing, expletive-filled page after another. Unfortunately, I had to read the entire thing for an English class; otherwise, it would have become firewood a heck of a lot sooner.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest books written by an Irishman
Review: I liked the Butcher Boy because it really shows how a little kid can go bad. In the beginning the author made it sound like he was an verage kid, making bad decisions and so on. But slowly you began to realize what an evil intent this kid has. The end is pretty amazing but I don't want to spoil it for further buyers. A note on the author he lives in Sligo and is going to be at Elliott Bay Bookshop in Seattle tonight.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest Irish novel I've ever read...
Review: It's incredibly hard to put down into words the effect this particular novel had on me at the time I read it earlier this year ('98). Francie Brady is one of those characters in world literature along with the likes of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman who allow you into their seemingly perfectly logical world and then hit you over the head with a large mallet!!! Hypnotic is a word I rarely use about a book but this is one worthy of that sobriquet - through Pat McCabe's use of language and punctuation and through Francie's seemingly incessant stream of seemingly innocent chatter you find yourself all too easily finding the thread of logic in his unforgiveable actions... That's the real artistry here... It's an absolute must read if you like a good book.

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Summary: James Joyce meets Catcher in the Rye meets Ted Bundy
Review: The hard-to-read style of this book could be an attempt to copy James Joyce, I don't know. I'd like a translation into readable English though :) McCabe is no James Joyce, sorry. But his totally degenerate modern mind, filled with tons of trivial facts about modern culture, is worth the price of the book, yes. The TV movie about Ted Bundy starring Mindy's husband, whats-his-name, of Irish extraction, seems a more powerful psychological insight into a killer's mind than this, and I never quite believe the whole thing, or that there is any real Francie Brady. Still, it's the bargain of the month for people looking for reading thrills.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read.
Review: A light hearted (although at the same time dark) comedy/drama that's worth reading whenever you have time. You'll have to adjust to the author's way of performing run-on sentences. This tale of a mentally unstable Irish boy's humorous and scary life is entertaining, for the most part. Near the end you might sometimes ask, however, when the book will end. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Brilliant
Review: McCabe presents the long view of mental illness. People don't turn mad at any given moment. It is a long, painful process of slights, mistakes, assaults, and traumas which, when added together, can turn a young person into a psychotic madman. This book is riveting. I defy anyone to put it down.