Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45032 in Books
• Published on: 1993-03-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"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.

Customer Reviews

The Modern Gothic in full flow
After reading McCabe's Modern Gothic classic 'The Dead School' for my A-level English Literature course, I was inspired to search out his other works. I have just finished reading 'The Butcher Boy' and don't quite know how to react! I can only describe the style of narrative as a kind of 'fragmented stream-of-consciousness' - the narrator is a disenfranchised boy, Francie, living in late-1950s Ireland who loses his mother and father to suicide and drink respectively and subsequently becomes violently obsessed with well-brought-up schoolboy Philip Nugent, whose own family is in many ways the antithesis of Francie's.
Packed full of bizarre characters such as the paedophilic priest, 'Tiddly', who Francie exploits whilst having a spell in approved school (for defecating on Mrs Nugent's carpet no less!) and Francie's Uncle Alo, with his unrequited love for Francie's mother making him just one example of the sad and deluded lives contained within the book. The tale has enough of the gothic within it to remind me of 'The Wasp Factory', whose narrator leads a similarly confused existence, however the end is far more cruel and will surely have you feeling pity for Francie, no matter how monstrous he has become.

brilliant
McCabe shows us francie's life exclusively through Francie's eyes. As we go through life with him it becomes impossible for us not to feel the pain he feels. When he commits the final murderous act on the woman whose son he has always wanted to be, yet who at the same time he has always seen as being the source of his misery, it seems inevitable and almost comes as a relief. the constant pain and lonliness that the character feels and the extremes he will go to to seek out love make him seem heartbreakingly fragile and vulnerable.McCabe's depiction of Francie's slow but undeniable descent into insanity is seamless. There are no gimmicks and no false attempts to shock, every word in the book is true to the characters and to the situations. This book left me thinking two things: 1. i would love to ask the author what the inspiration for his book was and; 2. i wonder how many people who as adults seem monstrous would seem that way if we could see life through their eyes.

You just have to know what happens to Francie Brady!
This is a creepy, yet funny novel of a boy who has a tragic life. It keeps you reading right until the last page to know what happens to the young lad in the novel. Patrick McCabe clearly has a winner with this book. It is a novel about the terrible life of a child and how his life effected him. After his mother's death/suicide which he blames himself for he becomes consumed by these thoughts. He has no where to turn so he turns to a life of crime. Francie is a horrible child but somehow McCabe makes you feel sorry for the child, you are compelled by his story, his life. The book is a gruesome, depressing, sad story, yet it is filled with humor and compassion. The best part is when Francie can finally come to terms with what he has done and what has happened to him, when he finally finds his peace!