The Butcher Boy
by Andrew McCabe
Nomination: Booker Finalist 1992
Date Read: March 31, 2022
The Butcher Boy follows Francis Brady’s descent into madness. And it’s not hard to see why. With a family situation that is just one step above horrific, Francis has no parental guidance, sense of home or safety. Mary, his mother, is teetering on the edge of sanity herself and ends up taking her own life. His father, Benny, hasn’t seen a sober day in Francis’ entire life. And his father treats his mother like utter shite. A recipe for disaster. But it leaves readers to wonder if even his home situation were more stable, would his family history of mental illness present as drastically.
Joe is the only friend Francis really has. When the Nugent family moves into town, Francis immediately becomes wary of Philipp, who Francis feels is trying to steal Joe’s friendship. One day Francis breaks into the Nugent house, writes on the walls and poops on their floor, all in a psychotic episode of him opening his own Pig School. Really, though, Francis’ jealousy of the tidiness and coziness of the Nugent home is palpable. He has never experienced anything so normal or welcoming. And this triggers in him a desire to destroy that which he doesn’t have, nor will ever have.
While he’s away, he obsesses over Joe’s letters and the blossoming friendship between Joe and Philipp, particularly a goldfish that Philipp wins and gives to Joe. Later in the book when he’s muttering about this damned goldfish – what seems a non-sequitur at the carnival and to Philipp himself – you can imagine the mentally ill people walking down the street talking to themselves about subjects that are so bizarre but you can understand how they make sense in their own minds. I really appreciated this and it gave me new compassion for the severely mentally ill.
After his time at the boy’s reform school, and a brief period of being Father Tilly’s sexual play-thing, Francis is released only to have his father die on him. This poor kid is getting every horror visited upon him. Unable to cope with this additional loss, he keeps his father with him, talking to him, supporting him by working at Leddy’s slaughterhouse, and buying lots and lots of flypaper. When it’s eventually discovered Francis has been living with a corpse, he is sent to a mental institution where he descends even further into the recesses of his own mind.
Upon that final release, Francis tracks down Joe to the private high school he is attending with Philipp and this is the last straw. He blames Mrs. Nugent for this latest betrayal and does the unthinkable. He breaks into her house and kills her, throwing her corpse into the offal pit at Leddy’s.
McCabe captures the mind of madness so brilliantly, you almost have to wonder. Yet, he instills in the reader a compassion for that madness and the perfect storm that can foster such a descent. Brilliant work.
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