Butcher's Crossing

I really love everything I've read of John Williams. Such a simple story, simply told. But beautifully written. The adult version of a Jack London book or something like that. Captures the human condition and human history in such a small story about hunting buffalo.

Absolutely amazing would give 10 stars if I could

It starts slow in the first 100 pages, but once they hunt and the connection to Francine becomes more interesting, it becomes more readable. The murder of the buffalo is one of the grossest and most well-executed sequences ever. I never really get grossest out, but I found myself looking away from the book at times. The second act is astounding, but the third act is real bad in my opinion. The 6 months or so when they were snowed in was way too rushed. It was a huge part of the narrative, yet it takes 3 pages. The ending was poorly written even though I liked how it worked thematically. I like the idea of the train making the town tired, but the writing was poor.
7/10

If my bildungsroman had a body count like that (man and buffalo), I just wouldn't be riding off into the sunset that peacefully.

Majestic.

Supongo que alguien tenia que responder a la pregunta de si se puede escribir un bildungsroman usando elementos de western.

Lo mas increible del libro es que mezcla paisajes descritos a groso modo con acciones descritas en lo mas pequeños de los detalles. Es algo que no deberia funcionar, pero funciona.

Cuando cambias de un detalle minusculo al paisaje, la sensacion es parecida a lo que me imagino que se siente con la agorafobia. La grandiosidad del lugar te abofetea.

Man sacrifices time, life and health for a job. Capitalism renders job redundant. Man sets fire to job.

Weirdly super-relevant reading for this moment in history.

A full-spirited western story. Plenty of surprising twists and turns, grueling survival, beautiful landscapes and brutal slaughter of buffalos. A lot to digest in this novel, but it's all written well. The whole process of killing the buffalos for their hides is interesting, even if it's unpleasant.