Butcher

A Novel

De: Joyce Carol Oates

Narrado por: Amy Shiels, Edoardo Ballerini, Cassandra Campbell, Robert Fass, Tavia Gilbert, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Danny Campbell, Max Meyers

From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a women’s asylum in the nineteenth century, and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world

In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state—women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir’s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir’s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.

Narrated by Silas Weir’s eldest son, who has repudiated his father’s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.

©2024 Joyce Carol Oates (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Butcher, by Joyce Carol Oates: A ghastly and harrowing page-turner based on facts. That a large part is set in the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics should tell you all you need to know. Faint of heart? Stay away.”—Stephen King via Twitter

“[Butcher] has the feverish energy, narrative propulsion and descriptive amplitude of much of [Oates’s] earlier work. . . . Oates, as is her wont, succeeds in creating a world that is apart from our own yet familiar, making it impossible to dismiss her observations about twisted natures and random acts of violence. . . . We have become so used to the notion of the recognizable auteur blazing through the artifice of fiction and calling attention to his or her self that Oates’s approach feels like a singularly uncommon one. Long may she run.”—Daphne Merkin, The New York Times Book Review

“Gripping. . . . Bravura storytelling, if not for the faint of heart.”—Vogue, “The Best Books of 2024 So Far”

Narrators were awesome.

The story is absolutely amazing. The author did a great job transporting the reader to the 1800's. Truly incredible

butcher review

kept me engaged...ending left me hanging. wondered at ti.es if it was true or based on a true story or true people.

all star cast of narrators!

excellent narratoring of the story loosely based on the real life Dr of women's health.

Great story and relevant historical fiction

Very engaging. Gruesome but good to hear a point of view not represented in normal history telling

Wow! What a book!

I was a tad hesitant because the book sounded dark. But it turned out to be easy to read because of how sensitively and effectively the topic was handled. Incredible character study. Very engaging. Extremely unique novel. Every variation of "very" can be used. This book really left an impression on me.

Difficult and important

BUTCHER, in all its gruesome detail, is difficult to digest. I’ve read a lot of reviews judging Dr Silas Weir from twenty-first century knowledge and values which in my opinion is grossly unfair to this and all historical fiction.

I interned at a state psychiatric facility that has been around for over one hundred years so I know about the history of psychiatry, which the fictional Dr Weir refers to a gyno-psychiatry with his female patients at the lunatic asylum he oversees.

Medicine, like any science, is proven through research that can be proven and replicated. Unfortunately, medicine and medical procedures need to be tested on humans. In the 19th century, many people relied on a patriarchal interpretation of the bible including a vengeful god and spare the rod and spoil the indentured servant. Illness was often attributed to inferiority and unworthiness.,

Dr Weir’s narcissistic behavior is based on his insecurity which arose from being seen as inferior to his older brothers by his father. He longed for the recognition he believed was denied to him as a child. His journals show delusions of grandeur that seemed to be more aspirational than what he truly believed. Still, his arrogance and his intolerance of opinions he saw as inferior to his brilliance make Weir an unlikable character.

The hospital where I interned once performed lobotomies, including two women on the ward I worked with visible scars from these well-intentioned procedures. I truly believe that most doctors believed their unproven methods might work. Putting myself in their shoes, I can see why the theory of moving the supposed ill part of the brain could be helpful. I can see why doctors tried different methods on different parts of the brain though after nearly all patients either died or were permanently incapacitated, the practice should have ended within a year or two, not decades.

Dr Weir’s intentions, I believe, started off pure, wanting to help patients, even if his true goal was the acclaim from developing curative procedures. The more praise he received, the more he feared making mistakes and having his reputation revoked and his work became less about helping patients and more about his reputation and feeding his ego. At one point, his female nurse found an issue he had missed. Weir mused that if only she wasn’t female and of inferior intelligence, she could study medicine. That thought wasn’t uncommon for the era. A more secure doctor would have praised his underling and perhaps realized women could have equal (or better) intelligence and reasoning. If he were less insecure he would have been a better doctor.

If you can read this book through the lens of the mid nineteenth century, you’ll see the story differently than viewing it from today. Looking back, no one can deny treatments were often brutal or that women bore the preponderance of the burden of these experimentations. No one can deny the unfairness of the paternalistic society where fathers and husband could commit their daughters and wives to asylums for disobedience. In my opinion, that’s not the point of BUTCHER. The purpose of Joyce Carole Oates’s novel is to shed light on real practices of one fictionalized doctor. The actual doctor on which Oates based the story experimented on slaves. A white woman using slaves as patients would have added a racial component to the story that should be told by a Black writer. The events depicted in BUTCHER happened to women of all races and economic brackets and to men to a lesser extent. Rosemary Kennedy was probably the most famous lobotomy patient (though this book wasn’t about lobotomy but fistulae).

Maybe Her Best

This is likely Joyce Carol Oates’s bass novel to date. The way she is able to capture the voice, tone, and mood of a 19th century surgeon was spectacular. Clearly, the diction is reflective of a 19th century author. The reason I gave this novel four stars instead of five stars in the story category is because I feel like the story and characters or let’s say the plot and characters could’ve been developed more to the end of the story. I feel as though she may have gotten tired of writing the story and ended it without developing it. However, this has been the case with many of her novels, so it may just be a stylistic of her writing rather than lack of development of the characters. Over all, if you like Gothic literature, then I’m highly recommended.

The appalling treatment of womenHow

How horrid the laws were towards women the what was deemed "mental illness" and "female lunatics". It was hard to stick with it to find out what happens to the characters.

Historia novelada

A good book with parts of history and parts of invention. If one's put in 1850 we understand todays medicine

The immense arrogance and ego of the antagonist and how his attitude and views were not only accepted for the time period.

I liked the different narrators. That is not always successful, but in this case it was.