The BUTCHER BOY

From Library Journal Young Francie Brady's father is a bitter alcoholic; her mentally ill mother, who spends hours staring at the ashes in the fireplace, eventually commits suicide. When Francie is sent to a reform school, he is molested by a priest. Then Francie murders a local woman with a pistol. Collectively, the events in this novel are sad and horrific. However, in author McCabe's deft use of Irish vernacular and incidental humor, Francie comes off as innocent as Huck Finn and just as funny. The Butcher Boy is a phenomenal novel; it is much less pretentious and better written than the book that everyone was talking about in 1993: E. Annie Proulx's multiple-award-winning The Shipping News. This abridged recording flatters the text; although the standard abridgment process calls for eliminating broad passages from the original, here the editor seems to have excised a sentence here, a sentence there. The result is a seamless narrative flow. McCabe reads his own material flawlessly. You won't want to miss this audiobook. Highly recommended for public libraries.Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product Description Telling the strange, sometimes hilarious tale of a deeply disturbed boy, a portrait of a dangerous mind profiles Francie, known in his repressive Irish town as the "Pig Boy," as his bright and love-starved psyche descends into madness. Read by Patrick McCabe. Book available.