Butcher - by Joyce Carol Oates (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In the 1840s, a young man named Silas Weir begins practicing medicine in Pennsylvania. Though he is considered inept by family, neighbors, and even his mentor, Dr. Weir discovers he has a gift for phlebotomy, treating patients by bleeding them to purify their bodies. But when an experimental procedure goes horribly wrong, Dr. Weir is forced to start over, relocating his family to Trenton, New Jersey, and taking a position at the New Jersey State Asylum for Female Lunatics. There, in the hopes of proving his detractors wrong, Dr. Weir continues practicing dangerous procedures, and soon becomes infatuated with Brigit - a pregnant woman he treats - whom he tries to take her under his wing as an apprentice. As Dr. Weir's experiments grow more intense - and as he isolates himself from his family and the world beyond the facility - he grows obsessed with Brigit and the other residents who remain at his mercy, and before long, establishes himself as "the father of gyno-psychiatry.""--

Book Synopsis

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In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr.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.

Review Quotes

"Oates' daring tale of grotesque medical experiments and other injustices is unnerving, illuminating, suspenseful, mythic, and, thankfully, tempered by transcendence and love."
--Booklist, starred

"A creepy, circuitous tale--one based on actual history . . . Vintage Oates: splendidly written, and a useful warning to choose your doctors wisely."
--Kirkus

"Deliciously arch . . . Oates's scathing indictment of the physical and psychological treatment of women by the medical establishment makes for compulsive but challenging reading. Unlike the ghastly procedures depicted, Oates's inventive gothic novel pays off."
--Publishers Weekly

"[Oates] takes this very real nightmare of [the 'father of gyno-psychiatry'] and knits together a story about a young Irish servant who becomes Weir's 'subject, ' but also the object of his downfall. Sounds like the perfect American novel, delving deep into the horrors of invention."
--Lit Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2024"

About the Author

JOYCE CAROL OATES is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Prix Femina, and the Cino Del Duca World Prize. She has been nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national best sellers We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, and the New York Times best seller The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Emerita at Princeton University and has been a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.