Butcher - by Joyce Carol Oates (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a women's asylum in the 19th 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In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr.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, "The Father of Gyno-Psychiatry," as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a disastrous procedure, 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 19th-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

"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. . . . Oates empathetically ranges among her characters and doesn't veil any of the gruesomeness of her story, but rather describes [the surgical] experiments with matter of fact evenness, heightening the horror. Bravura storytelling."
--Vogue, "The Best Books of 2024"

"This well-researched historical tale of medical experiments gone haywire looks to be a perfect match with Joyce Carol Oates' visceral style and violent explorations of American sins. . . . Butcher is JCO at her best, and an essential text for understanding America's long war on women."
--CrimeReads, "The Best Historical Fiction of 2024"

"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 for Literature. 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.