Butcher´s Crossing
written by John Williams
www.ink2quill.com

“Butcher´s Crossing” is an American western novel written by John Williams and takes place in the 1870s at Butcher´s Crossing, Kansas. It was first published in the 1960s and deals with buffalo hunting in the 1870s and the whole economy around it. This is a beautifully written tale of a young man from Boston, MA looking for adventure and his place in the world. It´s also the story of people following a dream and what they are left with when their dreams are taken from them.

“Butcher´s Crossing” takes place in the Kansas of the 1870s with the main character, William Andrews who is looking to go on a buffalo hunt in spite of being offered a job with a J.D. McDonald, a local hide trader who knew Will´s father. He is steered to Miller, an experienced tracker and hunter who claims to know of a valley with a large buffalo herd. With financing from Will a small team of 4 set out to Colorado to find the herd Miller spoke of and saw 10 years earlier. Miller is the head of the expedition with Charley Hoge pulling the ox-wagon of supplies, Fred Schneider as the skinner and Will who is financing the journey and helping Fred and Miller.

What I really liked about the character of Will Andrews was how focused he was on what he wanted and how he wasn´t dragged into other people´s fantasies and life goals. When J.D. McDonald offers him he job he turns it down in spite of J.D.´s persistence, and when Miller tells him of the buffalo herd he agrees to go along because that is what he wanted from the very beginning. Also when Francine tries to seduce him for one reason or Another he rejects her at first then leaves her the second time they are together. He really is a character finding his own path in life.

Another thing I liked about Will, Francine, Miller, Hoge and J.D. was that they were basically stand up people, cranky (as in the case of J.D.) and ambitious but stand up people. This isn´t a story of crime in the wild west. The characters aren´t robbing banks or each other. They´re scraping by but making an honest living and they have a more or less good relationship with the community they live in.

I´ve read some bloggers talk about the parallels with Herman Melville´s, “Moby Dick” and I can see that but it isn´t as extreme. I would say that the characters all have their goals and ambitions but in the end it is not these goals that cause a disintegration of their town and the drastic changes in their lives, it´s the changing economic times. The expedition did take huge risks, but they almost made their goal too. It was an early snow storm that kept them away from a huge payoff.

To be honest, I see a little Hemingway, Melville and Emerson in this tale. Its themes of mentorship, adventure seeking, self discovery and the recognition of loss to forces larger than the characters, be they nature or changing economic times, are themes that work well with all these authors.

This is a beautifully written book with a good description of the European American buffalo hunt (that led to a near extinction of the animals and ruin for the Native American economy). I highly recommend this book. This is a very good read.

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