具体描述
In his National Book Award winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher's Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.
It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek ''an original relation to nature,'' drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. Butcher's Crossing is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisiacal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher's Crossing to find a world as irremediably changed as they have been.
作者简介
JOHN WILLIAMS (1922-1994) was born in Texas. The poet and novelist taught at and received his PhD from the University of Missouri in the early 1950s. In 1955 he became the director of the University of Denver's creative writing program, where he became the editor of the University of Denver Quarterly. He remained at Denver until his retirement in 1986. He was a co-winner of the 1973 National Book Award for Fiction for the novel Augustus, and he is the author of the highly acclaimed novel Stoner.
目录信息
读后感
在谈论以品钦、德里罗为代表的当代作家作品时，文学评论家詹姆斯•伍德使用了“歇斯底里现实主义”的断语。他认为，现代派小说无论从结构还是篇幅都称得上是“巨无霸”。作家们雄心勃勃，一方面沿袭狄更斯以来严整的叙事体系，一方面穷尽后现代把戏颠覆前人，洋洋洒洒近千页...
如果把《屠夫十字镇》当西部小说看，但里面没有英雄，个人主义的光辉在几个人物身上显得孱弱，对这一类型构成了温和的反讽。年轻人安德鲁斯来到屠夫十字镇，出资与人外出捕猎而因大雪受困山谷，熬过一整个冬天后，回来后发现集镇突然衰败。 将近一年的时光里，超验主义引导下回...
终于在国庆期间读完了《屠夫十字镇》。 跟上一本看作者另一部小说《斯通纳》一样简单的剧情。“寻找自我”的主人公安德鲁斯从哈佛辍学，想远离父辈和社会的枷锁来到西部兜一下风。他来到屠夫镇，遇到了想着征服自然的米勒和相信上帝的查理，带上现实派的是施内德，开始他们屠...
用户评价
我必须承认，这本书的阅读体验是相当“考验人”的，它不迎合任何轻松的阅读偏好。它拒绝给出简单的答案或廉价的慰藉，相反，它将人性的灰色地带剖开，摊在你面前审视。那些人物的道德抉择，常常让人在心里冒出强烈的、想替他们做决定的冲动，但作者却不动声色地将选择的重担推回了读者自己身上。这种间接的参与感，比直接的道德说教要高明得多。整部作品散发着一种古老而永恒的悲剧美学，它探讨的不是某一个时代的特定冲突，而是人类在任何充满不确定性的环境中，所必须面对的自我认知与外界压力的永恒对话。读完后，我感觉自己像是经历了一场漫长而艰苦的朝圣，虽然疲惫，但心灵深处却被一种难以言喻的、肃穆的宁静所充盈。
从文学技巧上讲，这部作品的结构处理简直是一场教科书级别的展示。它看似松散，但实际上，所有的线索都以一种近乎完美的几何学方式相互连接。很多时候，你以为自己正在跟随某一条分支情节前进，但回头看时，才赫然发现那条分支早已通过某种隐晦的比喻或重复出现的意象，将你带回了故事的核心母题之中。作者非常擅长使用对比：光明与阴影、承诺与背叛、秩序与混乱，这些对立面不是简单地放在一起，而是交织、渗透，互相定义。阅读体验是渐进式的，需要读者投入极大的耐心和专注力去捕捉那些细微的、转瞬即逝的暗示。这是一本需要被“解码”的书，而不是一本被动接受故事的书，每一次重读都会带来全新的领悟层次。
这本书最让我震撼的地方，在于它对“劳作”本身的致敬与解构。我们很少看到文学作品如此不加修饰地描绘体力劳动带来的疼痛、麻木，以及随之而来的某种近乎宗教般的专注。那种对细节的执着，对工具的描绘，仿佛作者本人也曾在那片土地上挥洒过汗水。这不是在歌颂艰苦，而是在呈现“过程即意义”这一哲学命题。你仿佛能闻到皮革的鞣制味，听到斧头砍入木头的沉闷回响，感受到日晒雨淋在皮肤上留下的刻痕。这种感官上的强烈代入，使得那些宏大叙事显得空洞无力，剩下的只有脚踏实地的、无可辩驳的“在场感”。这种对日常艰辛的细致刻画，让整部作品拥有了一种坚实的重量，绝非一时的情绪宣泄，而是对时间与毅力的深刻沉淀。
说实话，这本书的节奏掌握得非常精妙，它不是那种一页一页催着你往前赶的叙事，更像是一场精心设计的、缓慢升高的潮水。你会感觉到某种不祥的预感在文字的缝隙中慢慢积累，直到某个瞬间，所有的隐喻和铺垫猛然坍塌，露出背后血淋淋的现实。我常常需要在读完一章后停下来，不仅仅是为了喘口气，更是为了消化那些潜藏在平淡对话和日常劳作之下的张力。人物的塑造极其立体，他们不像纸片人，没有清晰的善恶标签，每个人都在自己狭隘的道德光谱中努力保持平衡，而这种努力本身，就构成了最动人的悲剧。特别是对于权力和秩序在边疆地带如何微妙地重塑和瓦解的过程，作者的洞察力令人惊叹，它揭示了文明的边界，往往比我们想象的要脆弱得多，只需要一根看不见的细线，就能让一切回归到野蛮的初始状态。
这本关于“屠夫镇”的小说，初读时我就被那种弥漫在空气中的、难以言喻的沉重感给攫住了。它不是那种一目了然的英雄史诗，更像是从尘封的档案中小心翼翼抽出的泛黄手稿，每一个字都带着岁月的锈迹和某种难以摆脱的宿命感。作者对环境的描摹，精准得近乎残忍，那种广袤无垠的西部荒野，不再是浪漫的背景板，而是一个活生生的、呼吸着冷空气、布满荆棘的巨大生命体。角色们的挣扎，不是为了追逐什么宏大的目标，而是为了在那种原始的、几乎没有任何温情的自然法则下，仅仅是“存在”下去。我尤其欣赏叙事者那种疏离而冷静的笔调，他像一个站在高处的观察者，记录下人类在面对巨大、不可抗拒的力量时，那种既渺小又顽固的挣扎。读完合上书本，空气似乎都变得稀薄了些，留下的不是故事的起承转合，而是一种深入骨髓的、对生存本质的深刻反思。那种冷冽的真实感，让人久久无法从那种世界观中抽离出来。
我实在太喜欢Williams的文笔了，exquisite, 简直我的终极美学目标。完美的小说。
The bulk of description wore me out, and I just wanted to be done with it. (Oh and I kept thinking of movies like Bounty Hunters and the Hateful Eight while I was reading.) I like Williams the most when he gets into inner workings of his characters; the ending and the opening are really good.
Too much wordy description while the characters’ emotions remain flat and restrained. Honestly speaking I didn’t enjoy reading the book and just don’t like this “academic” style of fiction writing which has literally worn me out.
The bulk of description wore me out, and I just wanted to be done with it. (Oh and I kept thinking of movies like Bounty Hunters and the Hateful Eight while I was reading.) I like Williams the most when he gets into inner workings of his characters; the ending and the opening are really good.
我实在太喜欢Williams的文笔了，exquisite, 简直我的终极美学目标。完美的小说。
