Book Review: The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan

One of the things I noticed in the mid 90s was that there was always something out there trying to kill us. AIDS still ravaged people’s lives and bodies throughout the world, with plagues added to the less developed countries. Suddenly, there was a spike in flesh-eating bacteria. Then brain-eating amoebas happened. And if you lived across the pond, there was mad cow disease.

Ruth Gilligan’s The Butchers is set (mostly) in small northern (small “n”) Irish farming communities in 1996, as Irish farming goes from boom (as the alternative to tainted British beef) to bust (when corruption and greed brought the disease to Ireland). It examines not only the impact on those working amongst the farming community (and their families), but also among a group called the Butchers, a wandering troupe who slaughter cows according to ancient, pagan traditions.

Side note here: This book is so fully realized that you’ll find yourself Googling all kinds of people and things to see if they truly existed. On that note, I have no idea if the Butchers were a real group or not – the only links I could find were about this book itself. So it remains a mystery….

The story is framed by a contemporary account, as a photographer showcasing his mid 90s work in an exhibition just outside New York is confronted by a stranger over his most controversial piece: photo of a dead member of the Butchers hanging from a meat hook right after the troupe disbanded.

I don’t want to go too much deeper into the story – just suffice to say it’s gripping and suspenseful, with an impending sense of doom hovering over most of it. The only drawback for an American audience is that the book is by an Irish author about Ireland – some of the words and phrases may throw you, but it’s definitely worthwhile to push on.

Highly recommended read – eight out of ten hot dogs. PORK hot dogs!