Butcher's Crossing

Man sacrifices time, life and health for a job. Capitalism renders job redundant. Man sets fire to job.

Weirdly super-relevant reading for this moment in history.

Majestic.

If my bildungsroman had a body count like that (man and buffalo), I just wouldn't be riding off into the sunset that peacefully.

It starts slow in the first 100 pages, but once they hunt and the connection to Francine becomes more interesting, it becomes more readable. The murder of the buffalo is one of the grossest and most well-executed sequences ever. I never really get grossest out, but I found myself looking away from the book at times. The second act is astounding, but the third act is real bad in my opinion. The 6 months or so when they were snowed in was way too rushed. It was a huge part of the narrative, yet it takes 3 pages. The ending was poorly written even though I liked how it worked thematically. I like the idea of the train making the town tired, but the writing was poor.
7/10