‘To read without joy is stupid’

The title is a quotation by John Edward Williams, a US novellist I knew nothing about until a couple of days ago when Sue showed me his novel, Butcher’s Crossing, in Derby Waterstones. On the back it suggested that this was a book that influenced Cormac McCarthy, so as a fan of McCarthy I bought it and read it in just a few hours.

It is set in 1870s USA, specifically Kansas and Colorado, a decade or so after the war, in the last days when men could make money from buffalo hides. The story involves a young man who heads west to the small town with a pocketful of money, a bequest from an uncle, with a view of having some sort of adventure. He teams up with Miller, and they have an adventure, they go buffalo hunting.

The descriptions are vivid, whether of nearly dying of thirst crossing the plains, or the details of shooting and skinning buffalo. The book somehow manages to contain a wealth of interest in a very simple story. I thoroughly recommend it.

The genre is Western Realism, in a similar vein to McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (itself somewhat anti-Western, about a gang that goes around killing Indians). There are no shootouts, no one plays pokers or rustles cattle, there is just the realism of trying to survive in difficult circumstances, and the knowledge someone needs in order to do so.

Williams was from Texas, he served in the US army during the war, then ended up teaching English literature and creative writing. His other books include Stoner, a campus novel that I will be obtaining and reading soon, and Augustus, about Caesar Augustus. I hope to be discussing them soon. A biography of Williams, by Charles Shields was entitled ‘The Man who Wrote the Perfect Novel’. I have only read one of them so far, but the title does seem to be a fair description.