"Butcher’s Crossing" by John Williams: Book Summary

Written by the author of Stoner,John Williams, Butcher’s Crossing is a western novel. It follows the journey of Will Andrews,a Havard dropout who heads west to explore the country.

He arrives at a small town named Butcher’s Crossing in Kansas. Most of the men in the town are hunters who work for a man named Macdonald. Andrews meets Macdonald, who offers him a job, which he rejects, and asks him to name a hunter with whom he could talk. "You talk to Miller," said Macdonald.

Miller is an experienced hunter who is quite familiar with the country. He persuades Andrews to go on a buffalo hunting expedition towards the mountains by the Colorado River, where he had seen thousands of buffalo years ago.

They set off from Butcher’s Crossing along with Charley Hodge,Miller's friend, and Fred Schnieder,the skinner. The journey turns out to be gruesome, in which they face the heat of the sun and thirst as the trail lagged sources of water.

They finally reach the mountain valley and set camp. After killing most of the buffalo and skinning as much as they could load on the wagon, they decide to return, but the journey is met with an unfortunate accident.

When they finally arrive at Butcher’s Crossing,the town seems to have changed, and they come to know that the hides are not worth what they used to be, rendering the expedition useless.

The journey and incidents leave a deep impact on Andrews, who now has to decide whether he should return to Boston or go further west.