The Butcher's Wife

By Li Ang

Book Overview

Chen Jiangshui is a pig-butcher in a small coastal Taiwanese town. Stocky, with a paunch and deep-set beady eyes, he resembles a pig himself. His brutality towards his new young wife, Lin Shi, knows... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 086547253X
• ISBN13: 9780865472532
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: North Point Pr
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

well written

This story was well written but the characters were so morbid and unusual that it left me feeling disturbed after I finished the book. You can't help but analyze and wonder about the characters and what they could have done differently and why they behaved they way they did. It also gives you a good look at Taiwanese superstitions, village culture, stereotypes, and characteristics of the time period. It's a very interesting and strange story.

Cruel!

I felt terrible for Lin Shi, a young Taiwanese girl in this book, when I read it. I felt terrible that anyone would have to live a life like this. I cannot imagine having an arranged marriage, let alone an arranged marriage from someone who didn't care about me. She is forced to marry a pig butcher and the abuse he puts her through is terrible. She is a vegetarian and I thought that played a big part in the story. He treats her terribly and makes her do things she doesn't want to, and she is driven to madness and finally murders her husband. The reality of the cruelty in this book will just send shivers up your back.