The Master Butchers Singing Club is a 2003 novel by Louise Erdrich. It follows the life of Fidelis Waldvogel and his family, as well as Delphine Watzka and her partner Cyprian, as they adjust in their separate lives in the small town of Argus, North Dakota. Bookended by World War I, which Fidelis and Cyprian fought in, and World War II, which Fidelis’ children fight in, the title contains several overarching themes including family, tradition, loss, betrayal, and memory, to name a few.
Much of The Master Butchers Singing Club revolves around the German American cultural tradition, which is part of Erdrich's personal heritage, though she is best known as a Native American novelist.
The novel has been developed into a stage play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman, and premiered as part of the Guthrie Theater's 2010/11 season in September 2010 under the direction of Francesca Zambello.
Read more about The Master Butchers Singing Club: Plot Summary, Significant Characters, Themes, German-American Heritage, Reviews, Literary Criticism, Theatre
Famous quotes containing the words master, butchers, singing and/or club:
“There appears to be but two grand master passions or movers in the human mind, namely, love and pride. And what constitutes the beauty or deformity of a man’s character is the choice he makes under which banner he determines to enlist himself. But there is a strong distinction between different degress in the same thing and a mixture of two contraries.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Why, he was met even now
As mad as the vexed sea, singing aloud,
Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“He loved to sit silent in a corner of his club and listen to the loud chattering of politicians, and to think how they all were in his power—how he could smite the loudest of them, were it worth his while to raise his pen for such a purpose.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)