Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Set in Knoxville, Tenn., in the 1950s, this novel tells the story of a man who has repudiated his well-to-do parents, deserted his wife and is now a river fisherman who consorts with robbers, ragmen and other outcasts. ``McCarthy captures these people's lives and speech with a tough, lyric grace,'' PW commented. (October)
From the Publisher
McCarthy's prose [is] laudable, his characters the most inhabited, his sense of place the most blood worthy and thoroughly felt of any living writer." —Esquire
“Suttree contains a humour that is Faulknerian in its gentle wryness, and a freakish imaginative flair reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor.” —The Times Literary Supplement (London)
“All of McCarthy’s books present the reviewer with the same welcome difficulty. They are so good that one can hardly say how good they really are. . . . Suttree may be his magnum opus. Its protagonist, Cornelius Suttree, has forsaken his prominent family to live in a dilapidated houseboat among the inhabitants of the demimonde along the banks of the Tennessee River. His associates are mostly criminals of one sort or another, and Suttree is, to say the least, estranged from what might be called normal society. But he is so involved with life (and it with him) that when in the end he takes his leave, the reader’s heart goes with him. Suttree is probably the funniest and most unbearably sad of McCarthy’s books . . . which seem to me unsurpassed in American literature.” —Stanley Booth
NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile
The length of this audiobook may discourage some, but perseverance brings its own rewards. McCarthy, one of America’s premier novelists, can turn a sentence like few other authors. While the author is often associated with a certain minimalism in his dark writing, SUTTREE is more comparable to Faulkner’s works. Set in the Knoxville, Tennessee, region in the 1950s, the novel tells the story of Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his background, choosing instead the life of a reprobate fisherman. Richard Poe’s narration is strong enough to carry the language, settings, intensity, and characterizations in this superb work. Poe’s deep voice and long experience bring Suttree to life as he struggles, with the other outcasts, along the Tennessee River. M.L.R. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
