Customer Reviews
Magnum Opus For McCarthy - By: Mr. B. Eden, 22 Nov 2008 
Cormac McCarthy has carved a solitary path on the literary map with Suttree,in my opinion he is one of the worlds best novelists, he is certainly inimitable. His prose bristles with poetry & his dialogue is often hilarious. It is the imagery from the gang raped whorein an abandoned car to the murky flow of the river through an at times woeful Knoxville that realy stays with you, the prose stings & sears & underlying it all is a great mind thinking & contemplating the barren & the beautiful, the meaning & the essence of life & death.
Powerful and Captivating Story-Telling: McCarthy At His Best - By: Mr. Laurence Williams, 30 Sep 2007 'Suttree' is the not the first book by Cormac McCarthy that I have read & it will not be the last.
As with his other earlier novels 'Suttree' is essentially a story about the hurdles that have to be negotiated by the portrayed characters as their lives progress;in this case the main character is Cornelius Suttree, a vagrant living alonein poverty on a houseboat on the Tennessee River who survives mainly on the income he derives from selling the fish he catches.
The writing of McCarthy rarely involves a significant plot & 'Suttree' is no exception; we do nothing more (and that is not meant to be a criticism) than follow the struggles & situations that befall this character & meet people that he crosses paths with (which include long-term 'friends', the occasional relative, people he trades or works with & those he attempts to have a deeper relationship with....).
For me to reveal any more detail of the story would be unfair to a first-time reader. However, to help people decide on whether this story might be to their taste I would say the main themes are friendship, domestic survival & family relationships (in that order), with the odd dash of drunken violence thrown-in. There is occasionally some bad language but the violence is not extreme...
Whilst this overall premise may seem unattractive as the basis of a novel, it is the poetic & emotional nature of McCarthys writing which compels you to follow the journey. Quite how one can read, for example, page after page of apparently benign conversation between characters without getting bored or feeling uninterested I cannot easily explain, but McCarthy manages to achieve it. For my part, the attraction is more often than not because I grow to feel an affection for the characters & an interestin their lives & fate.
A significant additional attraction are the frequent exchanges, comments & discussions between the characters which, for the most part, are of a nature that the reader will not have been exposed to before with other authors. At first the language might seem bizarre or coarse, but it is (in my opinion) often unique, hilarious & fascinating. McCarthy makes no effort to simplify what characters say; you get the text as they would say it, truncated, slang, foreign language - warts & all !
Regarding the style of writing: His trait of describing an environment with what appear to be bizarre comparison techniques entices you to try & visualise the scene & makes reading the text even more addictive. It is surprising how brief his descriptions of people & surroundings can be, yet he has the ability to convince the reader that they have achieved an accurate 'vision', because he employs an extremely wide vocabulary & those blunt comparative phrases. The trademark absence of punctuation & speech marks, & regular use of extremely long sentences, may well deter some from committing themselves to reading the novel - but that is their loss.
A noteworthy feature of this novel is the 3-page introduction, which is a stunning compilation of descriptive paragraphs with no explanation as to their significance with what is to follow....
'Suttree' is a rich & vivid tale, which is regularly traumatic but just as often entertaining & wryly funny. Like his other novels, it has the ability to invoke deep emotions & long-lasting memories which will make your skin tingle.
Best Book I've Probably Ever Read - By: , 12 Feb 2006 I have loved all the Cormac McCarthy books I've read but this is my favourite.
Like all his books this is a bleak, lonesome tale that inhabits you. Despite its elegaic sadness there is humour & a core human warmth. I read this book almost two years ago & I still miss the key characters.
I urge you to read this book!
My favourite book. (And I've read some). - By: N. Hughes, 18 Feb 2004 People often ask what your favourite record is, or your top five movies, even your favourite food. I have always found it very difficult to answer these questions, & my answers will change from day to day depending on mood. Now Cormac McCarthy has brought a little certainty to my life. This is WITHOUT ANY SHADOW OF DOUBT my favourite book. It has everything from wry comedy to hideous tragedy, plot driven action to melancholy contemplation. Every adult male will recognise at least a part of himselfin these destitute, stinky characters; & a very uncomfortable realization that can be. And to top it all off, the language employed by McCarthy is of the most beautiful expressive nature. I defy anyone to show me an author that can decribe a filthy riverbank, or a pickled vagrant with such obvious love of words. Go on, read it, & disagree if you dare. We are indeed 'whelmedin dark riot'.
One of his best books - By: , 05 Mar 2001 Suttree is the name of the character who the book is about, a man who lives on a houseboatin Knoxville & makes a threadbare living as a fisherman. In it's own way it's one of McCarthy's best. The book is very muchin the author's distinctive style but there are many more descriptions of suburban settings than some of his books, & he really goes to town! No-one brings out the wild poetry of such places as wastelots, riversides, shanties & city catacombs like him. Suttree meets various characters who live very much 'on the fringe' like him. The dialogue is exceptional & there are some excrutiatingly funny moments. There are also some slower bits but this is fortunate since it helps you not to finish the book too quickly! The themes of the book are similar to 'Tortilla Flat' by Steinbeck, which is also delightful, but this work is much denser & deeper. I can sense that the author is personally very close to this work. If you like Cormac McCarthy, you should do yourself a favour & get hold of this one.
