Suttree

by Cormac McCarthy

Overview

From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road, here is the story of Cornelius Suttree, who has forsaken a life of privilege with his prominent family to live in a dilapidated houseboat on the Tennessee River near Knoxville.

Remaining on the margins of the outcast community there—a brilliantly imagined collection of eccentrics, criminals, and squatters—he rises above the physical and human squalor with detachment, humor, and dignity.

Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679736325
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/05/1992
Edition description:	Vintage Contemporaries Edition
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	21,979
Product dimensions:	5.21(w) x 7.97(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

The novels of the American writer, Cormac McCarthy, have received a number of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His works adapted to film include All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and No Country for Old Men—the latter film receiving four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture. He died in 2023.

What People are Saying About This

Stanley Booth

Suttree may be [McCarthy's] magnum opus…[It is] probably the funniest and most unbearably sad of [his] books…which seemed to me unsurpassed in American literature.

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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

NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile