- Suttree
infobox Book |
name = Suttree
title_orig =
translator =
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author =Cormac McCarthy
illustrator =
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country =United States
language = English
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genre = Semi-Autobiographical novel
publisher =Vintage International
release_date = May,1979
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover )
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isbn = ISBN 0679736328
preceded_by =Child of God
followed_by =Blood Meridian "Suttree" is a semi-
autobiographical novel byCormac McCarthy , published in1979 .Set in
1951 inKnoxville, Tennessee , the novel follows Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his former life of privilege to become a fisherman on theTennessee River .The novel has a fragmented structure with many flashbacks and shifts in
grammatical person . "Suttree" has been compared toJames Joyce 's "Ulysses",John Steinbeck 's "Cannery Row", andMark Twain 's "Huckleberry Finn "."Suttree" was written over a 30 year span and is a departure from his previous novels, being much longer, more sprawling in structure, and perhaps McCarthy's most humorous novel.
Plot summary
The novel begins with Suttree observing police as they pull a man who committed
suicide from the river. Suttree is living alone in a house-boat, on the fringes of society on the Tennessee River. Suttree earns money by fishing for the occasionalcatfish . He has left a life of luxury, rejecting his father and family, and abandoning his wife and son.A large cast of characters, largely s andgrotesque s, are introduced; The most endearing being Gene Harrogate, whom Suttree meets in a work camp. Harrogate was sent to the work camp for having sex with a farmer's watermelons. Suttree attempts to take Harrogate under his wing once out of the work camp; however this task proves fruitless as Harrogate sets off on a series of misadventures such as using poisoned meat and a slingshot in order to kill bats (or "flitter-mice" as Gene calls them) to earn abounty on them, and using dynamite to attempt to tunnel underneath the city. Other prominent characters are prostitutes, hermits, and an agedGeechee witch.His relationships with women end badly both times. One prostitute girlfriend terminates the relationship in a moment of madness, smashing up the inside of their new car. The other woman he is involved with is killed by a landslide on the river bank.
Towards the novel's end, Suttree falls ill and suffers a lengthy
hallucination . In the end, he feels his identity is reaffirmed, and he leaves Knoxville.Reception
Novelist
Nelson Algren argued that the novel was “a memorable American comedy by an original storyteller.” [In "Chicago Tribune Book World", Jan. 28, 1979.] Estimable reviews by such noted writers and literary critics asAnatole Broyard ["New York Times", Jan. 20, 1979] ,Jerome Charyn , ["New York Times", Feb. 18, 1979] ,Guy Davenport ["National Review", Mar. 16, 1979] , andShelby Foote ["Memphis Press-Scimitar", Feb. 17, 1979] were followed by the "Times Literary Supplement " review which saw the novel as “Faulknerian in its gentle wryness, and a freakish imaginative flair reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor.” [Hislop, Andrew, "TLS", no. 4490 (21-27 April 1989), p. 436.] Influential profile writer and music journalist,Stanley Booth , observed that "Suttree" was “probably the funniest and most unbearably sad of McCarthy’s books... which seem to me unsurpassed in American literature.” [Backcover blurb of 1979 USA first edition.] . On the anecdotal level, film criticRoger Ebert wrote that he had read all of McCarthy's novels, and considered "Suttree" to be McCarthy's masterpiece.Notes
External links
* [http://www.spinelessbooks.com/theory/suttree/index.html William Gillespie, "Sure Do Wish You’d Get Ye One of These Here Taters: An Essay on Cormac McCarthy’s "Suttree"]
* [http://web.utk.edu/~wmorgan/Suttree/suttree.htm "Searching for Suttree", by Wes Morgan (2004)] ; photographs of some of the Knoxville locations featured in "Suttree"
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