Suttree

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Richard Poe

Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.

©1979 Cormac McCarthy (P)2012 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“ Suttree contains a humor that is Faulknerian … and a freakish imaginative flair reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor.” ( Times Literary Supplement, London)

A series of vignettes of the damned

Cormac McCarthy seems to have written this as a meditation against drink. This is a story without heroes, where nobody ever makes the right choices, and their suffering is made worse by that knowledge. McCarthy is masterful in creating an atmosphere of the choking, filthy miasma and all-consuming poverty of drunkards, fiends, perverts, thieves, and losers circling the bowl of a district in Knoxville, TN called McAnally Flats in the 1950's.

All of the characters are very much like long festering roadkill one happens upon when walking somewhere; exactly as you found them when you leave them. If you like morals and character development and clever dialog, this is not for you.

If you like to feel slightly nauseous and wishing you could take a shower when you read, or if you have ever wondered what your life might feel like if you simply gave up, spent every dime you had on awful, low-quality spirits, and woke up sore throated, under a tree in a junkyard, covered in vomit, sunburnt, bug-bitten, reeking of piss and shit and semen which is hopefully your own, then this book will give you some idea of what you have to look forward to.

disappointed

they were a few entertaining bits but overall this was one of the hardest audiobooks for me to get through. Richard Poe did a good job of individualizing all the characters. but I just could not get through this story and stay interested. I found myself tuning out quite a bit.

Cormac McCarthy's funniest work

The narrator did a terrific job but By far the biggest surprise, just just how hilarious Different episodes of this book were!

All Harrogate's misadventures had me laughing out loud, especially the watermelons & the bag of bats! 🤣
This was different yet just as profound as any other McCarthy novel. Suttree was a Great Pal to spend 20hrs with and I may yet do it again!
I feel this is one of the 1st novels where Cormac McCarthy really came into his own, developing his style & voice as a unique collision between Faulkner, Steinbeck, Twain & Melville that would prove itself just as masterly with this and Blood Meridian, a novel that almost feels like the Yang to this novel's Yin.

Brilliant

Engaging and penetrating. McCarthy’s unprecedented insight into humanity is born out with no condescension or pretense. Very possibly the foremost author of the 20th century.

Poe’s narration is eloquent and perfectly balanced. 5/5/5.

Pretty brilliant

"You have no right to represent people this way. A man is all men. You have no right to your wretchedness." -Suttree


I enjoyed Blood Meridian more by Cormac McCarthy, but that is merely a tangent for you venture off to...

I struggled to finish

This story got weird and I wish I had stopped in the middle, great reader though.

Finished the day Mr. McCarthy Died

Richard Poe reading Cormac McCarthy is a masterpiece. The story goes like a fever dream, and you can feel the change in prose that the protagonist is experiencing in his wild, joyous and pitiful life. The story seems to last a lifetime, and by the time you finish you hardly remember who you were - or who Suttree was - at the beginning.

History of old hard times

This is a book to read if you like the old days. McCarthy does a super job of his discription of the details of the story.

Excellent. Perfect Narrator

Beautiful. Poe fantastic for reading McCarthy. I have a feeling that more people will be reading/listening to this now that the legend has crossed over into eternity. May his work be cherished by all.

Incredible imagery

Some of the best imagery I’ve read, but once again a very meandering tale that I’m sure has a ton of meaning but I’m just not sharp enough to grasp all the metaphors and symbolism on a first reading…but that’s just cormac mccarthy