What A Reading Expereince!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Girls, I am telling you, I never expected so much from this novel, as what I got.

                                 Cormac McCarthy is macho to the core. But beneath lurks the soul of a poet. His masterwork, "Blood Meridian," is one of the most violent books I have ever read, yet written with a poetic lyricism that makes the distasteful bearable, in order for the reader to understand just how horrible it actually is.

                                  Much of the same can be said for "Suttree," which I think is his best novel, next to the aforementioned.  But it is so much more. It has a Faulknerian quality, and owes a lot to Charles Dickens, as this is, essentially, an American, Westernized version, of his lengthiest novel, "Our Mutual Friend."   A note to any students out there, if you are looking for a topic for your as yet unwritten English Lit paper, here it is--read and write a comparison on both books.

                                   Dickens' title is dark, referring to death, who comes to all.  McCarthy's title refers to Cornelius Suttree, from a well bread Tennessee family, who chooses life as a n'er do well.
When his son dies, and wife goes to pieces, he is kicked out, and disowned by the family, he is kicked out, and lives a life of squalor, in a houseboat, among the lowlifes along the Tennessee river.

                                   That is the plot. But the real story lies in the characters he meets along the way; everyone from itinerant drifters, like Gene Harrogate, to prostitutes.  There are times when the novel seems to morph into Robert Altman's 1971 film, "McCabe and Mrs. Miller;" I could almost hear the Leonard Cohen songs in my head, as I was reading.

                                     Both books are dense, and a challenge to read.  But well worth it.  "Suttree" is about half the length of Dickens' opus,  but reminds me I need to reread the latter.  It has been too long.  But I need the Modern Library Classics edition of it, to complete my collection.

                                       "Suttrree" is a marvelous surprise--haunting and lyrical, yet macho as hell. If someone concealed the cover from me, and I was asked who wrote this, I would have said Cormac McCarthy. No one can write this kind of story, like him.

                                         You've got to read it, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!