SOURCE: "Suttree and the Metaphysics of Death," in The Southern Literary Journal, Vol. XVII, No. 2, Spring, 1985, pp. 79-90.

In the following article, Longley Jr. provides an examination of the novel Suttree, discusses McCarthy's writing style, and comments on McCarthy's place in the literary world.

Gods and fathers what has happened here, good friends where is there clemency?

Suttree is standing in the ruin of a great house where he may or may not have lived as a child. He is surrounded by warped parquetry, buckled wainscot, ruined plaster. We are reminded of another waif, crying for what is lost:

     Kennst du das Haus? Auf Saulen ruht sein Dach,
     Es glanzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach,
     Und Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an:
     Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan?

But there will be no Protector to take Suttree by the hand and lead him down the...