What is it that actually lies at the heart of this bewildering universe of signs? It is worth pointing out that Hergé’s final, incomplete volume, Tintin and Alph-Art, was a story about international art fraud which stands as the greatest enigma in the canon. Could it be that Men In Space is McCarthy’s coded conclusion to Hergé’s unfinished work?
Alfred Hickling reviews Men in Space in the Guardian.
Remainder is a deeply philosophical novel of the best kind — the kind without any philosophy in it.
Antoine Wilson on philosophy and physiotherapy in Remainder.
But, really, the novel works best when viewed as a study of displacement and isolation, suggesting that we are all trapped within our own skulls like prisoners left to moulder in oubliettes. Few of the characters ever connect with one another. There are repeated images of planets hurtling through space, their orbits rarely intersecting with those of other celestial bodies.
Alastair Sooke reviews Men in Space for the Daily Telegraph.
What’s interesting beyond the specific historical event, the collapse of communism, is that it’s the collapse of totality. Once totality’s gone, what happens next? Both my books are about failed transcendence and the ways in which we inhabit the world; the way the world disappoints us by making promises which it then doesn’t fulfill.
Tom McCarthy is interviewed in this week’s Time Out.
Tom McCarthy will be appearing at Barnes and Noble Chelsea (NYC) on 20 September.
Tom McCarthy video in which the author holds forth on the best French novel ever written in English…in French!
Tom McCarthy will appear at the Broadway Bookshop in Hackney on 27 September.
INS General Secretary Tom McCarthy and INS Chief Philosopher and author of Infinitely Demanding (Verso 2007) Simon Critchley will present a statement on the subject of Inauthenticity – in art, literature, philosophy, economics and politics – advancing it as a central tenet in INS doctrine.
Remainder is “different and compelling, and definitely worth discussing”.
“Rebuilding of life forgotten is a story to remember.”
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