Surplus Matter

February 13, 2007
Remains of the Dude
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a nice thirtysomething Englishman in possession of 8.5 million sterling must be in want of … um, a dramatic reenactment?
At least, such is the case for the amnesiac antihero of Remainder, the gripping debut novel by Brit Tom McCarthy. (continue reading…)

Shards of Information Add Up to a Brilliant Novel
by Doug Edmond
Remainder is a unique and brilliant novel. It is the story of a young “everyday” Englishman traumatized by an accident that eliminates his memory but leaves him £8.5 million richer. All that he knows is that something fell out of the sky and hit him. And someone […]

Beyond the Pleasure Principle
by Richard Bausch
INTELLECT: What’s going on? Why are there two of us?
PLEASURE: Because we have a grievous disagreement about this novel.

How many would-be-great books never get published? How many would-be-winning authors never get discovered? With all the publishers and markets and books available, how could anything fall through the cracks? Remainder is proof that some things can, or almost can.

For your consolidated pleasure, a summary and links to fifteen-or-so reviews of Remainder.

Death Becomes Him
A mash-up of political farce and avant-garde bombast, the International Necronautical Society (INS), founded in London in 1999, put forth a parodic manifesto about death, announcing that it “is a type of space, which we intend to map, enter, colonise and, eventually, inhabit.” One of the instrumental “agents” behind this group is roguish […]

It’s taken quite a while really; for a book to spring from the ether and reaffirm one’s own belief in Literature again. For a long while now it’s looked like the conglomerates had it all sewn up — zapped everything out of us that is, reduced us to a multitude of categorised life-style addicts; moulded […]