C by Tom McCarthy - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Mar 18, 2012 Adam Floridia rated it 2 of 5 stars

The book jacket quotations claim this to be “a work of outstanding originality and ambition…An avant-garde epic, the first I can think of since Ulysses” and “The remix the novel has been crying out for.”

Among the many questions this book has left me with, perhaps the most pressing is this: What the hell were those reviewers thinking? This is a fairly straightforward narrative about the life, albeit a life that takes some unusual twists, of a rather dull protagonist. Serge is dull in the sense t...more The book jacket quotations claim this to be “a work of outstanding originality and ambition…An avant-garde epic, the first I can think of since Ulysses” and “The remix the novel has been crying out for.”

Among the many questions this book has left me with, perhaps the most pressing is this: What the hell were those reviewers thinking? This is a fairly straightforward narrative about the life, albeit a life that takes some unusual twists, of a rather dull protagonist. Serge is dull in the sense that modern man is dull: he is, to paraphrase Thoreau, never “quite awake.” There is no “originality” anywhere near akin to Ulysses, nor is McCarthy’s prose a “remix” of any class. Apparently McCarthy did a wealth of research into WWI , deaf education, radio, Egyptian myth, and chemical compounds. However, I don’t see how this makes for a groundbreaking, or even compelling, read. All it does is provide his dull character with a more historically accurate milieu. There is nothing “avant-garde” about it!

Because of the above-noted praise, I expected this to be more like reading Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. (Note: there is an author whose wealth of research actually tied into the plot/theme/essence of his book.) Perhaps it is due to that presupposition that I could find some similarities between Serge Carrefax and Tyrone Slothrop. Both bumble through a World War; both have meaningless sexual liaisons; both indulge in narcotics; both end up on a ship in some way connected to Egyptian mythology; both characters’ minds completely and terminally dissipate; and Slothrop embodies his namesake-anagram “sloth or entropy” while Serge constantly battles with a “restlessness, [which] he comes to realize, is in truth an attempt to achieve its opposite: stasis” (194). Is any of this intentional? I suppose there’s no real way to tell, but I highly doubt it. Is any of this meaningful? Also very doubtful, yet it does bring light to the fact that if you are looking for something, you are bound to find some traces of it.

That brings me to my next point: the confusing yet captivating, curt yet compelling title. So many of the recurrent motifs of the novel start with or contain the letter “C”: communication, chemicals, crypts, codes, copper, contraptions, eleCtricity, inseCts, meChaniCs, and, of course “Carbon: the basic element of life” (292). However, title the book ANY other single letter (except maybe “x”), and I’m sure my mind would be focused on identifying words/motifs that begin with that letter. Again, then, we have an example of the reader having complete control of how to gather meaning from the book. Is this the “avant-garde” nature of the novel? The book itself deals repeatedly with how perception shapes reality and the caul through which we see the world; however, I still think this is a complete stretch! While so much of literary criticism IS based on “bolstered support” (b.s.), there has to be a more concrete, tangible well of evidence within the novel. It is the writer’s job to fill this well and, through his work, develop the salient pools of interpretation. Blah! I’m thinking too much about how this damn book doesn’t provide enough direction for any coherent, meaningful thought. Under-developed theme=lazy writing.

Much of my CritiCism has so far been hurled at the message and style of the book. On a strictly plot basis, the first 75 pages were abysmally boring. This revulsion is even more poignant when you realize that this was not even endured because it was necessary groundwork that would be important later. Nope. The next four sections each jump to a completely new chapter of Serge’s life and can stand, for the most part, independent of one another. At least, though, the rest of the book was an interesting enough story, especially when you read it just for what it is: a creative story about the life of 20th century character, NOT a literary feat that stylistically approaches Ulysses or thematically contains the depth and number of levels of Gravity’s Rainbow.

It’s a deCent book.
(less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Marc Kozak rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

We live in an age of information overload. There's as much data around us, visible or invisible, as oxygen practically. I often like to think about what the internet will be like in 5, 10, 20 years. At some point, there's going to be a time when there is just SO much information on it - active and non-active, abandoned Livejournals, decades-old records of transactions, discarded emails, forgotten websites, log after countless log - it will all, theoretically, still be around, and still be availa...more We live in an age of information overload. There's as much data around us, visible or invisible, as oxygen practically. I often like to think about what the internet will be like in 5, 10, 20 years. At some point, there's going to be a time when there is just SO much information on it - active and non-active, abandoned Livejournals, decades-old records of transactions, discarded emails, forgotten websites, log after countless log - it will all, theoretically, still be around, and still be available to look at. What will we do? Keep it there? Reboot the Matrix?

Tom McCarthy's C takes it a step further. Think about radio waves, satellite transmissions, energy expelled from humans even! Where does it all go? Can we find it again if we need to? There's a lovely little passage where the main character's father goes off on an excited tangent about the possibility of finding and recreating energy and information from people in the past. Is this a way to travel through time? Can we still see a lost loved one? Can we go to the site of the cross and still find Jesus?

Not a lot really happens in C. The pace is super slow, the character's are static, and I can definitely see how many would find this boring - but I was riveted. For the first 200 pages, this was 5 star stuff. McCarthy's prose lazily goes along, covering little but finding ways to stick in your mind. 60 or so pages in, McCarthy describes a boy, on the eve of radio, searching the airwaves, sifting through the static, getting pieces of Morse code, signals from boats, not really looking for anything, but looking for SOMETHING. Something important, something meaningful.

“The air is rich tonight: still and cold, high pressure, the best time of year. . . . Above 650, the clicks dissipate into a thin, pervasive noise, like dust. Discharges break across this: distant lightning, aurora borealis, meteorites. Their crashes and eruptions sound like handfuls of buckshot thrown into a tin bucket, or a bucketful of grain-rich gravy dashed against a wash-boiler. Wireless ghosts come and go, moving in arpeggios that loop, repeat, mutate, then disappear.”

It's beautiful. Throughout there's a melancholic, isolated tone, like you're sitting on a roof on a clear night, looking up at the sky, feeling small but satisfied.

**UPDATED 3/2013 to 5 stars and favorites shelf. It's been more than a year and I still think about this all of the time.(less)

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Oct 04, 2011 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, multi-jurisdictional

Reviewed by The Guardian, The Independent, The Complete Review

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Oct 22, 2010 Aaron (Typographical Era) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, nook, tom-mccarthy

(http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...)

Author Tom McCarthy can write, there’s no question there, but what he chooses to write about in C, or rather the way he goes about it, can be painfully dull for a large chunk of the novel. The main character Serge isn’t very likable or relatable either. Though this isn’t always a requirement for a novel to be good, it would have helped if this character had at least some semblance of a direction or goal in mind. Instead he wanders through life as if noth...more (http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...)

Author Tom McCarthy can write, there’s no question there, but what he chooses to write about in C, or rather the way he goes about it, can be painfully dull for a large chunk of the novel. The main character Serge isn’t very likable or relatable either. Though this isn’t always a requirement for a novel to be good, it would have helped if this character had at least some semblance of a direction or goal in mind. Instead he wanders through life as if nothing at all matters or is of any consequence.

The theme of communication, or lack thereof, is repeated throughout the novel so much so that it overwhelms much of what is being described of Serge’s life. There are great moments, like the first section of the book that describes his childhood, and a piece in the last section where he cleverly debunks a fraud psychic, but there are interesting plot points that are setup early on that are never fully revealed. Serge’s sister Sophie is such an interesting character and to not receive follow-up or closure in this regard was very disappointing.

Another plus for the novel was McCarthy’s dedication in researching the time period. The school for the deaf, the depictions of the war, and Egypt all felt very real, though once again, my main complaint for historical novels like this is that one character always seems to have all of the information of the world and must explain it in detail to every one else. At different points throughout the book Serge does in fact get “lessons” from the various people he meets on his travels.

I really wish Serge gave a sh*t more. Maybe that’s the way I’m supposed to feel? I don’t know, maybe that’s the point McCarthy is trying to drive home, that in the end nothing is worth caring about very much. If so, that’s a pretty bleak message to put forth and one that I’d rather not dwell upon or support. I can’t help but think that if everyone shared that view the world would be a much worse place to live in.(less)

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Feb 15, 2011 keatssycamore rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, literary, british-lit

This book is a Proustian period piece/faux memoir, except instead of beautifully describing nature & love, McCarthy has a go at technology & sex. To be fair, his go is literary. Entire quotations are lifted from McCarthy's favorite writers and thinkers and other important writers and thinkers will be alluded be directly. One literary idea connects to another and arises again in a different context. And the context grows into a big literary subtext that you can't help but subconciously ap...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Ângelo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Falando do livro, falando da sua história, falando do que li, bem li o livro e não sei bem o que dizer/escrever dele.

Tom MacCarthy elege Serge Carrefax para personagem central deste seu livro "C" e tudo gira à sua volta. Logo no início do livro deparamo-nos com o nascimento de Serge, um parto realizado pelo Dr. Learmont, uma escrita que nos cativa logo à partida. Serge é filho de Simon uma personagem muito peculiar, seu pai é um inventor, um cientista e também um professor que dirige uma escola...more Falando do livro, falando da sua história, falando do que li, bem li o livro e não sei bem o que dizer/escrever dele.

Tom MacCarthy elege Serge Carrefax para personagem central deste seu livro "C" e tudo gira à sua volta. Logo no início do livro deparamo-nos com o nascimento de Serge, um parto realizado pelo Dr. Learmont, uma escrita que nos cativa logo à partida. Serge é filho de Simon uma personagem muito peculiar, seu pai é um inventor, um cientista e também um professor que dirige uma escola para surdos numa província em Inglaterra, uma fazenda em Versoie. Absorvido no seu trabalho de ensinar e tentar patentear algo estrondoso, o seu transmissor, relega para segundo plano sua esposa e com isso a relação entre ambos segue o mesmo rumo, que na mesma fazenda ela assume o controlo da fabricação de seda, mesmo que Simon, seu marido, pense o contrário.

Sophie irmã mais velha de Serge eclipsa-se no primeiro capítulo, tem uma morte súbita aos dezassete anos, Sophie é muito diferente do irmão, Serge tende a seguir os passos do pai, Sophie é uma química/botânica do melhor que a sua escola já teve, as suas experiências nocturnas nos laboratórios da fazenda são deveras interessantes.

Widsun amigo da família chega à fazenda com um cinetoscópio, o qual vai fazer maravilhas entre a comunidade local. O teatro anual das crianças da escola de dia (crianças surdas) ocupa uma grande parte deste capítulo e tem como catapulta a preparação do funeral de Sophie, um funeral teatral e excêntrico.

Após a morte da irmã Serge viaja para Klodebrady, uma cidade Alemã que vive exclusivamente das suas termas e das ditas águas miraculosas, uma passagem que serve para Serge crescer como personagem. Vive obcecado sexualmente por Tânia a sua massagista corcunda, mas passa os dias com uma visitante das mesmas termas onde os dois empatizam nos momentos que precedem as ditas curas.

MacCarthy nesta parte do livro desenvolve a perspectiva entre o lado emocional e racional.

Serge parte após sua estadia em Klodebrady para a guerra onde irá pertencer ao esquadrão de observadores da força aérea Inglesas. Aqui Serge evolui e com ele o romance, parte fantásticas onde do seu RE8 Serge diz estar parado observando o mundo mover-se, sente-se um insecto.

Nesta fase Serge adquire o vicio da droga, uma passagem bastante marcada pelo autor um alerta, uma mensagem de como esta praga se espalhou na sociedade. A sua prisão após o seu avião ter sido "abatido", um descrição do descuro por parte dos alemães no que concerne aos prisioneiros de guerra, coisa que não se voltaria a repetir na seguinte grande guerra.

Serge volta para Londres onde mantêm bem vivo o seu vício pela droga, tenta estudar e é levado por uma sua amiga para uma sessão espírita, onde numa parte divertida do romance Serge descobre como estes suspeitos espíritas enganavam as pessoas.

Após um reencontro com um antigo superior militar Serge parte para o Egípcio para elaborar um dossier sobre a rede de rádio do império britânico, neste momento é-lhe pedido que a par disso se torne espião. Aqui o seu "guia" Petrou vai levar Serge e o leitor por descrições, acontecimentos realmente únicos sobre a cidade, a humanidade.

Tom MacCarthy com este seu "C", todos os capítulos do livro começam por C (Coifa - Chuto - Colisão - Chamada) as palavras-chave ou as mais marcantes também começam por C (Comunicação, Carbono, Cocaína), talvez dai advenha este título muito peculiar. Os temas e os seus capítulos são muito bem estruturados, com uma linguagem acessível mas muito detalhado, cada assunto é dissecado ao pormenor, ve-se muito trabalho de bastidores do autor em quase todos os temas descritos. Este livro vai directo para a estante intermediária pois tem de ser lido novamente tantas pequenas coisas ficaram para trás, demasiadas pontas soltas que merecem ser revistas, um livro complexo com tantas influências (Freud, Kafka, Thomas Mann, entre outros) que realmente merece ter outra oportunidade.

Um livro realmente bom, mas já com um elevado grau de compreensão, podemos cair na tentação de abandonar o livro numa qualquer parte mais confusa, mas mesmo assim um livro muito bom.(less)

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Oct 11, 2010 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nov-dec-2010

Even with a good deal of mainstream attention for his third novel, C, Tom McCarthy is still something of a fringe writer. That's by choice, and not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe McCarthy, who owes a debt to James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and the French nouveau roman, has it right when it comes to the writer's prerogative. "There is an intrepid attitude to Mr. McCarthy's literary sally that has little to do with pleasing publishers or an audience," writes the Wall Street Journal. The result is sim...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Bob Pearson rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has such rave reviews that I keep thinking I must have missed something. Yes, the writing is fun; I liked reading the prose McCarthy wrote. It was inventive and unexpected, and he juxtaposed images and thoughts in original ways. But what happened to his character? Serge is exposed to a couple of life's most traumatic events: the fate of a beloved sister and of his comrades in the air squadron in WWI. But does he fall into introspection, is he driven to write beautiful poetry or prose,...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Katie rated it 1 of 5 stars

OK--I am SO not intellectual enough to enjoy this book. Either that or, it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes. I can't decide which, but I'm leaning towards the latter.

I found large portions of this book dull and tedious. The only reason I pressed on was because I'd read so many reviews of this book that insisted it was a rich and rewarding kaleidoscope of meaning, and how "everything ties together." I was convinced it was all going somewhere. Well, it wasn't--at least in my mind. Then again,...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Marc Nash rated it 5 of 5 stars

"C" has been described as "experimental", "modernist" and even an "anti-novel" . I don't believe it is any of these at all, though it is fundamentally ambitious and challenging. It is actually rather conventional in structure, portraying a fictional but highly credible character, moving through a recognisable historical period. Both narrative and subjectivity are absolutely linear, in that it traces the 24 year life of Serge Carrefax, in chronological order, through four main stages of his life....more

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Jun 13, 2012 Leah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary

The first pages of this book were immensely difficult to get through. I kept spacing out, losing track, feeling unconnected to the story and confused about where it was heading. Writing that now, I feel it was rather apt, although I'm not sure it was intentional.

I had wanted to read this book for a long time before buying it. The blurb interested me, the life of a young man born with the century, growing up with the century, participating in all those fascinating events and lifestyles that we as...more The first pages of this book were immensely difficult to get through. I kept spacing out, losing track, feeling unconnected to the story and confused about where it was heading. Writing that now, I feel it was rather apt, although I'm not sure it was intentional.

I had wanted to read this book for a long time before buying it. The blurb interested me, the life of a young man born with the century, growing up with the century, participating in all those fascinating events and lifestyles that we associate with the early 20th century. I was disappointed to find that the blurb literally did tell me everything that happened in the book. From the back of my copy:

...the eerily idyllic settings of pre-war Europe give way to the exhilarating flight paths of the front line aeroplane radio operator, then the prison camps of Germany, the drug-fuelled London of the roaring twenties, and, finally, the ancient tombs of Egypt.

That is literally it, except for Serge's sojourn at a spa town before the war, which was evocative in the extreme and left me feeling like I,too, had a large lump of something poisonous in my stomach. However, the point here is that a book ought to be more than its blurb. The reader should not be left wondering how much longer until the roaring twenties, how much longer until the ancient tombs of Egypt?

It's a shame that I was left feeling like this, because I actually quite enjoyed reading this book. It reminded me strongly of W. Somerset Maugham's writing, although admittedly I have only read one of his books, and that I didn't enjoy. In general, this following-a-character-throughout-their-life type of narrative is characteristic of the early 20th century's literature, which was something I responded to in the early, pre-War sections of C. What I didn't so much respond to was the uber-modern spin on things that McCarthy has, which reveals everything where his forebears mysteriously veiled, spits on tradition where his forebears gently and more effectively mocked, laughs at people and humanity where his forebears observed and learned. Somehow it left me feeling empty, as if he had tried to go deeper only to reveal that there really was nothing underneath at all.

The individual settings, vignettes almost, of Serge's life were fascinating, the scenarios evocative and visionary. At times it felt like a film. It was just a shame, to me, that it ended up feeling as one-dimensional as Serge's paintings. There should have been more.(less)

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Jun 08, 2012 Bert rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: popularcontemporary

I was thoroughly disappointed with this book.
In places it shone and enthralled, but overall I felt that McCarthy was trying too hard to make his writing have a certain tone, and it was a tone that I really did not understand.
A lot of loose ends were left untied, and I feel that this has been widely mistaken as "clever" writing on the authors part, when in reality it is just lazy. This story isn't strong enough to leave such questions and plot lines unanswered and unfinshed without leaving the re...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Kirstie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of pseudo history, WWII stories, etc

Maybe I'm being too hard on this novel. I thought it was pretty interesting to see how the plot evolved in one sense but in another sense, it felt a little disjointed and I'm getting sick to death of creative pseudo historical fiction. I like my fiction more fiction-y and my non fiction a representation of true historic fact. Perhaps it's also that all of the creative based on some historical events, however vague, books that I've read lately are also from the same time period and if I have to r...more

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Nov 27, 2011 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

I loved the first 50 pages or so, then the writing started to get surprisingly lazy: the sister says something shocking to her brother, and he feels like the earth is falling away from him, stuff like that. And it deteriorates for a time, in the resort section that culminates in a shockingly figurative sex, then makes a come back with seances and the heroin flapper, and then kind-of tappers off again. Serge is boring and an asshole, so that one actively roots against him. Other characters act in...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Mark Harding rated it 3 of 5 stars

The dismissive summary is that it is a novel that says everything is connected (transmission and reception) — specifically focussing on the relationship of living and the dead — if you are either: mad, on drugs or seriously ill. (Doesn’t everybody know this?) I also found chunks of the book (especially the opening) tedious in the extreme. TM is well aware that you can’t scientifically connect with the dead (he has an episode where Serge debunks a seance) so what is the insistence on it mean, oth...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Paula rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A história começa de forma bastante aliciante e cativante para o leitor. Um médico é chamado para fazer nascer uma criança. Esta criança é o nosso personagem principal “C”. Há um prenuncio de boa sorte para este bebé, pois quando vem ao mundo, vem envolto numa coifa.
Na casa onde Serge nasce o pai dá aulas a crianças surdas. Uma escola onde é proibido gesticular!
Comunicar faz parte da vida, mas segundo o pai de Serge, é fundamental que se comunique através da fala “aqui ensinamos-lhes a linguagem...more A história começa de forma bastante aliciante e cativante para o leitor. Um médico é chamado para fazer nascer uma criança. Esta criança é o nosso personagem principal “C”. Há um prenuncio de boa sorte para este bebé, pois quando vem ao mundo, vem envolto numa coifa.
Na casa onde Serge nasce o pai dá aulas a crianças surdas. Uma escola onde é proibido gesticular!
Comunicar faz parte da vida, mas segundo o pai de Serge, é fundamental que se comunique através da fala “aqui ensinamos-lhes a linguagem, não o secretismo e o silêncio. É isso que conduz às guerras” uma crítica ao cinismo da guerra, aos objectivos assim como a todos que a planeiam.
A obsessão pela fala em relação aos surdos/mudos, é tão grande, que o pai de Serge organiza eventos em que as crianças declamam…muitas das vezes o resultado é quase desastroso “as palavras prendem-se e esticam-se e arrastam-se e voltam a silvar. Os pais (…) esforçando-se a apanhar o sentido das frases”
Para Carrefax, a comunicação é a sua vida e a ela dedica todo o seu tempo, relegando para segundo plano a família.
Serge e sua irmã, aventuram-se em laboratório fazendo experiências e causando explosões sem vigia por parte dos adultos. O resultado não poderia ser pior, a sua irmã morre e a solidão invade Serge.
O enterro de Sophie (irmã) é feito de forma bastante teatral. Os alunos voltam a declamar, e as frases saem distorcidas, parecendo vermes a tentar sair da terra e a comunicar…
Apenas Serge sente a morte da irmã de forma diferente. Sente que tudo o que acontece naquele momento não tem nada a ver com a sua irmã nem com a própria morte. A terra terá a partir deste momento um sentido diferente na vida de Serge.
Após a morte da irmã, Serge é “atingido” por uma doença de estômago que o “aprisionará” durante muito tempo num centro de recuperação. Só de lá sairá para a guerra. Na guerra tentará ver na morte algum sentido, já que na morte de sua irmã este sentido esteve ausente.
Ao voltar para casa após a guerra, sente-se deslocado, sente que aquele não é o seu mundo. Parte deste pensamento também se deverá ao facto da ausência da sua alma gémea (Sophie).
Surge a oportunidade de viajar rumo ao Egipto e lá Serge irá ficar… não se cumprindo deste modo o presságio da coifa!
Este é um livro muito rico em informações históricas, acerca de diversos assuntos. No entanto, a partir de uma certa altura a leitura deixa de ser fluida, tem de de ser lido com atenção e alguma persistência. Gostei da escrita do autor, das figuras de estilo usadas que deixam informação e mensagens nas entrelinhas, afinal os códigos e as mensagens são o tema principal do livro.
Gostei, mas recomendo com algumas reservas pelas razões que já referi(less)

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Sep 27, 2011 Noah Enelow rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novel starts out on a fine note, with beautiful passages describing the labyrinthine Carrefax estate and the goings-on there, scientific and otherwise. The book comments on the role of science and technological experimentation in turn-of-the-century Europe, for good and for ill. Its descriptions of World War I, and the young Serge Carrefax's idiosyncratic experiences in it, are worth reading. But as it wears on, the act wears thin; McCarthy's lack of sentimentality turns from wickedly funny...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Palmyrah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the first book I've read by this author. I read it in a very short time, which is strange if you consider that when I started it I thought I probably wouldn’t get through it at all. The way Tom McCarthy writes makes his sentences difficult to articulate mentally; reading his prose is like running the hurdles. I kept having to go back and re-read passages I had leapt or stumbled over without even noticing them. The density of the writing was partly responsible, all that literary and cult...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Ian Young added it

C is an engrossing work of literary fiction, from a very interesting author, which is on the current Man Booker Prize longlist. The book is in five sections, and follows the life of Serge Carrefax, who is brought up against the background of a family-run school for the deaf by an eccentric, progressive scientist/inventor father and a distant drug-addicted mother anchored in the past, who uses traditional techniques to manufacture silk fabrics and tapestries. The novel moves to a European spa tow...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Greg Zimmerman rated it 3 of 5 stars

Remember the mid-'90s tune "Everything Zen" by Bush? Remember how everyone loved the song 'cause it rocked, but no one had any idea what it was really about because the lyrics are a goofy mess of seemingly unrelated phrases and ideas? That's kind of how I felt about Tom McCarthy's uber-literary, Man Booker-shortlisted novel C.

There's a pretty straightforward story here that I enjoyed strictly on a "beat and rhythm" level. And then there's what it really means. McCarthy creates a laundry list of...more Remember the mid-'90s tune "Everything Zen" by Bush? Remember how everyone loved the song 'cause it rocked, but no one had any idea what it was really about because the lyrics are a goofy mess of seemingly unrelated phrases and ideas? That's kind of how I felt about Tom McCarthy's uber-literary, Man Booker-shortlisted novel C.

There's a pretty straightforward story here that I enjoyed strictly on a "beat and rhythm" level. And then there's what it really means. McCarthy creates a laundry list of themes, images and ideas that recur throughout the novel. The meaning of these in terms of how they fit together and complement each other and the story holistically is frequently tough to decipher.

The story is Serge Carrefax's, who is born to English wealth right before the turn of the 20th century. Serge's father runs a school to teach deaf children to talk and experiments with various wireless communication technologies, and so Serge becomes infatuated with the burgeoning field of radio from an early age. He fights in World War I as a navigator, parties in post-war London and then moves on to Egypt to scout locations for new communications ventures.

Serge is a bit of an odd ball. He finds out early in his life during an art class that he "just can't do perspective: everything he paints is flat." And Serge's lack of perspective — in the broader sense of the phrase — is a cornerstone of the story. Serge is an impartial observer to his own life. In fact, oftentimes, the reader is left to form his/her own conclusions about things Serge tells us about, but doesn't understand or doesn't care enough about to explain more fully. Is that his sister he sees having sex in an early scene in the novel? Or is it something else he's describing? It's hard to tell.

The novel also has its own unconventional logic and rules, which McCarthy uses to pack in his list of tropes and tricks. For instance, he'll mention something seemingly inconsequential at the time, only to have the idea re-emerge later in a more symbolic context. Serge and some of his fellow soldiers discuss free will vs. determinism, and then soon after, they're building a tunnel to nowhere and no one is in charge of its construction. The effect is disorienting — it's hard to figure out which instance is the one McCarthy intends you to decode and add to the meaning of the story. And then there is the recurrence of several images and themes: Insects, wireless communication, descriptions of shapes and geometry, and drugs all flit in and out of the novel. What do they all mean?

C is not difficult, as some reviewers have purported. But extracting meaning might be. You constantly feel like you're missing something or left out of a joke or not understanding a reference. And that can make reading frustrating at times. There's so much going on here, it's obviously a novel meant to be read several times — like a Charlie Kaufman or David Lynch film is meant to be viewed several times to pick up a little more each time. The story's interesting, but I'm not sure it's enough of a draw to get me to read again. So, three out of five stars for C.(less)

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Jan 03, 2011 Cathy Simonds rated it 3 of 5 stars

Perhaps if I had read reviews of this book, I would have avoided it. The reviews I have seen call it"post modern". Don't know quite what that is. Does it mean there is no plot?

Anyway,the novel is about Serge Carrafx - raised in rural England by his English father and French mother. Father runs a school for the deaf on their large, rambling rural estate. Deaf mother raises silkworms and makes and sells her silk fabrics. Serge's childhood is dominated by his sister Sofie. All very boring until Sof...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Donald rated it 4 of 5 stars

My feelings about this book definitely shifted over the course of my reading experience. For the first third I was hooked on the characterization of the school for the deaf and the wireless experimentation. Then the novel turned into a conventional war story, which I can't say I was crazy about but definitely had some bright moments. Transitioning from the war McCarthy takes us to the main character's life in London. Throughout this third section McCarthy definitely won me back as a reader, but...more

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Oct 16, 2010 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

i'll keep it short. i liked this book. because i like mccarthy's writing. but i didn't love it. because i don't think i really got it.

on the surface, there is a lot of clear plot happening. interesting life of an interesting young man. the pacing is both slow and hurried at the same time... in that mccarthy lingers on certain aspects of the boy's life that you sense are plot progressions, but at the same time, as one continues to read, seem not to have the importance in the overall context of th...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Camille Mccarthy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I picked this book up randomly because I noticed the author had the same name as me and I was pleasantly surprised with its content. It is definitely not for the casual reader; the number of symbols repeated throughout the book cause the reader to devote a good deal of concentration to them. The entire book is as one giant symbol, including the title. It takes place in the early years of wireless communication and the first World War and such themes as insects, codes/clues, communication, tunnel...more I picked this book up randomly because I noticed the author had the same name as me and I was pleasantly surprised with its content. It is definitely not for the casual reader; the number of symbols repeated throughout the book cause the reader to devote a good deal of concentration to them. The entire book is as one giant symbol, including the title. It takes place in the early years of wireless communication and the first World War and such themes as insects, codes/clues, communication, tunnels and bowels, veils,technology, lucky escapes from death, C and words beginning with C, perspective, and networks/webs are bombarded at the reader constantly. It seems as though the author is mimicking the bombardment of information we receive constantly through technology and the intellectual overload we experience as a result of so much information. Also it seems as though the author is poking a bit of fun at readers of literature who look for such clues in order to determine the meaning of what they are reading; there is a ludicrous amount of clues in this book such that when I read it I felt as though I could write at least 5 essays on it, but at the same time I feel that the author must have intentionally sprinkled them throughout to signify the ridiculousness of such interpretation. In all probability the author is just pointing out how absurd it is to try to draw meaning from such clues constantly.
All that being said, I enjoyed the book immensely. It was extremely humorous, the writing style was reminiscent of Ian McEwan and was very subtle and engaging, and I enjoyed the various characters presented in the book. I found it quite interesting how the father was so interested in communication and runs a school to teach the deaf to speak, yet never listens to anyone, is constantly interrupting people, and forbids the deaf children to sign to each other. I also found it interesting how the main character's sister was incredibly smart and gifted in science and yet seemed totally out of touch with emotions and can be very cruel. I find it interesting that I had not heard of this book before and I am sure I will think back on various parts of the books for weeks to come.(less)

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Oct 02, 2010 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

In my review for Jennifer Egan's newest novel I got carried away with digressions and forgot to mention the most remarkable aspect of the novel: the depth and richness she achieved even though the book was only two hundred and something pages, fifty pages were taken up by the powerpoint chapter, and each chapter had the difficult task of having to introduce a whole new cast of characters.

C has a similar-ish task that Egan's book does. Show a persons life through a series of chapters that captur...more

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Aug 23, 2010 MJ Nicholls rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, sassysassenachs

Dear Mr. McC,

I had occasion to read your latest novel, C, over the weekend. I know this will be difficult to hear, given the warm reception to Remainder, but this novel is bloated twaddle.

Don’t get me wrong – I think you have talent. Bags of talent. Why, however, you chose to waste that talent writing a bad novel from the 19th century is beyond me. I mean, you are a modern artist, Tom – why must you borrow from the past to “steer the contemporary novel in exciting directions?” Is this the exciti...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Jim Elkins added it · review of another edition

Shelves: american

Hugely disappointing book. I wasn't happy with "Remainder," but McCarthy is an art world fixture, and I expected something experimental here. Given his psychotically disengaged, affectless narrator in "Remainder," I expected unresolved existential puzzles, meditations on reality and presence, and maybe some Oulipo-style games. I expected that all the technical material in the novel, which impressed some reviewers, would add to some elaborate theory about the illegible codes of the world and thei...more Hugely disappointing book. I wasn't happy with "Remainder," but McCarthy is an art world fixture, and I expected something experimental here. Given his psychotically disengaged, affectless narrator in "Remainder," I expected unresolved existential puzzles, meditations on reality and presence, and maybe some Oulipo-style games. I expected that all the technical material in the novel, which impressed some reviewers, would add to some elaborate theory about the illegible codes of the world and their inadequate representations, as in "Remainder," or as in the late-surrealist manifestos of the International Necronautical Society. I thought each chapter would be a set up for something elaborate that would be developed in the next chapter: the main character, Serge Carrefax, hunts down strange radio signals at the limits of his receiver's range, listening to the aurora borealis -- and around that time, his sister kills herself. His father is experimenting with radio and dreaming of television, and his household is full of botanical, chemical, and entomological pursuits. All that, it seems, should lead toward some inevitably failed system of signification that would allegorize the main character's emotionally frozen state. (If I'd read Charles Baxter's excellent review in the New York Review of Books, I wouldn't have thought all this; his review is posted on this site, but it's better to read it on the NYRB site, with the footnotes intact; November 25, 2010. More on that at the end.)[return][return]The reviews praise the book's ambition, its originality. It's ambitious only in the most abjectly old-fashioned manner: it's Hollywood-bound. The opening scenes describing Serge Carrefax's childhood home are clich�d evocations of a late nineteenth-century English estate. There's a chapter-long set piece about a spa in Poland, with all the details so familiar from early 20th c. novels. (The acknowledgments name a person who helped McCarthy find "a perfect spa town," but why did he bother? All these descriptions come straight from novels written 80 years ago.) There's another long set-piece on flying reconnaissance over the trenches in WWI: again, dusty material, stocked with all the clich�s of that genre. And another long set piece about Egypt, complete with mini-lectures on Isis and Osiris, the Book of the Dead, Sekmet, Upper and Lower Egypt, the meaning of "pharaoh," and other things: astonishing they aren't tongue in cheek. Astonishing McCarthy thinks he's woven them into his narrative. Astonishing they've been read as evidence of the author's erudition.[return][return]The book is studded with short expositions of supposedly esoteric or technical subjects: the silkworm industry, a chemistry manual, a dung beetle, how the sound from cannons is picked up using piano wires; how gunners learn to site their targets. There are lots of those, and they could have accumulated into an impressive sense of the world's codes, or an obsessive sense of the main character's disengagement from the human and pathological attachment to affectless semiotics. They could have, except that they're too short. They're hardly up and running as metaphors before McCarthy turns to something else. It's as if his sources (old journals, whatever he's found in libraries) were all brief, so his exposition had to be brief; or as if he thinks he'd bore readers if he kept going on such subjects, or -- the strangest option, but the one I suspect might account for the book's collage of little lectures -- as if he thought that even his psychotically detached narrator couldn't plausibly be that detached. But the whole point of elaborate, technical descriptions is that they can carry dense loads of meaning, and when they're sustained over pages or chapters they become resoundingly strange and compelling. I think, for example, of the descriptions of sunlight or banana plants in Robbe-Grillet's "Voyeur," or the endless technicalities in "Locus Solus," or, for that matter, the children's textbook in "Finnegans Wake." Why sample what should be endlessly repeated? Why be coy about the very signs of disengagement that are the book's theme?[return][return]These brief episodes are also unbelievable judged as conventional realist fiction. I can't believe that Serge, growing up in a family that is engaged with science and natural history, doesn't know what a spittle bug is (according to the novel, his sister tells him about it, and he briefly relishes its Latin name). I can't believe that he doesn't have more experience in the chemistry lab (the novel makes it sound as if he went in one or two times, and tried a couple of experiments without have any previous acquaintance with chemicals). I can't believe that when he finds a book a German soldier left behind, it happens to be H�lderlin, whom he apparently has never read before even though he has fluent German; and I can't believe that when an English soldier is reading poetry it happens to be A.E. Houseman (and I can't believe that McCarthy has to incorporate a lesson in the relative merits of those two poets, as if it fits seamlessly into his narrative simply because his narrative is stuffed with detail). I can't believe that he first notices some of the stages in silk manufacture, even though it's the principal industry on his father's estate, when he's almost a teenager and -- supposedly -- just happens to wander through the rooms. Realism, and writerly work, aren't McCarthy's strengths. At the level of writing, the book is often weak. Charles Baxter noted actual misspellings; I noted awkward sentences like this one:[return][return]"At the beginning of September, an arrival creates a small eddy in the flow of leavers from the town."[return][return](A "flow of leavers"?) The next sentences are also typical: [return][return]"She turns up in the Grand Hotel's lobby with a large round hatbox, a mink stole, a folded parasol of the same light blue as the hatbox, a black handbag and a flotilla of smaller bags and boxes. As porters duck and tack around her, she stands static as a lighthouse in a busy harbour, leaving her older chaperone to issue instructions and distribute tips." (pp. 98-99)[return][return]McCarthy is not parading stereotypes here: he is only writing a period-piece description -- so he doesn't really have an excuse to be piling on the clich�s. The lighthouse metaphor is like one of the overdone pieces in Roussel's "New Impressions of Africa," except that it's not generated by any compulsive rule: it's simply an attempt at a realist metaphor. But "duck and tack," which prefigures the harbor image, is the only well-written phrase in the sentence, and its function as an ornament to the marine metaphor ruins it as description. So at the level of writing -- realist craft, in this case -- the book is often distractingly dysfunctional.[return][return]I kept reading, hoping the Hollywood-style set pieces would finally congeal into a pattern, a theory, a systematic hallucination of meaning (as in "Remainder"), a language game, anything experimental. But no: this is a profoundly, resolutely old-fashioned sort of novel, interlarded with what the author thinks are unusual and fascinating pieces of period detail and technical information. (Baxter is good on the reasons why McCarthy was mistaken by people in the art world as an experimental novelist.) But the period detail is hackneyed and unconvincing (he isn't a good historical novelist), and the technical information is too sparse, didactic, unfelt, and undeveloped. And too unconvincing. I was hoping I could get ideas about the state of the experimental novel from this: instead I see McCarthy's headed for a different sort of career.(less)

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Jun 01, 2012 Sheri rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: addiction, male-female-power-sex-attractivenes

Sometimes my six year old will give me the initial of something he wants and then just leave it at that. For example, I'll ask what he wants for breakfast and he'll say "M": "milk?", "mushrooms", what? What do you want for breakfast. He'll just smile enigmatically and wait for me to get around to guessing his desire. If I have time, I play along. If I don't (school day, must feed children, put them in car, and get them to school so I can get to work), then I walk away and tell him that I'd be ha...more Sometimes my six year old will give me the initial of something he wants and then just leave it at that. For example, I'll ask what he wants for breakfast and he'll say "M": "milk?", "mushrooms", what? What do you want for breakfast. He'll just smile enigmatically and wait for me to get around to guessing his desire. If I have time, I play along. If I don't (school day, must feed children, put them in car, and get them to school so I can get to work), then I walk away and tell him that I'd be happy to help him with breakfast when he is ready to talk.

This book was kinda like that. Certainly the title doesn't help..does C stand for "cocaine"? "communication"? "carbonise"? "carbon"? (as suggested by Laura in the crypt..ha there's another C). All of these would be applicable and rather than be astounded at McCarthy's genius (because really isn't having multiple references just that), instead I'm left feeling annoyed and in a hurry. Please, just tell me what you want here.

That said, there were some interesting quotes and moments in the novel, but overall I did not find Serge particularly moving or interesting. He simply was a vessel (which might be a message of sorts, is he the wire?) through which McCarthy told this story. Far from having any motivation himself, Serge just sort of moves through the world at his own pace and doing whatever comes across his path. In a lot of ways, this book reminded me of Byatt's The Children's Book (English family in the pre-WWI time period), and especially Tom (with his directionless perspective). However, Tom's lack of perspective (yeah, yeah I'm using the word intentionally here) was met with a much more believable suicidal death while Serge simply floats along until he is bit by a bug and contracts a disease (not sure if this was a metaphor here for STD or AIDS..all that unprotected sex) which sends him into some crazy dream before he dies.

I liked the advent of the machinery; Simeon was too late with the birth of his telegraph machine (even though it comes on the day of Serge's birth) and did not win the race for scientific acknowledgement. He does continue to develop more technology, though and Serge (since the machine is his half-brother twin?) is also caught up in the electronic advancement. I loved his comment about "no operator under twenty would bother to tap out the whole word." Seemed so apropos of today's txting mania (yes "e" left out on purpose not a typo).

I also liked that McCarthy does not resolve Serge's parenthood. The first allusion is by Sophie the night before her suicide. Certainly she has become great friends with Widsun (who we are left to understand is Serge's real father) and he might have told her, but no one ever comes out and gives the reader clear understanding of either Serge or Sophie's paternity.

I found the whole WWI section (while he was acting as observer, not later when he was POW) to be just too similar to Catch 22 (realizing the differences between the two wars). His references later to all the spies that are spying on each other (both with Macauley in the office and later on the boat wondering what each government agent is doing there) all seem caught up in the this mock-bureaucratic idea. I get the comments, but nothing seems original. There were a lot of pages here in which Serge (supposedly our loveable main character) doesn't really do much and the bureaucratic insults are nothing new. Seemed just a waste of space.

"We're free when we're able to bridge the gap between our sensory impressions of the outer world, on the one hand, and, on the other, our own thoughts." I loved this quote. It reminds me of a discussion I had a while ago about finding a "happy Hegel" place: true happiness comes from within; despite what is happening to you or for you or with you, you must be at peace with yourself.

After the war, when Serge returns home he finds it too small. Again, this was well written and interesting (and something that happens to us all once we return to childhood locations) and I liked the imagery: "Versoie seems smaller...a passage each of whose sections used to comprise a world, expansive beyond comprehension, filled with organic density and volume, with the possibilities of what might take place in it, riven with enclaves and proclivities every one of which itself comprised a world within the world; on to infinity--now seems like a small inconsequential circuit".

After entering the drug world, Serge comes to realize that everyone is part of it (or not really, but could be). Again, there is a great quote: "He also comes to realize just how many of his fellow citizens are subject to the same vices as him. He picks up the telltale signals all over town: the sniffs, the slightly jaundiced skin, the hands jerky and limp by turns, eyes dull yet somehow restless too." And later "The dope fiends, especially, display them; the cocaine-sniffers too, when they're not temporarily fired up with charges that will run down in minutes, leaving them more empty than before. It's like a city of the living dead." Drug users and veterans as zombies...again not an original thought, but originally described.

Finally, his last real act in the novel is to have sex with Laura in the tunnel is highly charged with metaphor and previous references. Obviously, his earlier tunneling as a POW (and masturbation) has alluded to this moment. Certainly the fact that one of the rooms shows that the room above has collapsed into it reminds the reader of Serge's thoughts as an observer when the Brits were "undermining" the Germans who were then "undermining" them and creating tunnels that go as deep as the earth's core (or not really). And (as alluded to above), the creature that bites him on the ankle and ultimately kills him can be a number of things (all of which would be C items of course..ha) that ultimately end our protagonists journey.

There was a lot densely packed into this novel. It had some interesting points, but overall there wasn't anything that gave me the "wow" factor and the title (or lack thereof) was just too much of a distraction for me.
(less)

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Oct 06, 2010 Grace rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Relief flooded through my veins as I finally turned the last page of Tom McCarthy's latest novel, "C." It was finally over and I could end the pain and torture that reading this book caused me. I lost count of how many times I wanted to give up reading it, but I urged myself to continue, which was a decent choice considering the latter portion of the book did have a few interesting scenes and the main character, Serge, got what was coming to him in the end.

Too bad Serge's demise didn't come a h...more

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Sep 01, 2010 Kasa Cotugno rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: vine

Serge, the protagonist, makes his way through the early 20th century in chapters that become increasingly dense and harder to reconcile. However, he remains unformed and indistinguishable. The forces of history and personal journey never quite jell. Serge never really seems to come to life casting a caul over the entire novel. Could that be why McCarthy has his hero born with a caul? Could "C" also stand for Clueless? Although there are interesting insights into a diverse range of subjects, it s...more

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