Date: February 28th 2008

A witty, provocative exploration of the Tintin books as well as a delightful introduction to art, philosophy, and literary theory, by the author of "Remainder"--and review copies are now available! Email publicity@softskull.com

In "Tintin and the Secret of Literature" (Counterpoint/Soft Skull; Paperback; April 25, 2008; $15.95; 1-58243-405-0), a slyly brilliant study of one the greatest comics of the 20th century, Tom Mcarthy asks, is Is Tintin literature?

McCarthy promptly embarks on an adventure in deconstruction and discovery--bringing on board the readers themselves as well as such writers and philosophes as Balzac, Barthes, Bataille, and Derrida--aimed at determining Tintin’s cultural status.

Invigorating both subject and method with remarkable brio, McCarthy unpacks Tintin while offering a delightfully readable tour de force of literary theory.

Playful, provocative, puckish, at times even rather racy, this irresistibly clever, tightly constructed book shows how the themes Tintin generates are in fact the very same that have fueled and troubled writers from the classical era to the present day.

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PRAISE FOR TINTIN

"Billions of blistering barnacles, is Tintin literature? Not exactly, McCarthy concedes, before demonstrating that Herge's oeuvre is as complex. socially relevant and symbolically resonant as Proust or Shakespeare...Consistently fascinating…The pleasure of reading it derives precisely from its author’s obsessive approach, his breath-taking grasp of the oeuvre and the sheer exuberance with which he tackles his subject, showing us how rich with detail and complexity Herge painted his world"--The Observer

"So detailed are McCarthy’s references that I found myself reading this slim volume a handful of pages at a time ... He sends you back to the books with renewed enjoyment and refreshed eye."--Time Out London

"No matter how much you want to disagree with McCarthy ... his chatty style is so forcefully confident and his argument so tightly constructed and so well-supported, that by the end you’re throwing your arms up in surrender ... It’s brilliant."--Daily Telegraph

"To anyone interested in exploring literary theory, the book offers an accessible introduction, with the bonus of entertaining insights into one of the most celebrated of all comic strips."--The Independent

"A high-spirited double riff on the comic books and the theory alike."--Evening Standard

"You may be unconvinced, but the passion with which the case is presented will affect all but the most cynical reader."--New Statesman

"The author offers an exceptional, and very up-close, reading of Hergé’s texts, characters and plots... restores to Herge the primacy of story--of his written texts as opposed to his visual brilliance, which is hardly explored with the same depth."--The Times

"McCarthy dives straight into the depths of Remi’s work, pulling together biographical, political, formal and psychoanalytical approaches to reveal fascinating subtexts and unfamiliar themes ... He picks up such potentially dry notions with uncommon flair and humour, weaving them through the books with highly un-academic glee ... All the best literature deserves such imaginative investigation."--Sunday Herald (Glasgow)

"...playful, insightful."--The Independent on Sunday


PRAISE for Remainder

“Hypnotically creepy . . . McCarthy’s portrait of the pursuit of total control is arresting, and he is alert to the bland amorality that underlies it.” —The New Yorker

“[T]aut and chilly prose…the horrifying conclusion is visible 30 pages off, but it’s no less shocking when it arrives.” —Entertainment Weekly, A-

“What fun it is when a crafty writer plays cat and mouse with your mind, when you can never anticipate his next move and when, in any case, he knows all the exits to the maze and has already blocked them. . . . McCarthy’s superb stylistic control and uncanny imagination transport this novel beyond the borders of science fiction. His bleak humor, hauntingly affectless narrator and methodical expansion on his theme make Remainder more than an entertaining brain-teaser: it’s a work of novelistic philosophy, as disturbing as it is funny.” —New York Times Book Review

“A chillingly clever novel of patterns that fools you into thinking it’s a novel about plot ...ambitious and intelligent.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Fresh, funny, and deeply disturbing.” —New York Magazine

“A novel of astonishing genius…caught me in such a delirious spin toward fragment-
ation and left me feeling every detail of the matter of life more keenly.” —The Believer

“Addictively strange.”—Details

“Tom McCarthy is shockingly talented. . . . Remainder is one of those novels that you finish and turn immediately back to the beginning, to fill in the gaps you may have missed the first time around. It leaves you feeling sort of shaken and very impressed.” —Gawker.com

“Nihilistically modern and classically structured. . . . Tightly knit, suspenseful . . . [Remainder] pursues an authenticity with the monomaniacal focus of Francis Ford Coppola circa Apocalypse Now.” —Bookforum

“Captivating and challenging. . . . Remainder isn't a mystery novel—there's no villain here apart from time and space—so if its core ripples with ambiguity, all the better for the reader, as this is a book to be read and then reread, rich as it is with its insights, daring as it is with its contradictions.” —Los Angeles Times

“Tom McCarthy’s first novel offers a vivid, subtle portrait of creeping madness.”
—Time Out New York

“A quick and gritty novel that begs, thanks largely to a cinematic plot, to be read in one sitting.” —BookSlut

“A stunningly strange book about the rarest of fictional subjects, happiness.”
—Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude

“Tom McCarthy has a singularity, a precision, a surreal logic and a sly wit that is all his own. It will be a long time before you read a stranger book—or a truer one.” —Rupert Thomson, author of Divided Kingdom

About the Author:
Tom McCarthy is an artist and the author of several articles, essays, and books, including the forthcoming Men in Space and Remainder. He lives in London.

Tintin and the Secret of Literature
By Tom McCarthy
April 25th, 2008; Paperback; 224 pages; $15.95; 1-58243-405-0
Counterpoint Press / www.counterpointpress.com
Distributed by Publishers Group West


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