Monday, October 18, 2010

What happened to "Men In Space"?

So.  I'm re-reading Tom McCarty's Remainder for my graduate seminar, and am reminded how amazing this novel is--I think it's going to be considered an extraordinarily important book when all's said and done, and in any event it is hugely entertaining and a major influence on the book I'm trying to write right now.  And I've got McCarthy's new one, C, waiting in the queue for the moment the semester ends.

But what happened to Men In Space?  This novel is not listed in the opening pages of C, and wasn't mentioned in the recent NYTBR review.  If I'm not mistaken the reviewer referred to C as McCarthy's second book.  Men In Space only seemed to come out in the UK, and at the moment (see link) it is listed as out of stock on Amazon.co.uk.

Out of stock?  Really?  Published in 2007, by a major author with a new novel out, and it's out of stock? I have a copy that I ordered from England, and must confess that I didn't get through it--at least not on my first sortie.  But it is definitely the same guy--it employs the same photo as Remainder.

I shouldn't be confused--I am a guy who had a book that only came out in the UK myself, and that kind of disappeared in the wilds of lit obscura for a while, until it finally came out here last year.  But McCarthy is different--he wrote a Big Book.  You'd think this second novel would have come out here by now, one way or another.

Any insights, keepers of Lit Arcana?

8 comments:

kevin said...

I've been wondering the same thing! Men in Space was post-Remainder, yes? So it's not like a suppressed first book, like Michael Cunningham's. What's it like (the part that you read)?

Anonymous said...

Yep, post-Remainder. It is about art thieves and is set in Prague. It's kind of all over the place...without the kind of forward momentum you get in the other book.

Pale Ramón said...

Wasn't Remainder first published by an arthouse press? Maybe Men in Space was published similarly and thus unavailable because the smaller press didn't have a wide network for distribution, etc.

Anonymous said...

Even if that's true, you'd think that McCarthy would actually LIST the thing in his "also by" section in the new book.

Lee said...

Is it possible that he's revising it for a future (re)publication?

Hugo Minor said...

This site claims that Vintage will be publishing Men in Space.

http://surplusmatter.com/about/

Hugo Minor said...

The Believer also claims that Men in Space is forthcoming from Vintage.

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200806/?read=interview_mccarthy

Anonymous said...

Ah, OK then...