This compelling novel has as its protagonist cornelius suttree, living alone and in exile in a disintegrating houseboat on the wrong side of the tennessee river close by knoxville. He stays at the edge of an outcast comm...This compelling novel has as its protagonist cornelius suttree, living alone and in exile in a disintegrating houseboat on the wrong side of the tennessee river close by knoxville. He stays at the edge of an outcast community inhabited by eccentrics, criminals and the poverty-stricken.