Tom McCarthy's 'The Rhyl Poster' Reviewed: A Novel of Legal Intrigue and Stylistic Excess

Tom McCarthy's sixth novel, 'The Rhyl Poster,' centers on Benjamin Stanton, a référendaire at the Court of Justice of the European Union (C.J.E.U.) in Luxembourg. Stanton, an orphan, Iraq War veteran, surveyor, and stutterer, is tasked with drafting a landmark ruling in Kohlhas v. Elrond, a case involving a shadowy data-analytics corporation, Elrond, and a group of activists led by Kohlhas. The novel explores Stanton's betrayal of the court by leaking documents to Pirotti, a Swiss Italian heading a mysterious legal NGO, in exchange for pills. His guilt leads him to attempt a 'counter-confession,' which he ultimately cannot complete. The review, published in The New Yorker, criticizes the novel's dense jargon, recycled plot from McCarthy's previous works ('Satin Island' and 'The Making of Incarnation'), and lack of narrative pleasure. It notes McCarthy's career-long project of extending the themes of his debut, 'Remainder' (2005), which was about a man who reconstructs spaces to feel real. The review observes that 'The Rhyl Poster' may signal the exhaustion of McCarthy's method, though it acknowledges his unwavering conviction. The novel is set in Luxembourg and features McCarthy's signature preoccupations with secret codes, radio transmissions, and early twentieth-century radicalism. The review was published in The New Yorker.