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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers鈥� prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the caf茅 where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine.
359 pages, Paperback
First published June 4, 1940
6,062 people are currently reading
136k people want to read
About the author
Carson McCullers
176听books3,044听followersCarson McCullers was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the Southern United States. Her other novels have similar themes. Most are set in the Deep South.
McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stage adaptation of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950鈥�51.
McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stage adaptation of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950鈥�51.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,962 reviews
June 26, 2008
I knew nothing about this book at all. Well, except for the title, I鈥檇 definitely heard the title before 鈥� but I would have bet money the book was written by a man and that it was bad romance novel, at least, that would have been my best guess. Instead, this is now perhaps one of my all-time favourite American novels. It can be compared without the least blush of embarrassment with Steinbeck at his best and Harper Lee out killing mocking birds 鈥� and there are many, many points of comparison between all three writers. This one has completely captivated me 鈥� and in ways I had not expected to be captivated.
My very dear friend Nell and I were chatting one day about Calvino鈥檚 idea of the books one might write and how these ought to fit into an imaginary bookcase 鈥� the short version of his idea being, what books would you like your own book to be beside on an imaginary bookshelf? Anyway, in the very next email from Nell there appeared a list of books 鈥� one of which was this one. I went to the library to see if I could find it, and then to some second hand bookshops around and about 鈥� but with no luck. Well, six months or so later and now I鈥檝e read it. And god I can鈥檛 begin to tell you how glad I am.
The title is actually the perfect title for this book, but that is only true after you have read it 鈥� it is actually a remarkably bad title for the book before you have read it. I would not be surprised if 999 readers in a thousand would think that this would be a story about unrequited love. That this might just be a melancholy story about a protagonist, let鈥檚 call him Mr Sadsack, who has spent his life looking for the perfect partner, but she is terribly allusive and although he sometimes despairs that he will ever find her no one reading this imaginary novel called 鈥楾he Heart is a Lonely Hunter鈥� doubts that in the end our nice wee man will finally end up with his perfect partner. But no. Although the title might make you think the book is about this sort of thing, it is about nothing like this at all.
I guess I could say that the book has grand themes about 鈥榳hat is wrong with The South鈥� 鈥� and that might make you form images in your mind of the inhuman treatment of black Americans in the southern states of America and the struggle to end segregation and a terrible legal system based on discrimination. And although you would be closer to the truth, it would still not be quite the book you might expect it to be.
And if I said that it has themes concerning the subjugation of labour and how the economic system is sustained by creating the conditions by which the working classes are convinced of their fundamental inferiority so they do nothing to remove their fetters 鈥� and that the heart that seeks freedom is also a lonely hunter 鈥� all this would be true too, to a point, and not true beyond that point. There are parts of this book that made me think about Chomsky鈥檚 political writings and how dreadfully long the truth has been known about oppression and exploitation and how dreadfully long it has been clear what needs to be done. And that this too is the part of the American tradition that is spoken of, if at all, only in whispers; for don鈥檛 you know they鈥檙e talking about a revolution in whispers?
And if I said this book is about coming of age and the loss of innocence and how becoming an adult is actually a kind of death which we might long for, but where more is lost than it seems we could possibly dare to lose. If I said that the young woman in this who throughout the novel moves from being a child to becoming an adult (even without some of the possible horrible things that could have happened to her not actually eventuating) and yet she still basically loses everything by growing up 鈥� that would be mostly true too.
And if I said that the book is about selfishness and how a moment鈥檚 decision or thoughtlessness can have horrible and irrevocable consequences 鈥� well, you might think you鈥檝e read this book many times before 鈥� but again, I think you would be wrong.
Or I could say that this is a book about how we fundamentally misunderstand others 鈥� for doesn鈥檛 everyone misunderstand (project onto) John Singer, the deaf-mute who is more or less central to the story, whatever it is they need him to be? And isn鈥檛 Singer guilty of exactly the same human frailty with his own friend Antonapoulos? I thought it was terribly clever of her to have Singer bring Antonapoulos a projector 鈥� I thought she was nearly god-like as a writer at that point.
What this book is really is a warning 鈥� not a warning that I might have written if I was to write a book like this 鈥� but a dark and terrible warning all the same. Much darker and much more terrible than I think I would be capable of writing. No, I couldn鈥檛 write a book like this, and knowing that fills me with the deepest of regrets. Because this is also a much more optimistic book than I think I would be capable of writing too.
McCullers was 23 when she wrote this book 鈥� god, the thought of it fills me with awe. There are times when I would almost be prepared to believe that some people really do have older souls than the rest of us. It is as incomprehensible that a 23 year old could write this book as it is to believe that a woman of only 22 years could have written Pride and Prejudice.
And the warning? Well, that you can be absolutely right in what you believe, you can be standing on the side of righteousness and hold the truth shining in the palm of your hand and be doing everything in your power to improve the lot of your people 鈥� and you can still be only half human. You can walk in the ways of the great project of your time, you can know and you can spend your life seeking to show the 鈥榙on鈥檛 knows鈥� so they too become part of the enlightened 鈥� and still you can be a damaged half a man. We are barely human without our dreams, but even when our dreams are not selfish and are directed at the greatest, the most noble of aspirations, we are still human, all too human.
The scene with the two old men, the one black and the other white, arguing through the night until dawn about the best way to liberate those who are oppressed and unaware is achingly sad. And why? Because it is blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes that neither of these men could ever 鈥榤obilise the masses鈥�. Their dreams are as just and pure and true as they are barren and impotent and without substance. They shimmer and flap and torment them both 鈥� and thus is the human condition.
Of all the characters I think perhaps Doctor Copeland is the most poignant. He effectively loses his own children because they do not live up to his dreams for them, his need for them to fight for his ideals. This really is a key theme of the book, that dreams not only have the power to make us human, but can then over-power us and make us something other than human too. With the book being written at a time when Hitler was screaming at crowds of men standing with arms raised in salute this 23 year old woman had a much clearer vision of what was wrong with the world than I have ever been able to achieve. And she tells of this vision in the only way it can be told - in whispers.
This really is a remarkable book 鈥� like nothing I imagined it to be and so much more than I could ever have hoped..
My very dear friend Nell and I were chatting one day about Calvino鈥檚 idea of the books one might write and how these ought to fit into an imaginary bookcase 鈥� the short version of his idea being, what books would you like your own book to be beside on an imaginary bookshelf? Anyway, in the very next email from Nell there appeared a list of books 鈥� one of which was this one. I went to the library to see if I could find it, and then to some second hand bookshops around and about 鈥� but with no luck. Well, six months or so later and now I鈥檝e read it. And god I can鈥檛 begin to tell you how glad I am.
The title is actually the perfect title for this book, but that is only true after you have read it 鈥� it is actually a remarkably bad title for the book before you have read it. I would not be surprised if 999 readers in a thousand would think that this would be a story about unrequited love. That this might just be a melancholy story about a protagonist, let鈥檚 call him Mr Sadsack, who has spent his life looking for the perfect partner, but she is terribly allusive and although he sometimes despairs that he will ever find her no one reading this imaginary novel called 鈥楾he Heart is a Lonely Hunter鈥� doubts that in the end our nice wee man will finally end up with his perfect partner. But no. Although the title might make you think the book is about this sort of thing, it is about nothing like this at all.
I guess I could say that the book has grand themes about 鈥榳hat is wrong with The South鈥� 鈥� and that might make you form images in your mind of the inhuman treatment of black Americans in the southern states of America and the struggle to end segregation and a terrible legal system based on discrimination. And although you would be closer to the truth, it would still not be quite the book you might expect it to be.
And if I said that it has themes concerning the subjugation of labour and how the economic system is sustained by creating the conditions by which the working classes are convinced of their fundamental inferiority so they do nothing to remove their fetters 鈥� and that the heart that seeks freedom is also a lonely hunter 鈥� all this would be true too, to a point, and not true beyond that point. There are parts of this book that made me think about Chomsky鈥檚 political writings and how dreadfully long the truth has been known about oppression and exploitation and how dreadfully long it has been clear what needs to be done. And that this too is the part of the American tradition that is spoken of, if at all, only in whispers; for don鈥檛 you know they鈥檙e talking about a revolution in whispers?
And if I said this book is about coming of age and the loss of innocence and how becoming an adult is actually a kind of death which we might long for, but where more is lost than it seems we could possibly dare to lose. If I said that the young woman in this who throughout the novel moves from being a child to becoming an adult (even without some of the possible horrible things that could have happened to her not actually eventuating) and yet she still basically loses everything by growing up 鈥� that would be mostly true too.
And if I said that the book is about selfishness and how a moment鈥檚 decision or thoughtlessness can have horrible and irrevocable consequences 鈥� well, you might think you鈥檝e read this book many times before 鈥� but again, I think you would be wrong.
Or I could say that this is a book about how we fundamentally misunderstand others 鈥� for doesn鈥檛 everyone misunderstand (project onto) John Singer, the deaf-mute who is more or less central to the story, whatever it is they need him to be? And isn鈥檛 Singer guilty of exactly the same human frailty with his own friend Antonapoulos? I thought it was terribly clever of her to have Singer bring Antonapoulos a projector 鈥� I thought she was nearly god-like as a writer at that point.
What this book is really is a warning 鈥� not a warning that I might have written if I was to write a book like this 鈥� but a dark and terrible warning all the same. Much darker and much more terrible than I think I would be capable of writing. No, I couldn鈥檛 write a book like this, and knowing that fills me with the deepest of regrets. Because this is also a much more optimistic book than I think I would be capable of writing too.
McCullers was 23 when she wrote this book 鈥� god, the thought of it fills me with awe. There are times when I would almost be prepared to believe that some people really do have older souls than the rest of us. It is as incomprehensible that a 23 year old could write this book as it is to believe that a woman of only 22 years could have written Pride and Prejudice.
And the warning? Well, that you can be absolutely right in what you believe, you can be standing on the side of righteousness and hold the truth shining in the palm of your hand and be doing everything in your power to improve the lot of your people 鈥� and you can still be only half human. You can walk in the ways of the great project of your time, you can know and you can spend your life seeking to show the 鈥榙on鈥檛 knows鈥� so they too become part of the enlightened 鈥� and still you can be a damaged half a man. We are barely human without our dreams, but even when our dreams are not selfish and are directed at the greatest, the most noble of aspirations, we are still human, all too human.
The scene with the two old men, the one black and the other white, arguing through the night until dawn about the best way to liberate those who are oppressed and unaware is achingly sad. And why? Because it is blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes that neither of these men could ever 鈥榤obilise the masses鈥�. Their dreams are as just and pure and true as they are barren and impotent and without substance. They shimmer and flap and torment them both 鈥� and thus is the human condition.
Of all the characters I think perhaps Doctor Copeland is the most poignant. He effectively loses his own children because they do not live up to his dreams for them, his need for them to fight for his ideals. This really is a key theme of the book, that dreams not only have the power to make us human, but can then over-power us and make us something other than human too. With the book being written at a time when Hitler was screaming at crowds of men standing with arms raised in salute this 23 year old woman had a much clearer vision of what was wrong with the world than I have ever been able to achieve. And she tells of this vision in the only way it can be told - in whispers.
This really is a remarkable book 鈥� like nothing I imagined it to be and so much more than I could ever have hoped..
February 21, 2024
She went there, didn't she.
As I read this novel, I could tell McCullers was setting the stage for something truly horrible to happen. And horrible things did happen. But they were never as bad as I thought they would be. Until...
Oh yes, she waited until the very end to rip my heart from my chest, throw it on the floor, stomp on it with her pumps and then throw it into the ocean to be eaten by sharks.
How does someone write a book this rich and wise and honest at 23? How does a young woman write such darkness, such tragedy? Like Flannery O'Connor, she suffered from illness from a young age. Maybe that is where her darkness came from?
As you can probably glean from the title, all of the characters in this novel are haunted by the ghost of loneliness. Mick is a girl on the brink of womanhood. Like many teenage girls, she feels isolated and misunderstood, but finds solace in two things: the company of a deaf mute boarder in her family home and her true passion, music. Let me share a passage with you describing Mick's experience of hearing Beethoven's 3rd symphony for the first time:
How did it come? For a minute the opening balanced from one side to the other. Like a walk or a march. Like God strutting in the night. The outside of her was suddenly froze and only that first part of the music was hot inside her heart. She could not even hear what sounded after, but she sat there waiting and froze, with her fists tight. After awhile the music came again, harder and loud. It didn't have anything to do with God. This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the daytime and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the dark with all her plans and feelings.This music was her - the real plain her.
I can't emphasize enough how much that passage resonated with me.
The theme of loneliness, of isolation carries through each of the characters we meet as McCullers weaves her magical tale. John Singer is a deaf mute who has only one person in the world he calls a friend; a fellow deaf mute. When his friend goes mad and is institutionalized, Singer no longer has his best friend by his side, he feels lost. Yet all of the folks in this small town are drawn to him. It's as if his deafness gives him a wisdom and understanding that others are sorely missing. Ironically, it's as if for the first time in their lives they feel the are being truly heard. Dr. Copeland is a black physician in the south. He feels isolated from his family because they don't want to follow in his footsteps; his ambition has driven away his wife and children. He feels isolated because he's a black man in a predominately white town. The only white person he feels he can trust is Mr. Singer. Jake Blount is a drunk and a drifter. His rage and inability to relate to others exacerbates his feelings of loneliness. Yet the presence of Mr. Singer soothes him. Biff Brannon is a cafe owner; people come in and out of his restaurant all day, yet he is alone. He and his wife have drifted apart even though they live in the same home; he has no children and no real friends, except for Mr. Singer.
As I made my way through this journey, I hoped and hoped that things would turn out alright for these broken individuals. But things don't always turn out okay, and what you're left with is the harsh reality of life. We all experience tragedy. We are, all of us, lonely hunters.
As I read this novel, I could tell McCullers was setting the stage for something truly horrible to happen. And horrible things did happen. But they were never as bad as I thought they would be. Until...
Oh yes, she waited until the very end to rip my heart from my chest, throw it on the floor, stomp on it with her pumps and then throw it into the ocean to be eaten by sharks.
How does someone write a book this rich and wise and honest at 23? How does a young woman write such darkness, such tragedy? Like Flannery O'Connor, she suffered from illness from a young age. Maybe that is where her darkness came from?
As you can probably glean from the title, all of the characters in this novel are haunted by the ghost of loneliness. Mick is a girl on the brink of womanhood. Like many teenage girls, she feels isolated and misunderstood, but finds solace in two things: the company of a deaf mute boarder in her family home and her true passion, music. Let me share a passage with you describing Mick's experience of hearing Beethoven's 3rd symphony for the first time:
How did it come? For a minute the opening balanced from one side to the other. Like a walk or a march. Like God strutting in the night. The outside of her was suddenly froze and only that first part of the music was hot inside her heart. She could not even hear what sounded after, but she sat there waiting and froze, with her fists tight. After awhile the music came again, harder and loud. It didn't have anything to do with God. This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the daytime and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the dark with all her plans and feelings.This music was her - the real plain her.
I can't emphasize enough how much that passage resonated with me.
The theme of loneliness, of isolation carries through each of the characters we meet as McCullers weaves her magical tale. John Singer is a deaf mute who has only one person in the world he calls a friend; a fellow deaf mute. When his friend goes mad and is institutionalized, Singer no longer has his best friend by his side, he feels lost. Yet all of the folks in this small town are drawn to him. It's as if his deafness gives him a wisdom and understanding that others are sorely missing. Ironically, it's as if for the first time in their lives they feel the are being truly heard. Dr. Copeland is a black physician in the south. He feels isolated from his family because they don't want to follow in his footsteps; his ambition has driven away his wife and children. He feels isolated because he's a black man in a predominately white town. The only white person he feels he can trust is Mr. Singer. Jake Blount is a drunk and a drifter. His rage and inability to relate to others exacerbates his feelings of loneliness. Yet the presence of Mr. Singer soothes him. Biff Brannon is a cafe owner; people come in and out of his restaurant all day, yet he is alone. He and his wife have drifted apart even though they live in the same home; he has no children and no real friends, except for Mr. Singer.
As I made my way through this journey, I hoped and hoped that things would turn out alright for these broken individuals. But things don't always turn out okay, and what you're left with is the harsh reality of life. We all experience tragedy. We are, all of us, lonely hunters.
May 20, 2019
The heart is a lonely hunter and it can break in many different ways.
Mine broke several times while reading this stunning document of American life. What a rich and multifaceted story, and what a perfect complement to other giants of American storytelling of that era.
Just in the beginning, I saw traces of Steinbeck, most notably of his and , in the small town talk and the slightly comical marital scenes. But the tone quickly grew darker, and when African American life was introduced and put into contrast with the poor white characters, deeply rooted issues of racism, prejudice, exploitation and segregation took over.
I thought I would claim one of the most heartbreaking scenes to be the naive prayer of an old coloured person, whose hope in Jesus reflects the evil of racist society and its dominating gods perfectly:
鈥淚 say to Him, 鈥淛esus Christ, us is all sad coloured peoples.鈥� And then he will place His holy hand upon our heads and straightway us will be white as cotton.鈥�
My heart broke for that desperate old person, whose religion is tainted by the hopeless situation of white supremacy, both in the spiritual and physical world. But it turned out to be a minor issue in the complex community of lonely hearts.
My heart broke for the man who tries to change the lives of coloured people in his neighbourhood, exchanging belief in Jesus for belief in Marxism, and seeing the dogma of socialism as the natural conclusion of the teachings of Jesus. He reminded me of the confused characters in , who get rid of their aggressive religion only to create another anti-creed, while mirroring their previous behaviour exactly. They have been trained to accept an authoritarian dogma even if they drop their supernatural faith in gods. Religious at heart, they have to follow a strong leader. There is no freedom of thought.
But even though the socialist idea contains respect and hope for a better future for African Americans as well as for the poor masses of workers in general, that concept of life is bound to fail as well in a world that worships and perpetuates white power and corporate domination of capital.
My heart broke when a disillusioned socialist explains the brainwashing that takes place within society to make exploited victims of corporate thinking believe in 鈥淎merican freedom鈥� while rattling their chains.
鈥淏ut it has taken a hell of a lot of lies to keep them from knowing鈥�, he summarises. But still he chooses to fight his African American counterpart instead of joining forces for real change. Each one according to his own lonely heart and creed.
Trying to obtain justice in such a society can only lead to violence and continued abuse, as a heartbroken father experiences first hand when he tries to enter a white court to demand justice for his son, crippled for life in a prison.
My heart broke when I read about the gratuitous violence against the young coloured men, and their lifelong suffering as a result. They have no voice to cry out for justice, and their fate is that of an in Ellison鈥檚 definition: they can鈥檛 be seen because nobody wants to see them. BLACK LIVES MATTER, one feels like yelling, taking a knee for change after a long history of abuse. But we all know what power answers when one tries to make one鈥檚 voice heard. Money and exclusive club behaviour speak louder than justice. Still.
My heart broke because of the inhumane suffering of poor children in a society that doesn鈥檛 care about healthcare, education and safety. Where children are allowed to recklessly carry weapons at the age of 7, there will be accidents that destroy several families. There is no statistical research needed to prove that general availability of guns has a negative effect on innocent people. When a child hurts another child with a firearm, both end up victims of an absurd interpretation of the 鈥渞ights of man鈥� to protect themselves.
My heart broke for the young girl who dreams of becoming a pianist, but whose fate it is to live and suffer a poor girl鈥檚 life. Nella Larsen鈥檚 comes to mind - a life spent dreaming, without ever actually having a chance to follow one鈥檚 heart.
My heart broke for the deaf mute man around whom the other characters circle like the spokes in a wheel. People in his surroundings treat him like a god because his muteness allows them to give him the qualities they wish him to have. I bow to Carson McCullers for that perfect definition of a god: mute and therefore adaptable to our personal, private imagination! Only the mute鈥檚 obese and egocentric fellow mute friend can鈥檛 find anything godlike in him, of course, and he suffers as a result. The heart is a strange hunter as well. Some hearts are too broken to be mended, after all.
My heart broke because the contrast between fascism and democracy is as vividly tangible to me in our present times as it was to the characters in 1940, witnessing the rise of Hitler in Europe. When a young Jewish boy explains to his own horror that he was a fascist before he knew what Hitler did to Jews, it echoes what lures young impressionable people to accept and worship the power of a populist narcissist:
鈥淵ou know all the pictures of the people our age in Europe marching and singing songs and keeping step together. I used to think that was wonderful. All of them pledged to each other and with one leader. All of them with the same ideals and marching in step together.鈥�
The wish for unity in sameness is strong in religious and ideological communities around the world at all times, but occasionally it takes control of a whole generation, as in the 1930s. The scary revelation, to the boy himself, is the fact that it works so well. He concludes that there is no time for personal ambition as long as fascism reigns in Germany. It is democracy against dictatorship, and all other issues are paling beside the great struggle of the time.
My heart broke because it is true, but at the same time it is not. All the other characters still fight their own fights against racism, sexism, poverty and prejudice. Life is too complicated for us to grasp, even when we are living it in a small town in America, powerless and helplessly alone with our pounding hearts.
The heart is a lonely hunter, but we can share our heartfelt stories and hopefully develop some compassion for the hearts of others, learning to treat them with care and respect. For they keep pounding even when they are broken. It just hurts as hell.
鈥淭read softly because you tread on my dreams!鈥�
Mine broke several times while reading this stunning document of American life. What a rich and multifaceted story, and what a perfect complement to other giants of American storytelling of that era.
Just in the beginning, I saw traces of Steinbeck, most notably of his and , in the small town talk and the slightly comical marital scenes. But the tone quickly grew darker, and when African American life was introduced and put into contrast with the poor white characters, deeply rooted issues of racism, prejudice, exploitation and segregation took over.
I thought I would claim one of the most heartbreaking scenes to be the naive prayer of an old coloured person, whose hope in Jesus reflects the evil of racist society and its dominating gods perfectly:
鈥淚 say to Him, 鈥淛esus Christ, us is all sad coloured peoples.鈥� And then he will place His holy hand upon our heads and straightway us will be white as cotton.鈥�
My heart broke for that desperate old person, whose religion is tainted by the hopeless situation of white supremacy, both in the spiritual and physical world. But it turned out to be a minor issue in the complex community of lonely hearts.
My heart broke for the man who tries to change the lives of coloured people in his neighbourhood, exchanging belief in Jesus for belief in Marxism, and seeing the dogma of socialism as the natural conclusion of the teachings of Jesus. He reminded me of the confused characters in , who get rid of their aggressive religion only to create another anti-creed, while mirroring their previous behaviour exactly. They have been trained to accept an authoritarian dogma even if they drop their supernatural faith in gods. Religious at heart, they have to follow a strong leader. There is no freedom of thought.
But even though the socialist idea contains respect and hope for a better future for African Americans as well as for the poor masses of workers in general, that concept of life is bound to fail as well in a world that worships and perpetuates white power and corporate domination of capital.
My heart broke when a disillusioned socialist explains the brainwashing that takes place within society to make exploited victims of corporate thinking believe in 鈥淎merican freedom鈥� while rattling their chains.
鈥淏ut it has taken a hell of a lot of lies to keep them from knowing鈥�, he summarises. But still he chooses to fight his African American counterpart instead of joining forces for real change. Each one according to his own lonely heart and creed.
Trying to obtain justice in such a society can only lead to violence and continued abuse, as a heartbroken father experiences first hand when he tries to enter a white court to demand justice for his son, crippled for life in a prison.
My heart broke when I read about the gratuitous violence against the young coloured men, and their lifelong suffering as a result. They have no voice to cry out for justice, and their fate is that of an in Ellison鈥檚 definition: they can鈥檛 be seen because nobody wants to see them. BLACK LIVES MATTER, one feels like yelling, taking a knee for change after a long history of abuse. But we all know what power answers when one tries to make one鈥檚 voice heard. Money and exclusive club behaviour speak louder than justice. Still.
My heart broke because of the inhumane suffering of poor children in a society that doesn鈥檛 care about healthcare, education and safety. Where children are allowed to recklessly carry weapons at the age of 7, there will be accidents that destroy several families. There is no statistical research needed to prove that general availability of guns has a negative effect on innocent people. When a child hurts another child with a firearm, both end up victims of an absurd interpretation of the 鈥渞ights of man鈥� to protect themselves.
My heart broke for the young girl who dreams of becoming a pianist, but whose fate it is to live and suffer a poor girl鈥檚 life. Nella Larsen鈥檚 comes to mind - a life spent dreaming, without ever actually having a chance to follow one鈥檚 heart.
My heart broke for the deaf mute man around whom the other characters circle like the spokes in a wheel. People in his surroundings treat him like a god because his muteness allows them to give him the qualities they wish him to have. I bow to Carson McCullers for that perfect definition of a god: mute and therefore adaptable to our personal, private imagination! Only the mute鈥檚 obese and egocentric fellow mute friend can鈥檛 find anything godlike in him, of course, and he suffers as a result. The heart is a strange hunter as well. Some hearts are too broken to be mended, after all.
My heart broke because the contrast between fascism and democracy is as vividly tangible to me in our present times as it was to the characters in 1940, witnessing the rise of Hitler in Europe. When a young Jewish boy explains to his own horror that he was a fascist before he knew what Hitler did to Jews, it echoes what lures young impressionable people to accept and worship the power of a populist narcissist:
鈥淵ou know all the pictures of the people our age in Europe marching and singing songs and keeping step together. I used to think that was wonderful. All of them pledged to each other and with one leader. All of them with the same ideals and marching in step together.鈥�
The wish for unity in sameness is strong in religious and ideological communities around the world at all times, but occasionally it takes control of a whole generation, as in the 1930s. The scary revelation, to the boy himself, is the fact that it works so well. He concludes that there is no time for personal ambition as long as fascism reigns in Germany. It is democracy against dictatorship, and all other issues are paling beside the great struggle of the time.
My heart broke because it is true, but at the same time it is not. All the other characters still fight their own fights against racism, sexism, poverty and prejudice. Life is too complicated for us to grasp, even when we are living it in a small town in America, powerless and helplessly alone with our pounding hearts.
The heart is a lonely hunter, but we can share our heartfelt stories and hopefully develop some compassion for the hearts of others, learning to treat them with care and respect. For they keep pounding even when they are broken. It just hurts as hell.
鈥淭read softly because you tread on my dreams!鈥�
April 19, 2025
廿賱賶 丕賱賮鬲丕丞 丕賱鬲賷 賰丕賳鬲 鬲賳夭賱 賲賳 鬲乇賵賱賱賷 44 賲毓 亘丿丕賷丞 兀睾賳賷丞 丨丕賵賱 鬲賮鬲賰乇賳賷 賮賷 亘賱賰賵賳丞 丕賱賰賷鬲 賰丕鬲
賲毓 乇囟丕 賰賳鬲 兀鬲丨丿孬貙 爻兀賱鬲賳賷: "賴賱 鬲噩丿 賳賮爻賰 丿丕禺賱 丕賱乇賵丕賷丕鬲 賮賷 氐賵乇丞 卮禺氐賷丞 賲丨丿丿丞責 兀賵 賲賵夭毓 亘賷賳 丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲責 兀賵 賱丿賷賰 賯賳丕毓丞 賲爻亘賯丞
兀賳 賴匕丕 丕賱毓丕賱賲 亘賲毓夭賱 毓賳賰 賵兀賳賴 賵丨丿賴 賮賷 賰賲丕賱賴 丕賱匕賷 鬲賳賯氐賴 丕賱賯乇丕亍丞
賵賮賷 噩賲丕賱賴 丕賱匕賷 賷賳鬲馗乇 匕丕賰乇丞 鬲賳氐亘 賮賷賴丕 兀賳賴丕乇賴責 爻兀賱鬲賳賷 賮爻乇丨鬲 賮賷 賰賱丕賲賴丕 亘賲毓賳賶 丕賱賰賱賲丞
賱賷爻 賮賷 丕賱氐賵乇 丕賱賲禺鬲賱賮丞 丕賱鬲賷 胤乇丨鬲賴丕 廿賳賲丕 賮賷 丨囟賵乇賴丕 賵氐賵鬲賴丕 賵乇賵丕賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱賴丕 鬲鬲賲賳賶 兀賳 鬲賰鬲亘賴丕 賷賵賲丕
賯賱鬲 賱賴丕: 兀毓丕賷卮 丕賱賲丐賱賮貙 賷氐毓亘 毓賱賷賾 匕丕賰 丕賱廿賳爻丕賳 丕賱匕賷 卮睾賱 賳賮爻賴 亘毓丕賱賲 丿賯賷賯 噩賲賷賱 賲鬲爻賯 賱丕亘丿 兀賳 賷賰鬲賲賱貙 賱丕亘丿 兀賳 賷乇丨賱 賮賷賴 賲賳 賷乇丨賱貙 賵賷鬲兀賱賲 賮賷賴 賲賳
賷鬲兀賱賲貙 賵賷鬲賰賱賾賲 賮賷賴 賰孬賷乇賵賳貙 賰賱 賲賳賴賲 賱賴 賮賰乇賴 賵鬲氐賵乇丕鬲賴 賵兀丨賱丕賲賴 丕賱鬲賷 賯丿 賷丨賯賯賴丕 賵賯丿 鬲馗賱 賲毓賱賯丞 亘禺賷賵胤 賮噩乇 賳丕卅賲 亘賷賳 丕賱爻胤賵乇
鬲賯賵賱 賱賷: "賰兀賳 丕賱賲丐賱賮 賳賴乇貙 賷鬲丿賮賯 賲丿丕丿賴 賮賷 囟賮丕賮 丕賱兀賵乇丕賯." 兀鬲匕賰乇 賳氐丕 賰鬲亘賳丕賴 賲毓丕
丕賱兀賳賴丕乇 賮賷 丕賱噩爻丿 卮乇賷丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱丿賳賷丕 兀賰賵丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱丨囟丕乇丕鬲 兀賵胤丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱賲卮丕毓乇 兀賵鬲丕乇 賱兀賮乇丕丨 賵兀丨夭丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱氐賮丨丕鬲 賳賵丕賮匕 賳乇賶 賲賳賴丕 兀丨亘丕亘丕 賱賷爻 賱賴賲 毓賳賵丕賳
賳賳夭賱 賲賷丕賴 丕賱爻乇丿 賱丕 賳禺卮賶 賲賳 丕賱睾乇賯
鬲兀禺匕賳丕 賲乇丕賰亘 丕賱賵乇賯
賳乇賶 賮賷賴丕 賲賳 毓亘乇 賵賲賳 丕丨鬲乇賯
賵賷馗賱 賲毓賳丕 賲賳 氐丿賯
鈥� 噩賲賷賱 兀賳 鬲噩丿 丕賱兀卮賷丕亍 賮賷 兀賲丕賰賳 丿賯賷賯丞貙 賮賴賳丕賰 丕賱乇丕賵賷 丕賱匕賷 賵囟毓賴丕 亘毓賳丕賷丞 賱鬲賱賲爻賴丕 丨賵丕爻賰
賱鬲賰賵賳 乇賲賵夭丕 鬲卮睾賱 賮賰乇賰 亘丕賱毓丕賱賲 丕賱卮丕爻毓 丕賱匕賷 賷鬲噩賲賾毓 賰賯胤毓 賲毓丿賳賷丞 賷賱賯胤賴丕 賲睾賳丕胤賷爻 賲卮丨賵賳
亘氐賲鬲 丨丕卅乇 賷賳胤賯 賮賷 丿丕禺賱 廿賳爻丕賳 賮鬲丨 賲胤毓賲丕 毓賱賶 丕賱胤乇賷賯 賵兀禺匕 賷爻鬲賯亘賱 丕賱賵丕賮丿賷賳
丕賱匕賷賳 賷鬲丨丿孬賵賳 賰孬賷乇丕 賵賱丿賷賴賲 丨爻乇丕鬲 毓賱賶 丕賱禺胤丕亘 丕賱氐丕禺亘 丕賱匕賷 賷囟賷毓 爻丿賶
賵賷賵丿賾毓 丕賱乇丕丨賱賷賳 丕賱匕賷賳 賱賲 鬲氐賱 兀賮賰丕乇賴賲 賵毓賵丕胤賮賴賲 兀亘丿丕 賱賲賳 丨賵賱賴賲
賲孬賱賲丕 鬲鬲乇丿丿 賮賷 毓丕賱賲賴賲 丕賱亘毓賷丿 丕賱睾乇賷亘 丕賱匕賷 賲丕夭丕賱 賷鬲卮賰賾賱 賮賷
賲爻丕丨丕鬲 乇賲丕丿賷丞 囟亘丕亘賴丕 賱丕 賷賮鬲丨 賳賵丕賮匕賴 賱卮賲賵爻 丕賱賲毓丕噩賲
丕賱賵囟賵丨 賱丕 賷賮爻賾乇 睾賲賵囟 丕賱丨賷丕丞
賵爻賳噩乇 丕賱匕賷 賱丕 賷睾賳賷 賱賳丕
氐賵鬲賳丕 丕賱兀亘賰賲 賴賵
賳馗賳 兀賳 氐賵鬲賳丕 賷氐賱 賱賲賳 丨賵賱賳丕 賵賴賵 毓賱賶 賲爻丕賮丞 亘賷丕賳賷丞 賱丕 鬲鬲賷丨 賱賴 兀賳 賷賮賴賲 賲丕 賷丐乇賯賳丕
賰賱 卮禺氐賷丞 鬲鬲禺賷賾賱 兀賳 爻賳噩乇 賲賵爻賷賯賶 鬲氐賵賷乇賷丞 賱賰賱賲丕鬲賴丕 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賯賵賱賴丕 亘氐禺亘
兀賵 賱丕 鬲爻鬲胤賷毓 丕賱鬲毓亘賷乇 毓賳賴丕 賮賷 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 兀賳 鬲賰卮賮 賱賴丕 丕賱丨賷丕丞 毓賳 丕賱睾丕賷丞
丕賱噩丿丕乇 賷丕 氐丿賷賯賷 兀賲丕賲賳丕 賷丨噩夭 毓賳丕 丕賱賲毓賳賶貙 賵丕賱氐賵鬲 囟丕卅毓
賮賷 丕賱氐禺亘 賵賴賵丞 丕賱丕睾鬲乇丕亘 賮賷 毓賷賵賳 賰丕賱爻乇丕亘
丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲 賵丕賱兀賲丕賰賳 賵丕賱賰丿丨 賵丕賱丨賱賲
賵賱丨馗丞 丕賱鬲賵丕氐賱 丕賱賲賮毓賲丞 亘丕賱兀賲賱
賵賱丨馗丞 賮乇丕賯 鬲丐噩賱 丕賱賰賱丕賲
賰賷 賷賵賱丿 賮賷 兀睾賳賷丞
亘賱丕 賯丕賮賷丞
乇氐丕氐鬲賴 丕賱賵丨賷丿丞 丕賱賲賰鬲賵賲丞 賮賷 賯賱亘賴 丕賱賲毓匕亘 亘賮賯丿 乇賮賷賯 賱賲 賷賯賱 賷賵賲丕 賰賱賲丞
賵爻鬲丕卅乇 丕賱賲賯賴賶 鬲乇鬲賮毓 賮賷 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 丕賱毓丕亘乇賷賳 丕賱噩丿丿 賮賴賳丕賰 氐賮丨丕鬲 賱賴賲
賮賷 賮丐丕丿 賲爻鬲賯乇 賮賷 卮乇賵丿賴 賷賰鬲亘 賯氐鬲賴賲 丨賷賳 賷鬲賴噩賶 賲賱丕賲丨賴賲
賵賴賵 賷囟毓 賱賴賲 賵噩亘丞 丕賱氐睾賷乇丞 賵賲卮乇賵亘丕 賵亘毓囟 丕賱丨賱賵賶
爻賷鬲乇賰賵賳賴 賵賷睾丕丿乇賵賳 禺賱賮 兀丨賱丕賲 鬲賳賲賵 亘賵賴賳
賵爻賷兀鬲賷 爻賳噩乇 丌禺乇 賷氐賲鬲 賷爻賲毓賳丕 賲囟胤乇丕
兀賵 賲賷賰 亘乇賷卅丞 賯賵賷丞 鬲禺乇噩 賲賳 胤賮賵賱鬲賴丕 賱鬲爻賰賳 賱賵丨丞 丕賱賮鬲丕丞 丕賱噩賲賷賱丞 丕賱鬲賷
鬲噩丿 賮賷 賲賵鬲爻丕乇鬲 廿賱賴丕賲丕 賱兀睾賳賷丞 賯丿 鬲賰賲賱賴丕 賮賷 乇賵丕賷丞 丕爻賲賴丕
賵鬲鬲禺匕 賱賳賮爻賴丕 丿丕禺賱賴丕 丕爻賲丕 賷卮亘賴 丕爻賲賴丕
兀賷丕 賰丕賳 賱賵賳賴 賵賱爻丕賳賴 賵賲匕賴亘賴 賵卮禺氐賷鬲賴 丕賱賲賳賮毓賱丞 丕賱賴丕丿乇丞 兀賵 丕賱爻丕賰賳丞 丕賱乇夭賷賳丞
丕賱廿賳爻丕賳 賴賵 丕賱賰丕卅賳 丕賱匕賷 賷賯賵賱 賰孬賷乇丕貙 賵鬲爻賯胤 賰賱賲丕鬲賴 賮賷 亘丕賱賵毓丞 丕賱賲丿賷賳丞
賵丕賱賰賱賲丕鬲 賰兀賲賵丕噩 亘丨乇 賲丕賱丨 鬲夭賷丿 丕賱賳丕爻 毓胤卮丕
賮賷亘丨孬賵賳 毓賳 丕賱賲賯賴賶 丕賱賲賮鬲賵丨 胤賵丕賱 丕賱賱賷賱 賱兀賳 卮禺氐賷丞 睾乇賷亘丞 賮賷 賲賰丕賳賴丕
鬲賯丕賵賲 賵丨丿鬲賴丕 丕賱兀亘丿賷丞 丨賷賳 鬲賯乇兀 賵噩賵賴 丕賱毓丕亘乇賷賳
丕爻鬲毓丕丿鬲 賲丕賰賵賱乇夭 鬲賰賵賷賳賴丕 賮賷 卮禺氐賷丞 賲賷賰
賰兀賳賴丕 賲毓賴賲 賵賲毓賳丕 賵賲毓 丕賱爻乇丿 丕賱匕賷 鬲賰鬲亘賴 亘囟賲賷乇 丕賱睾丕卅亘 賵賵毓賷 丕賱丨丕囟乇賷賳
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丨乇賵賮 賲鬲賳丕孬乇丞 賮賷 賲禺賷賾賱丞 爻賳噩乇 丕賱氐丕賲鬲 丕賱匕賷 賷賰鬲亘 賮賯胤
賵賷馗賱 亘賷賮 乇賲夭丕 賱賴賵賷丞 丕賱賲睾鬲乇亘貙 賵賴賵 賷爻鬲賯亘賱賴賲 亘賲賯賴丕賴 丕賱氐睾賷乇
賵賷賱丕丨馗賴賲 亘賲賵丿丞 禺丕賱氐丞 賱丕 兀睾乇丕囟 賮賷賴丕
爻賵賶 兀賳 賷噩丿 賲丨亘丞 毓賳丿 兀丨丿賴賲 丨鬲賶 賱賵 賱賲 賷亘丨 亘賴丕
賷賳夭賱賵賳 賮賷 賯氐乇 兀卮賵丕賯賴 賮賷鬲噩丕賵夭 亘賴賲 賵丨丿鬲賴
丕賱毓亘賵乇 賲賳 丕賱胤賮賵賱丞 賱賱賲乇丕賴賯丞 賲乇丨賱丞 孬乇賷丞 賱賴丕 賳賲丕匕噩 鬲賰賵賷賳賷丞 賲毓亘賾乇丞 亘禺丕氐丞 賲賷賰 賵噩賵乇噩
賳囟丕賱 丕賱賲孬賯賮 囟丿 丕賱毓賳氐乇賷丞 賵丕賱鬲禺賱賾賮 賱賴 賳賲賵匕噩賴 賮賷 丕賱胤亘賷亘 丕賱賷爻丕乇賷
丕賱賲賵爻賷賯賶 賱賴丕 爻賱賲賴丕 丕賱賲鬲氐丕毓丿 胤賵丕賱 丕賱爻乇丿
賵爻賳噩乇 丕賱兀亘賰賲 賷賴丿賷賴丕 賱賴賲 賵鬲爻鬲賱賲賴丕 賲賳賴 賲賷賰
賲毓 賰賱 丕賱噩丿賱 賵丕賱丿噩賱 賵丕賱兀賱賲
賷馗賱 丕賱兀賲賱 賮賷 廿卮乇丕賯 噩丿賷丿 賲賳 爻丨乇 賷爻鬲爻賱賲 賱賮噩乇 噩丿賷丿
賲毓 賰賱 賳賮丕賷丕鬲 丕賱賲丿賷賳丞 賷賵賱丿 丕賱卮毓乇 賵丕賱賳賯丕亍
噩賲賷賱 賮賷 丕賱鬲乇噩賲丞 兀賳 鬲丨丕賮馗 毓賱賶 賱毓亘丞 丕賱丨乇賵賮 賮賷 賱睾丞 賲睾丕賷乇丞
兀鬲賲賳賶 兀賳 賷卮賷乇 丕賱賲鬲乇噩賲賵賳 賱賱鬲乇噩賲丕鬲 丕賱爻丕亘賯丞 丨鬲賶 賱賵 賳賮丿鬲 兀賵 賱賲 賷毓孬乇賵丕 毓賱賷賴丕
賲毓 乇囟丕 賰賳鬲 兀鬲丨丿孬貙 爻兀賱鬲賳賷: "賴賱 鬲噩丿 賳賮爻賰 丿丕禺賱 丕賱乇賵丕賷丕鬲 賮賷 氐賵乇丞 卮禺氐賷丞 賲丨丿丿丞責 兀賵 賲賵夭毓 亘賷賳 丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲責 兀賵 賱丿賷賰 賯賳丕毓丞 賲爻亘賯丞
兀賳 賴匕丕 丕賱毓丕賱賲 亘賲毓夭賱 毓賳賰 賵兀賳賴 賵丨丿賴 賮賷 賰賲丕賱賴 丕賱匕賷 鬲賳賯氐賴 丕賱賯乇丕亍丞
賵賮賷 噩賲丕賱賴 丕賱匕賷 賷賳鬲馗乇 匕丕賰乇丞 鬲賳氐亘 賮賷賴丕 兀賳賴丕乇賴責 爻兀賱鬲賳賷 賮爻乇丨鬲 賮賷 賰賱丕賲賴丕 亘賲毓賳賶 丕賱賰賱賲丞
賱賷爻 賮賷 丕賱氐賵乇 丕賱賲禺鬲賱賮丞 丕賱鬲賷 胤乇丨鬲賴丕 廿賳賲丕 賮賷 丨囟賵乇賴丕 賵氐賵鬲賴丕 賵乇賵丕賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱賴丕 鬲鬲賲賳賶 兀賳 鬲賰鬲亘賴丕 賷賵賲丕
賯賱鬲 賱賴丕: 兀毓丕賷卮 丕賱賲丐賱賮貙 賷氐毓亘 毓賱賷賾 匕丕賰 丕賱廿賳爻丕賳 丕賱匕賷 卮睾賱 賳賮爻賴 亘毓丕賱賲 丿賯賷賯 噩賲賷賱 賲鬲爻賯 賱丕亘丿 兀賳 賷賰鬲賲賱貙 賱丕亘丿 兀賳 賷乇丨賱 賮賷賴 賲賳 賷乇丨賱貙 賵賷鬲兀賱賲 賮賷賴 賲賳
賷鬲兀賱賲貙 賵賷鬲賰賱賾賲 賮賷賴 賰孬賷乇賵賳貙 賰賱 賲賳賴賲 賱賴 賮賰乇賴 賵鬲氐賵乇丕鬲賴 賵兀丨賱丕賲賴 丕賱鬲賷 賯丿 賷丨賯賯賴丕 賵賯丿 鬲馗賱 賲毓賱賯丞 亘禺賷賵胤 賮噩乇 賳丕卅賲 亘賷賳 丕賱爻胤賵乇
鬲賯賵賱 賱賷: "賰兀賳 丕賱賲丐賱賮 賳賴乇貙 賷鬲丿賮賯 賲丿丕丿賴 賮賷 囟賮丕賮 丕賱兀賵乇丕賯." 兀鬲匕賰乇 賳氐丕 賰鬲亘賳丕賴 賲毓丕
丕賱兀賳賴丕乇 賮賷 丕賱噩爻丿 卮乇賷丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱丿賳賷丕 兀賰賵丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱丨囟丕乇丕鬲 兀賵胤丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱賲卮丕毓乇 兀賵鬲丕乇 賱兀賮乇丕丨 賵兀丨夭丕賳
賵賮賷 丕賱氐賮丨丕鬲 賳賵丕賮匕 賳乇賶 賲賳賴丕 兀丨亘丕亘丕 賱賷爻 賱賴賲 毓賳賵丕賳
賳賳夭賱 賲賷丕賴 丕賱爻乇丿 賱丕 賳禺卮賶 賲賳 丕賱睾乇賯
鬲兀禺匕賳丕 賲乇丕賰亘 丕賱賵乇賯
賳乇賶 賮賷賴丕 賲賳 毓亘乇 賵賲賳 丕丨鬲乇賯
賵賷馗賱 賲毓賳丕 賲賳 氐丿賯
鈥� 噩賲賷賱 兀賳 鬲噩丿 丕賱兀卮賷丕亍 賮賷 兀賲丕賰賳 丿賯賷賯丞貙 賮賴賳丕賰 丕賱乇丕賵賷 丕賱匕賷 賵囟毓賴丕 亘毓賳丕賷丞 賱鬲賱賲爻賴丕 丨賵丕爻賰
賱鬲賰賵賳 乇賲賵夭丕 鬲卮睾賱 賮賰乇賰 亘丕賱毓丕賱賲 丕賱卮丕爻毓 丕賱匕賷 賷鬲噩賲賾毓 賰賯胤毓 賲毓丿賳賷丞 賷賱賯胤賴丕 賲睾賳丕胤賷爻 賲卮丨賵賳
亘氐賲鬲 丨丕卅乇 賷賳胤賯 賮賷 丿丕禺賱 廿賳爻丕賳 賮鬲丨 賲胤毓賲丕 毓賱賶 丕賱胤乇賷賯 賵兀禺匕 賷爻鬲賯亘賱 丕賱賵丕賮丿賷賳
丕賱匕賷賳 賷鬲丨丿孬賵賳 賰孬賷乇丕 賵賱丿賷賴賲 丨爻乇丕鬲 毓賱賶 丕賱禺胤丕亘 丕賱氐丕禺亘 丕賱匕賷 賷囟賷毓 爻丿賶
賵賷賵丿賾毓 丕賱乇丕丨賱賷賳 丕賱匕賷賳 賱賲 鬲氐賱 兀賮賰丕乇賴賲 賵毓賵丕胤賮賴賲 兀亘丿丕 賱賲賳 丨賵賱賴賲
賲孬賱賲丕 鬲鬲乇丿丿 賮賷 毓丕賱賲賴賲 丕賱亘毓賷丿 丕賱睾乇賷亘 丕賱匕賷 賲丕夭丕賱 賷鬲卮賰賾賱 賮賷
賲爻丕丨丕鬲 乇賲丕丿賷丞 囟亘丕亘賴丕 賱丕 賷賮鬲丨 賳賵丕賮匕賴 賱卮賲賵爻 丕賱賲毓丕噩賲
丕賱賵囟賵丨 賱丕 賷賮爻賾乇 睾賲賵囟 丕賱丨賷丕丞
賵爻賳噩乇 丕賱匕賷 賱丕 賷睾賳賷 賱賳丕
氐賵鬲賳丕 丕賱兀亘賰賲 賴賵
賳馗賳 兀賳 氐賵鬲賳丕 賷氐賱 賱賲賳 丨賵賱賳丕 賵賴賵 毓賱賶 賲爻丕賮丞 亘賷丕賳賷丞 賱丕 鬲鬲賷丨 賱賴 兀賳 賷賮賴賲 賲丕 賷丐乇賯賳丕
賰賱 卮禺氐賷丞 鬲鬲禺賷賾賱 兀賳 爻賳噩乇 賲賵爻賷賯賶 鬲氐賵賷乇賷丞 賱賰賱賲丕鬲賴丕 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賯賵賱賴丕 亘氐禺亘
兀賵 賱丕 鬲爻鬲胤賷毓 丕賱鬲毓亘賷乇 毓賳賴丕 賮賷 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 兀賳 鬲賰卮賮 賱賴丕 丕賱丨賷丕丞 毓賳 丕賱睾丕賷丞
丕賱噩丿丕乇 賷丕 氐丿賷賯賷 兀賲丕賲賳丕 賷丨噩夭 毓賳丕 丕賱賲毓賳賶貙 賵丕賱氐賵鬲 囟丕卅毓
賮賷 丕賱氐禺亘 賵賴賵丞 丕賱丕睾鬲乇丕亘 賮賷 毓賷賵賳 賰丕賱爻乇丕亘
丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲 賵丕賱兀賲丕賰賳 賵丕賱賰丿丨 賵丕賱丨賱賲
賵賱丨馗丞 丕賱鬲賵丕氐賱 丕賱賲賮毓賲丞 亘丕賱兀賲賱
賵賱丨馗丞 賮乇丕賯 鬲丐噩賱 丕賱賰賱丕賲
賰賷 賷賵賱丿 賮賷 兀睾賳賷丞
亘賱丕 賯丕賮賷丞
乇氐丕氐鬲賴 丕賱賵丨賷丿丞 丕賱賲賰鬲賵賲丞 賮賷 賯賱亘賴 丕賱賲毓匕亘 亘賮賯丿 乇賮賷賯 賱賲 賷賯賱 賷賵賲丕 賰賱賲丞
賵爻鬲丕卅乇 丕賱賲賯賴賶 鬲乇鬲賮毓 賮賷 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 丕賱毓丕亘乇賷賳 丕賱噩丿丿 賮賴賳丕賰 氐賮丨丕鬲 賱賴賲
賮賷 賮丐丕丿 賲爻鬲賯乇 賮賷 卮乇賵丿賴 賷賰鬲亘 賯氐鬲賴賲 丨賷賳 賷鬲賴噩賶 賲賱丕賲丨賴賲
賵賴賵 賷囟毓 賱賴賲 賵噩亘丞 丕賱氐睾賷乇丞 賵賲卮乇賵亘丕 賵亘毓囟 丕賱丨賱賵賶
爻賷鬲乇賰賵賳賴 賵賷睾丕丿乇賵賳 禺賱賮 兀丨賱丕賲 鬲賳賲賵 亘賵賴賳
賵爻賷兀鬲賷 爻賳噩乇 丌禺乇 賷氐賲鬲 賷爻賲毓賳丕 賲囟胤乇丕
兀賵 賲賷賰 亘乇賷卅丞 賯賵賷丞 鬲禺乇噩 賲賳 胤賮賵賱鬲賴丕 賱鬲爻賰賳 賱賵丨丞 丕賱賮鬲丕丞 丕賱噩賲賷賱丞 丕賱鬲賷
鬲噩丿 賮賷 賲賵鬲爻丕乇鬲 廿賱賴丕賲丕 賱兀睾賳賷丞 賯丿 鬲賰賲賱賴丕 賮賷 乇賵丕賷丞 丕爻賲賴丕
賵鬲鬲禺匕 賱賳賮爻賴丕 丿丕禺賱賴丕 丕爻賲丕 賷卮亘賴 丕爻賲賴丕
兀賷丕 賰丕賳 賱賵賳賴 賵賱爻丕賳賴 賵賲匕賴亘賴 賵卮禺氐賷鬲賴 丕賱賲賳賮毓賱丞 丕賱賴丕丿乇丞 兀賵 丕賱爻丕賰賳丞 丕賱乇夭賷賳丞
丕賱廿賳爻丕賳 賴賵 丕賱賰丕卅賳 丕賱匕賷 賷賯賵賱 賰孬賷乇丕貙 賵鬲爻賯胤 賰賱賲丕鬲賴 賮賷 亘丕賱賵毓丞 丕賱賲丿賷賳丞
賵丕賱賰賱賲丕鬲 賰兀賲賵丕噩 亘丨乇 賲丕賱丨 鬲夭賷丿 丕賱賳丕爻 毓胤卮丕
賮賷亘丨孬賵賳 毓賳 丕賱賲賯賴賶 丕賱賲賮鬲賵丨 胤賵丕賱 丕賱賱賷賱 賱兀賳 卮禺氐賷丞 睾乇賷亘丞 賮賷 賲賰丕賳賴丕
鬲賯丕賵賲 賵丨丿鬲賴丕 丕賱兀亘丿賷丞 丨賷賳 鬲賯乇兀 賵噩賵賴 丕賱毓丕亘乇賷賳
丕爻鬲毓丕丿鬲 賲丕賰賵賱乇夭 鬲賰賵賷賳賴丕 賮賷 卮禺氐賷丞 賲賷賰
賰兀賳賴丕 賲毓賴賲 賵賲毓賳丕 賵賲毓 丕賱爻乇丿 丕賱匕賷 鬲賰鬲亘賴 亘囟賲賷乇 丕賱睾丕卅亘 賵賵毓賷 丕賱丨丕囟乇賷賳
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丨乇賵賮 賲鬲賳丕孬乇丞 賮賷 賲禺賷賾賱丞 爻賳噩乇 丕賱氐丕賲鬲 丕賱匕賷 賷賰鬲亘 賮賯胤
賵賷馗賱 亘賷賮 乇賲夭丕 賱賴賵賷丞 丕賱賲睾鬲乇亘貙 賵賴賵 賷爻鬲賯亘賱賴賲 亘賲賯賴丕賴 丕賱氐睾賷乇
賵賷賱丕丨馗賴賲 亘賲賵丿丞 禺丕賱氐丞 賱丕 兀睾乇丕囟 賮賷賴丕
爻賵賶 兀賳 賷噩丿 賲丨亘丞 毓賳丿 兀丨丿賴賲 丨鬲賶 賱賵 賱賲 賷亘丨 亘賴丕
賷賳夭賱賵賳 賮賷 賯氐乇 兀卮賵丕賯賴 賮賷鬲噩丕賵夭 亘賴賲 賵丨丿鬲賴
丕賱毓亘賵乇 賲賳 丕賱胤賮賵賱丞 賱賱賲乇丕賴賯丞 賲乇丨賱丞 孬乇賷丞 賱賴丕 賳賲丕匕噩 鬲賰賵賷賳賷丞 賲毓亘賾乇丞 亘禺丕氐丞 賲賷賰 賵噩賵乇噩
賳囟丕賱 丕賱賲孬賯賮 囟丿 丕賱毓賳氐乇賷丞 賵丕賱鬲禺賱賾賮 賱賴 賳賲賵匕噩賴 賮賷 丕賱胤亘賷亘 丕賱賷爻丕乇賷
丕賱賲賵爻賷賯賶 賱賴丕 爻賱賲賴丕 丕賱賲鬲氐丕毓丿 胤賵丕賱 丕賱爻乇丿
賵爻賳噩乇 丕賱兀亘賰賲 賷賴丿賷賴丕 賱賴賲 賵鬲爻鬲賱賲賴丕 賲賳賴 賲賷賰
賲毓 賰賱 丕賱噩丿賱 賵丕賱丿噩賱 賵丕賱兀賱賲
賷馗賱 丕賱兀賲賱 賮賷 廿卮乇丕賯 噩丿賷丿 賲賳 爻丨乇 賷爻鬲爻賱賲 賱賮噩乇 噩丿賷丿
賲毓 賰賱 賳賮丕賷丕鬲 丕賱賲丿賷賳丞 賷賵賱丿 丕賱卮毓乇 賵丕賱賳賯丕亍
噩賲賷賱 賮賷 丕賱鬲乇噩賲丞 兀賳 鬲丨丕賮馗 毓賱賶 賱毓亘丞 丕賱丨乇賵賮 賮賷 賱睾丞 賲睾丕賷乇丞
兀鬲賲賳賶 兀賳 賷卮賷乇 丕賱賲鬲乇噩賲賵賳 賱賱鬲乇噩賲丕鬲 丕賱爻丕亘賯丞 丨鬲賶 賱賵 賳賮丿鬲 兀賵 賱賲 賷毓孬乇賵丕 毓賱賷賴丕
February 18, 2023
鈥淭he most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.鈥�
5 鈥榣onely hearts鈥� for a book that portrays the heavy theme of loneliness, much of which stems from prejudice, intolerance in some form, and the inability to communicate effectively. So, what better way to depict the sobering effects of this strong message than to create a voiceless mute at the centre of the story. Singer is a man who struggles to cope with his own loneliness, and whilst at hand to listen to the troubled lives of the other four main characters, there is an innate ability for them to recognise Singer鈥檚 personal wilderness.
Affecting, touching, evocative, and a little gem of a book that will take you through a symphony of emotions. A little book by a young author whose maturity and insight to have written this at the age of just 23 is just remarkable. An easy 5 stars.
The Plot
John Singer shares an apartment and a habitual silence with his friend Spiros Antonapoulos, until Spiros is committed to an asylum. Only able to communicate via slips of paper, Singer moves to a small apartment and frequents a caf茅, owned by Biff Brannon and his wife Alice. After a period of time Biff begins to open up about the loneliness he feels in his marriage that has yet to bless the couple with children.
Soon the friendships extend to Dr Copeland, a black physician in a predominantly white town. We also have Jake Blunt who is a heavy drinker, and who鈥檚 self-loathing often sees him fly into bouts of rage and anger, which only perpetuates the feeling of isolation as people distance themselves from his company. Thereafter he is caught up in this vicious circle of anger, rejection, and then isolation. Mike represents youth and the prejudices that come with age either being too old or too young to be taken seriously. A young girl who has ideas but often feels misunderstood by those around her.
The perfect cast to portray loneliness, solitude and the feelings engendered by isolation, like low self esteem. Loneliness ultimately caused by racism, ageism, alcoholism, infertility, politics, religion, social division, and disability. All packed into this literary gem.
Review and Comments
There is a haunting simplicity in the way this story is told. The reason I say 鈥榟aunting鈥� is because you never shake off this ever-present sense that sorrow and fate will have their day, despite it not being a gloomy book. There is simplicity in the writing style too. The stripped back nature of the prose is incredibility effective in this very human portrayal of loneliness and rejection. Even the characters are deliberately uncomplicated or complex because the themes are.
The book title is perfect for a book that gets to the heart of loneliness that few books have achieved for me. It is a book that doesn鈥檛 shy away from strong evocative themes and prejudices to deliver this powerful message of loneliness, and the importance of communication. It is ironic that although Singer is there for his companions, when he reaches one of his lowest points, he feels more alone than ever despite amassing this unlikely band of friends because no one sees it.
The character development is also superb. It is a book that gives a voice to the voiceless, A book that offers company to the repressed, lonely, or even rejected people. A book that warns of how we can become so engrossed in our own worries and consumed by our need to be understood that we might fail to see the anguish felt by those around us.
Heart breaking 鈥� yes because Carson McCullers refuses to provide the utopian ending for all the characters, so we as readers are not distracted from the core themes she wanted to depict. Loneliness, self esteem, acceptance, love (including self love) and communication. Highly recommended.
I will leave you with two very important quotes on loneliness from two very different characters. One a cartoon character Shrek, and the other one of the most iconic female figures of all time, Mother Teresa.
They judge me before they even know me. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 better off alone.鈥� 鈥掷丑谤别办
The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.鈥� 鈥� Mother Teresa
5 鈥榣onely hearts鈥� for a book that portrays the heavy theme of loneliness, much of which stems from prejudice, intolerance in some form, and the inability to communicate effectively. So, what better way to depict the sobering effects of this strong message than to create a voiceless mute at the centre of the story. Singer is a man who struggles to cope with his own loneliness, and whilst at hand to listen to the troubled lives of the other four main characters, there is an innate ability for them to recognise Singer鈥檚 personal wilderness.
Affecting, touching, evocative, and a little gem of a book that will take you through a symphony of emotions. A little book by a young author whose maturity and insight to have written this at the age of just 23 is just remarkable. An easy 5 stars.
The Plot
John Singer shares an apartment and a habitual silence with his friend Spiros Antonapoulos, until Spiros is committed to an asylum. Only able to communicate via slips of paper, Singer moves to a small apartment and frequents a caf茅, owned by Biff Brannon and his wife Alice. After a period of time Biff begins to open up about the loneliness he feels in his marriage that has yet to bless the couple with children.
Soon the friendships extend to Dr Copeland, a black physician in a predominantly white town. We also have Jake Blunt who is a heavy drinker, and who鈥檚 self-loathing often sees him fly into bouts of rage and anger, which only perpetuates the feeling of isolation as people distance themselves from his company. Thereafter he is caught up in this vicious circle of anger, rejection, and then isolation. Mike represents youth and the prejudices that come with age either being too old or too young to be taken seriously. A young girl who has ideas but often feels misunderstood by those around her.
The perfect cast to portray loneliness, solitude and the feelings engendered by isolation, like low self esteem. Loneliness ultimately caused by racism, ageism, alcoholism, infertility, politics, religion, social division, and disability. All packed into this literary gem.
Review and Comments
There is a haunting simplicity in the way this story is told. The reason I say 鈥榟aunting鈥� is because you never shake off this ever-present sense that sorrow and fate will have their day, despite it not being a gloomy book. There is simplicity in the writing style too. The stripped back nature of the prose is incredibility effective in this very human portrayal of loneliness and rejection. Even the characters are deliberately uncomplicated or complex because the themes are.
The book title is perfect for a book that gets to the heart of loneliness that few books have achieved for me. It is a book that doesn鈥檛 shy away from strong evocative themes and prejudices to deliver this powerful message of loneliness, and the importance of communication. It is ironic that although Singer is there for his companions, when he reaches one of his lowest points, he feels more alone than ever despite amassing this unlikely band of friends because no one sees it.
The character development is also superb. It is a book that gives a voice to the voiceless, A book that offers company to the repressed, lonely, or even rejected people. A book that warns of how we can become so engrossed in our own worries and consumed by our need to be understood that we might fail to see the anguish felt by those around us.
Heart breaking 鈥� yes because Carson McCullers refuses to provide the utopian ending for all the characters, so we as readers are not distracted from the core themes she wanted to depict. Loneliness, self esteem, acceptance, love (including self love) and communication. Highly recommended.
I will leave you with two very important quotes on loneliness from two very different characters. One a cartoon character Shrek, and the other one of the most iconic female figures of all time, Mother Teresa.
They judge me before they even know me. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 better off alone.鈥� 鈥掷丑谤别办
The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.鈥� 鈥� Mother Teresa
December 3, 2008
ROCK AND ROLL
It turns out that Miss McCullers did most of her great writing - most of her entire writing - before she was 30. Rock and roll! After 30 she was too busy having ghastly illnesses and marrying the same guy three or four times, and dodging invitations to a suicide pact from the guy she married all those times. So when she was 22 - I ask you! - she wrote this first novel which is a stone American classic. I had heretofore thought that absorbing a ton of influences and developing a unique voice all by the age of 22 had only been done by Lennon/McCartney, Bob Dylan and Aubrey Beardsley, but Miss McCullers performs this remarkable feat too. Her surefootedness and precision are fantastic. I'm so much in awe that I feel sick to my stomach.
METAPHORS FOR GOD WHICH IS A METAPHOR ALREADY
Onto the book itself. The inexorable gravitational pull of the metaphor in all our verbal dealings is something I have mentioned before, so that even someone like Raymond Carver's ironed-flat tell-it-like-it-is bargain-basement prose still spins in stories like So Much Water So Close to Home or A Small Good Thing brilliant metaphorical explorations of the various uncomfortable truths he shoves our way (the ignored corpse, the tasteless birthday cake). Perhaps we no longer love overly obvious metaphors (Little Red Riding Hood) - then again, perhaps we do (The Titanic). But they're very useful when you try to talk about God - in fact it's impossible to talk about God non-metaphorically insofar as God is Himself a metaphor. Fictionmakers love God metaphors - last year we had Ron Currie's disappointing "God is Dead", a few years back we had the smart Jim Carey movie "The Truman Show", further back we have other movies like "Whistle Down the Wind" and "Theorem". In "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" John Singer, the deaf mute, the blank slate, the man who everyone talks to but who talks to nobody, stands for God. People pour out their dreams, fears & hopes onto him and he scribbles the odd bland sentence in reply and they think he understands all and knows all. In fact - and here's Miss McCullers' audacious vicious twist - John Singer is himself completely obsessed with another deaf mute who he thinks of as almost Godlike but who in fact is a fat greedy imbecile confined to a mental asylum. If we follow the metaphor along, not too fancifully I think, we find that Antonapoulos the idiot therefore represents the human race, with which God/Singer is fatally, poignantly, uselessly obsessed - Antonapoulos will never get well and was a sad mistake to begin with - so what does that say about the rest of us chickens? Not much.
BRIEF ACTS OF APPALLING VIOLENCE
Miss McCullers doesn't belabour this central conceit too much and she also throws in a ton of local knowledge but without smacking you upside the head every time like Annie Proulx does. And although this is a slow old read at times, a lot of doing nothing punctuated by brief acts of appalling violence (is this what the American South is like?), her sad sweet song of humanity is as beautiful a tune as I've heard all year.
It turns out that Miss McCullers did most of her great writing - most of her entire writing - before she was 30. Rock and roll! After 30 she was too busy having ghastly illnesses and marrying the same guy three or four times, and dodging invitations to a suicide pact from the guy she married all those times. So when she was 22 - I ask you! - she wrote this first novel which is a stone American classic. I had heretofore thought that absorbing a ton of influences and developing a unique voice all by the age of 22 had only been done by Lennon/McCartney, Bob Dylan and Aubrey Beardsley, but Miss McCullers performs this remarkable feat too. Her surefootedness and precision are fantastic. I'm so much in awe that I feel sick to my stomach.
METAPHORS FOR GOD WHICH IS A METAPHOR ALREADY
Onto the book itself. The inexorable gravitational pull of the metaphor in all our verbal dealings is something I have mentioned before, so that even someone like Raymond Carver's ironed-flat tell-it-like-it-is bargain-basement prose still spins in stories like So Much Water So Close to Home or A Small Good Thing brilliant metaphorical explorations of the various uncomfortable truths he shoves our way (the ignored corpse, the tasteless birthday cake). Perhaps we no longer love overly obvious metaphors (Little Red Riding Hood) - then again, perhaps we do (The Titanic). But they're very useful when you try to talk about God - in fact it's impossible to talk about God non-metaphorically insofar as God is Himself a metaphor. Fictionmakers love God metaphors - last year we had Ron Currie's disappointing "God is Dead", a few years back we had the smart Jim Carey movie "The Truman Show", further back we have other movies like "Whistle Down the Wind" and "Theorem". In "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" John Singer, the deaf mute, the blank slate, the man who everyone talks to but who talks to nobody, stands for God. People pour out their dreams, fears & hopes onto him and he scribbles the odd bland sentence in reply and they think he understands all and knows all. In fact - and here's Miss McCullers' audacious vicious twist - John Singer is himself completely obsessed with another deaf mute who he thinks of as almost Godlike but who in fact is a fat greedy imbecile confined to a mental asylum. If we follow the metaphor along, not too fancifully I think, we find that Antonapoulos the idiot therefore represents the human race, with which God/Singer is fatally, poignantly, uselessly obsessed - Antonapoulos will never get well and was a sad mistake to begin with - so what does that say about the rest of us chickens? Not much.
BRIEF ACTS OF APPALLING VIOLENCE
Miss McCullers doesn't belabour this central conceit too much and she also throws in a ton of local knowledge but without smacking you upside the head every time like Annie Proulx does. And although this is a slow old read at times, a lot of doing nothing punctuated by brief acts of appalling violence (is this what the American South is like?), her sad sweet song of humanity is as beautiful a tune as I've heard all year.
June 15, 2011
I may come back and give this four stars, but for now I can't.
I first started this book maybe two years ago. I got about 100 pages into it and stopped. I didn't stop because I disliked it. Rather, it seemed at the time a natural result from the inertia and momentum of the book itself. Basically, I wasn't quite sure whether I had stopped or whether the book itself had simply stopped and I was just going along with it.
I picked it up again because I've always had a nagging feeling about it, and because I hate leaving anything unfinished. And besides, the writing is very good, and there is quite a bit of promise in the book. Of course, all the promise turns out to be false, and that's pretty much the point. (Actually, I guess the point is not so much that the promise is false, but that it gets shut away.)
The book is almost unrelentingly bleak. The main characters are all on the edge of despair. There isn't much chance of any of it getting turned around. And, since a happy resolution is not in the cards, most novels would push the characters over the edge in some sort of cataclysm. McCullers doesn't opt for that sort of showiness. Instead, she just further seals off each of her main characters from any possibility of genuine human contact. This resolution is even sadder, but for me it makes for a less compelling novel.
I've read reviews of people complaining that nothing happens in this book. That's not true. There are lots of great incidents: a riot, a young girl accidently shot in the head, a prisoner losing both of his feet to gangrene after being put in the hole during a freeze, etc... But there's no plot. It never feels like any of the incidents drive anywhere else. And the wants of the characters don't lead to any of the incidents. It's almost like there is a complete disconnect.
Similarly, because the characters are so unable to communicate with each other, there is also no possibility for drama. The characters kind of bounce off of each other from time to time, but they never actually interact. And again, I think all of this is exactly according to plan. But, for me at least, this plan doesn't make for an enjoyable work.
And the bleak view of the world does not do much for me now. If I had read this book in my twenties, when i felt much more in tune with alienation for its own sake, I probably would have loved this book. Even now, I might want to switch my review to four stars because I can see that this is very well done for what it is. But it's no longer for me. I read somewhere a long ago that tragedy was for adolescents, and that comedy was for grown-ups. I hate to think of myself as a grown-up, but over time I do seem to have lost some of my taste for this kind of despair.
I first started this book maybe two years ago. I got about 100 pages into it and stopped. I didn't stop because I disliked it. Rather, it seemed at the time a natural result from the inertia and momentum of the book itself. Basically, I wasn't quite sure whether I had stopped or whether the book itself had simply stopped and I was just going along with it.
I picked it up again because I've always had a nagging feeling about it, and because I hate leaving anything unfinished. And besides, the writing is very good, and there is quite a bit of promise in the book. Of course, all the promise turns out to be false, and that's pretty much the point. (Actually, I guess the point is not so much that the promise is false, but that it gets shut away.)
The book is almost unrelentingly bleak. The main characters are all on the edge of despair. There isn't much chance of any of it getting turned around. And, since a happy resolution is not in the cards, most novels would push the characters over the edge in some sort of cataclysm. McCullers doesn't opt for that sort of showiness. Instead, she just further seals off each of her main characters from any possibility of genuine human contact. This resolution is even sadder, but for me it makes for a less compelling novel.
I've read reviews of people complaining that nothing happens in this book. That's not true. There are lots of great incidents: a riot, a young girl accidently shot in the head, a prisoner losing both of his feet to gangrene after being put in the hole during a freeze, etc... But there's no plot. It never feels like any of the incidents drive anywhere else. And the wants of the characters don't lead to any of the incidents. It's almost like there is a complete disconnect.
Similarly, because the characters are so unable to communicate with each other, there is also no possibility for drama. The characters kind of bounce off of each other from time to time, but they never actually interact. And again, I think all of this is exactly according to plan. But, for me at least, this plan doesn't make for an enjoyable work.
And the bleak view of the world does not do much for me now. If I had read this book in my twenties, when i felt much more in tune with alienation for its own sake, I probably would have loved this book. Even now, I might want to switch my review to four stars because I can see that this is very well done for what it is. But it's no longer for me. I read somewhere a long ago that tragedy was for adolescents, and that comedy was for grown-ups. I hate to think of myself as a grown-up, but over time I do seem to have lost some of my taste for this kind of despair.
October 21, 2021
What a terribly sad book, and yet, so insightful about loneliness, despair and alienation that it鈥檚 impossible not to love it, somehow.
In a small town in Georgia during WWII, four very different people find solace in talking to Mr. Singer, a deaf and mute man who eats at the New York Caf茅 every day. The caf茅鈥檚 owner, a young tomboyish girl, an alcoholic communist and a black doctor desperate to affect change, are, each in their own way, all alone in the world. They operate at a slightly different level of vibration than the people around them, they feel hopelessly out of step and can鈥檛 seem to adjust and fall in line with the rest of the world. But talking to Mr. Singer, who reads their words on their lips, shares food or plays chess with them soothes them in ways nothing else can.
鈥淭he Heart is a Lonely Hunter鈥� follows the characters over the course of about a year, where their lives will take strange and unexpected turns and send them far from where they started. It doesn鈥檛 sound like much, and in some ways it isn鈥檛, but the tiny, quiet and intimate events are often the ones with the biggest impacts on our lives, and McCullers does an amazing job of opening up her characters, making them achingly real, flawed yet sympathetic and as mentioned above, terribly sad. I鈥檓 just repeating what many people have said before, but it boggles the mind that she could have written with such poignancy at 23.
I sighed and wished for a better life for these characters, even if I had a feeling where they would end up. A good writer makes you want to hug the characters they create, and I wanted to bake all of them cookies. Well done, Carson McCullers; I鈥檒l be getting more books by this brilliant lady.
In a small town in Georgia during WWII, four very different people find solace in talking to Mr. Singer, a deaf and mute man who eats at the New York Caf茅 every day. The caf茅鈥檚 owner, a young tomboyish girl, an alcoholic communist and a black doctor desperate to affect change, are, each in their own way, all alone in the world. They operate at a slightly different level of vibration than the people around them, they feel hopelessly out of step and can鈥檛 seem to adjust and fall in line with the rest of the world. But talking to Mr. Singer, who reads their words on their lips, shares food or plays chess with them soothes them in ways nothing else can.
鈥淭he Heart is a Lonely Hunter鈥� follows the characters over the course of about a year, where their lives will take strange and unexpected turns and send them far from where they started. It doesn鈥檛 sound like much, and in some ways it isn鈥檛, but the tiny, quiet and intimate events are often the ones with the biggest impacts on our lives, and McCullers does an amazing job of opening up her characters, making them achingly real, flawed yet sympathetic and as mentioned above, terribly sad. I鈥檓 just repeating what many people have said before, but it boggles the mind that she could have written with such poignancy at 23.
I sighed and wished for a better life for these characters, even if I had a feeling where they would end up. A good writer makes you want to hug the characters they create, and I wanted to bake all of them cookies. Well done, Carson McCullers; I鈥檒l be getting more books by this brilliant lady.
January 17, 2017
I simply cannot get this book out of my head. 听听听Like most everyone else I am astounded that Carson McCullers was only 23 years old when she wrote this. 听Such wisdom and insight from someone so young is truly remarkable. 听
And there are so many great reviews out there, I just could not stop reading them. 听A great many of them, as one might expect discuss the greater themes of this book and there can be no doubt that I too fell to pondering these many 听things as I thought about the world today.
I mean just think about it:
Racial inequality and discrimination
Economic division of the classes
Subjugation and objectification of women and minorities
Social Injustice
War
Still I would like to talk for just a minute or two about another constant thread within this story and perhaps the best way to begin is to tell you about something that happened to me. 听Way too many years ago when I was still 听in the early stages of my career I got a promotion, one that I had worked hard to be considered for. 听It was an important advancement for me. 听No longer was I only responsible for my own contribution but also for the output of others. 听As much as I wanted the opportunity to lead, once I actually got it, I was a nervous wreck. 听I鈥檓 sure my new boss sensed just how jangled I was and called me aside to have a little pow wow in his office. 听It was a good meeting and he quickly reviewed some of the tools that he believed would help me achieve my objectives, but mostly he stressed that he wanted me to focus on one skill that his observations told him I already possessed. 听The skill of which he spoke was listening. 听He went on to add that far too many people forgot how to do it. 听That people got so wrapped up in determining just how they were going to respond to someone or a given situation that they actually stopped hearing what was being said to them. 听听If you want to succeed he said do not fall into this trap. 听Listen carefully and not just with your ears he said, but employ all of your faculties. 听If you can do this he assured me, everything else would fall into place. 听
Well that particular job really did not work out so well for me and I soon moved on to a new opportunity with a different firm, but I never forgot that first pep talk. 听Over the years that came and went I thought about it frequently and reminded myself often to focus more on what others had to say than on my own words. 听And not just professionally either, but at home and in other social situations. 听Wise words, 听that despite floundering on more than one occasion, have served me well these many years.
It is also what our five main characters in this novel yearn for. 听Someone to listen to them . 听For Mick, Jake, Biff and Dr. Copeland, that person was John Singer. 听Despite the fact that he was deaf and mute they all believed that he understood them and for Mick he even provided a way for her to listen to her beloved music. 听John Singer however, had lost his only audience when they took Antonapoulos away and even though he was never really sure how much of what he signed Antonapoulos actually understood, it did not matter. 听He too needed to be heard. 听
There are so many layers to this story but through them all lay this need to be heard and to be understood.
How ominous is it that I find myself reflecting on the art of listening 听just one week before Donald Trump becomes the President of the most powerful democratic nation in the world.
is timeless, profound and a thing of rare beauty.
And there are so many great reviews out there, I just could not stop reading them. 听A great many of them, as one might expect discuss the greater themes of this book and there can be no doubt that I too fell to pondering these many 听things as I thought about the world today.
I mean just think about it:
Racial inequality and discrimination
Economic division of the classes
Subjugation and objectification of women and minorities
Social Injustice
War
Still I would like to talk for just a minute or two about another constant thread within this story and perhaps the best way to begin is to tell you about something that happened to me. 听Way too many years ago when I was still 听in the early stages of my career I got a promotion, one that I had worked hard to be considered for. 听It was an important advancement for me. 听No longer was I only responsible for my own contribution but also for the output of others. 听As much as I wanted the opportunity to lead, once I actually got it, I was a nervous wreck. 听I鈥檓 sure my new boss sensed just how jangled I was and called me aside to have a little pow wow in his office. 听It was a good meeting and he quickly reviewed some of the tools that he believed would help me achieve my objectives, but mostly he stressed that he wanted me to focus on one skill that his observations told him I already possessed. 听The skill of which he spoke was listening. 听He went on to add that far too many people forgot how to do it. 听That people got so wrapped up in determining just how they were going to respond to someone or a given situation that they actually stopped hearing what was being said to them. 听听If you want to succeed he said do not fall into this trap. 听Listen carefully and not just with your ears he said, but employ all of your faculties. 听If you can do this he assured me, everything else would fall into place. 听
Well that particular job really did not work out so well for me and I soon moved on to a new opportunity with a different firm, but I never forgot that first pep talk. 听Over the years that came and went I thought about it frequently and reminded myself often to focus more on what others had to say than on my own words. 听And not just professionally either, but at home and in other social situations. 听Wise words, 听that despite floundering on more than one occasion, have served me well these many years.
It is also what our five main characters in this novel yearn for. 听Someone to listen to them . 听For Mick, Jake, Biff and Dr. Copeland, that person was John Singer. 听Despite the fact that he was deaf and mute they all believed that he understood them and for Mick he even provided a way for her to listen to her beloved music. 听John Singer however, had lost his only audience when they took Antonapoulos away and even though he was never really sure how much of what he signed Antonapoulos actually understood, it did not matter. 听He too needed to be heard. 听
There are so many layers to this story but through them all lay this need to be heard and to be understood.
How ominous is it that I find myself reflecting on the art of listening 听just one week before Donald Trump becomes the President of the most powerful democratic nation in the world.
is timeless, profound and a thing of rare beauty.
February 11, 2022
4+ stars
鈥楾he Heart is a Lonely Hunter鈥� by Carson McCullers is a truly extraordinary novel. I found McCullers prose very simple and straightforward without the lyrical flourishes that I so love, however for depth of insight into the human psyche, the writing is a treasure trove. Throughout the book, I was reminded of the psychological defense mechanism of projection. You know how sometimes the things you literally hate about another person are those little parts of your own personality that you鈥檝e sheltered from the light, our shadow persona according to Jungian theory. In this novel, what most intrigued me was the power of attraction shown by McCullers鈥檚 characters toward what was most loved in others, projection in the direction of love instead of hate. 鈥淗ow we see others is a reflection of how we see ourselves.鈥�(1) In this story, John Singer, a deaf-mute, attracts a motley crew of unusual friends.
Biff Brannon, owner of the New York Cafe, Jake Blount, a drifter with a rough appearance, a penchant for alcohol and loud opinions, Doctor Copeland, a black man who cannot reel his children into his way of thinking or living, and lastly, Nick Kelly, a fourteen-year-old girl with a rich inner life, all become frequent visitors to John Singer鈥檚 room. They all count him as a friend, telling him their innermost thoughts. It is, however, not their friendship that is most prized for him. For John Singer, it is the friendship of another deaf-mute, Spiros Antonapoulos, that jacks up his inner life. When Antonapoulos gets sent to an asylum by his cousin, Singer is bereft, and from there on, Singer seems to live for each visit to his friend. Since Antonapoulos seems to care only about the food treats that Singer brings when he visits, one can only assume that Singer鈥檚 friendship is not nearly as important to him as it is to Singer. Meanwhile, Singer moves into the Kelly family home as a boarder and becomes the object of near adoration of his four frequent visitors.
It is Nick Kelly who fascinates me the most. A coming of age tale, Nick is engulfed by her dreams and passions. Music is one of those passions and accompanies her nearly everywhere. As she straps baby brother Ralph into a wagon, she will entrust his care to seven-year-old brother, Bubber, and climb the roofs of houses. There her mind is free to soar. Is it because Carson McCullers was only twenty-three years old when she wrote this novel, that she got Nick Kelly鈥檚 character pitch-perfect? And what is it about John Singer that is so attractive to Nick? Surrounded by five siblings, house boarders, and parents that are too busy struggling to get by, is it the fact that Nick has finally found a listening ear? Singer鈥檚 listening is magical, but transcendence is a beautiful thing that is darn hard to accomplish. This is a tragic, sorrowful tale, and while hope is present, it is not abundant. This is a significant year in the lives of all these characters, and all of them will see major changes. Between fear and love, the human soul is stretched out. It is toward love that each of these characters has turned in their need for Singer鈥檚 companionship, but it is also toward self-love. Some of them seem to have self-hate and self-condemnation from bitter pasts. Ever, the lonely heart searches for the path to self-acceptance and belonging.
鈥楾he Heart is a Lonely Hunter鈥� by Carson McCullers is a truly extraordinary novel. I found McCullers prose very simple and straightforward without the lyrical flourishes that I so love, however for depth of insight into the human psyche, the writing is a treasure trove. Throughout the book, I was reminded of the psychological defense mechanism of projection. You know how sometimes the things you literally hate about another person are those little parts of your own personality that you鈥檝e sheltered from the light, our shadow persona according to Jungian theory. In this novel, what most intrigued me was the power of attraction shown by McCullers鈥檚 characters toward what was most loved in others, projection in the direction of love instead of hate. 鈥淗ow we see others is a reflection of how we see ourselves.鈥�(1) In this story, John Singer, a deaf-mute, attracts a motley crew of unusual friends.
Biff Brannon, owner of the New York Cafe, Jake Blount, a drifter with a rough appearance, a penchant for alcohol and loud opinions, Doctor Copeland, a black man who cannot reel his children into his way of thinking or living, and lastly, Nick Kelly, a fourteen-year-old girl with a rich inner life, all become frequent visitors to John Singer鈥檚 room. They all count him as a friend, telling him their innermost thoughts. It is, however, not their friendship that is most prized for him. For John Singer, it is the friendship of another deaf-mute, Spiros Antonapoulos, that jacks up his inner life. When Antonapoulos gets sent to an asylum by his cousin, Singer is bereft, and from there on, Singer seems to live for each visit to his friend. Since Antonapoulos seems to care only about the food treats that Singer brings when he visits, one can only assume that Singer鈥檚 friendship is not nearly as important to him as it is to Singer. Meanwhile, Singer moves into the Kelly family home as a boarder and becomes the object of near adoration of his four frequent visitors.
It is Nick Kelly who fascinates me the most. A coming of age tale, Nick is engulfed by her dreams and passions. Music is one of those passions and accompanies her nearly everywhere. As she straps baby brother Ralph into a wagon, she will entrust his care to seven-year-old brother, Bubber, and climb the roofs of houses. There her mind is free to soar. Is it because Carson McCullers was only twenty-three years old when she wrote this novel, that she got Nick Kelly鈥檚 character pitch-perfect? And what is it about John Singer that is so attractive to Nick? Surrounded by five siblings, house boarders, and parents that are too busy struggling to get by, is it the fact that Nick has finally found a listening ear? Singer鈥檚 listening is magical, but transcendence is a beautiful thing that is darn hard to accomplish. This is a tragic, sorrowful tale, and while hope is present, it is not abundant. This is a significant year in the lives of all these characters, and all of them will see major changes. Between fear and love, the human soul is stretched out. It is toward love that each of these characters has turned in their need for Singer鈥檚 companionship, but it is also toward self-love. Some of them seem to have self-hate and self-condemnation from bitter pasts. Ever, the lonely heart searches for the path to self-acceptance and belonging.
February 23, 2025
鈥淭he way I need you is a loneliness I cannot bear鈥� (217)
This is my favorite book. I cannot think of my own literary experience without it. The first time I read it, I felt all the feels: my body and my heart despondent with rage and sorrow for the book鈥檚 despairing setting, and for its lovelorn characters all hungry for love.
With each reread, I am always astonished of McCullers' prodigious talent, with a sensitive and keen eye for compassion and a real love for her characters, who leap off the page.
The dramatis personae are:
Mr. Singer, a deaf mute. He has self-delusion with a hopeless yearning for the greedy Antonapoulos.
Mick Kelly, an adolescent girl who has a desire to escape through music. She has an active imagination.
Biff Brannon, the manager and owner of the New York Cafe, who is mourning the loss of his wife Alice. Despite that their intimacy stopped, he never really stopped loving her. (He is my favorite character!)
Dr. Copeland- the town's black doctor, who has radical viewpoints on racial equality.
Jake Blount- a drifter who has the desire to make the American heartland a communist state.
These 5 main characters continue to live with me, and I think about them, time and again.
For me, this novel remains my favorite book I've read of all time. Simply not because its one of the most subtle and simplistic prose stylings I've come across; but because I can relate to everyone's yearning to be seen, a part of something bigger than themselves.
Such powerful moments are:
Biff Brannon's rubbing his dead wife's perfume onto his armpits, in order to process his grief.
The tragic story of Mick's brother, Bubber transforming as George after almost shooting Baby.
When Mick experiences love for the first time with a possibly bisexual friend Harry Minowitz. Also moments when we see Mick's imagination taking hold of her.
However, the finale of the book is at its most sorrowful best when we see the fates of the characters all collide in a cinematic coda, all trying to cope with the sudden death of Mr. Singer.
As Mick's story ends, it is so courageous and heartbreaking that it hurts to read, "so there was nothing to be mad at. It was like she was cheated. Only nobody had cheated her. So there was nobody to take it out on. However, just the same she had that feeling. Cheated" (McCullers 354).
Jake keeps on babbling, confused and grieving over Singer's demise; Dr. Copeland's sad resignation also hurts.
The most affecting moment is when Biff鈥檚 succumbs to his sadness by keeping the diner open 24-7. For me this is one of literature's most heart-stopping moments ever. It is one of the most haunting and loneliest endings imaginable:
"He leaned his back against the counter for support. For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valor. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who鈥攐ne word鈥攍ove" (McCullers 359).
As the book closes in its moments of devastation, we are always hunting for someone to love us, to make our heart whole. Anyone who cannot understand this doesn鈥檛 have a pulse.
Ultimately, I truly believe we're all lonely hunters. The book is about the mysteries of the human heart as well, of how anything that comes to mind should be accepted and seen simply as how nothing can be defined or tied down.
This is my favorite book. I cannot think of my own literary experience without it. The first time I read it, I felt all the feels: my body and my heart despondent with rage and sorrow for the book鈥檚 despairing setting, and for its lovelorn characters all hungry for love.
With each reread, I am always astonished of McCullers' prodigious talent, with a sensitive and keen eye for compassion and a real love for her characters, who leap off the page.
The dramatis personae are:
Mr. Singer, a deaf mute. He has self-delusion with a hopeless yearning for the greedy Antonapoulos.
Mick Kelly, an adolescent girl who has a desire to escape through music. She has an active imagination.
Biff Brannon, the manager and owner of the New York Cafe, who is mourning the loss of his wife Alice. Despite that their intimacy stopped, he never really stopped loving her. (He is my favorite character!)
Dr. Copeland- the town's black doctor, who has radical viewpoints on racial equality.
Jake Blount- a drifter who has the desire to make the American heartland a communist state.
These 5 main characters continue to live with me, and I think about them, time and again.
For me, this novel remains my favorite book I've read of all time. Simply not because its one of the most subtle and simplistic prose stylings I've come across; but because I can relate to everyone's yearning to be seen, a part of something bigger than themselves.
Such powerful moments are:
Biff Brannon's rubbing his dead wife's perfume onto his armpits, in order to process his grief.
The tragic story of Mick's brother, Bubber transforming as George after almost shooting Baby.
When Mick experiences love for the first time with a possibly bisexual friend Harry Minowitz. Also moments when we see Mick's imagination taking hold of her.
However, the finale of the book is at its most sorrowful best when we see the fates of the characters all collide in a cinematic coda, all trying to cope with the sudden death of Mr. Singer.
As Mick's story ends, it is so courageous and heartbreaking that it hurts to read, "so there was nothing to be mad at. It was like she was cheated. Only nobody had cheated her. So there was nobody to take it out on. However, just the same she had that feeling. Cheated" (McCullers 354).
Jake keeps on babbling, confused and grieving over Singer's demise; Dr. Copeland's sad resignation also hurts.
The most affecting moment is when Biff鈥檚 succumbs to his sadness by keeping the diner open 24-7. For me this is one of literature's most heart-stopping moments ever. It is one of the most haunting and loneliest endings imaginable:
"He leaned his back against the counter for support. For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valor. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who鈥攐ne word鈥攍ove" (McCullers 359).
As the book closes in its moments of devastation, we are always hunting for someone to love us, to make our heart whole. Anyone who cannot understand this doesn鈥檛 have a pulse.
Ultimately, I truly believe we're all lonely hunters. The book is about the mysteries of the human heart as well, of how anything that comes to mind should be accepted and seen simply as how nothing can be defined or tied down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2017
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCuller's Portrait of the Faces Behind the Masks
was chosen as a group read by On The Southern Literary Trail for January, 2017. This is the third time McCuller's novel has been selected as a group read by "The Trail," making it the most read novel by members of the group which was founded in February, 2012.
Thanks to a former goodreads friend, I've learned I am only gently mad. It was a relief to discover that. Because my self-analysis has been that I'm excessively obsessive when it comes to the love of books. After having taken his recommendation to read by , my soul is somewhat rested.
However, there remains the fact I have, excuse me, had four copies of . I absolve myself for the first, it was a Bantam paperback picked up at the now defunct college bookstore, Malones. That paperback cost me lunch that day, even though at the time Krystal Hamburgers were only 25 cents apiece. For those not familiar with Krystals, they are much akin to White Castle. They are little, square, and served on a steamed bun, grilled onions,smashed down onto the little thin patty, and given a squirt of cheap yellow mustard. There are still days when I've got to have a Krystal. But they're not a quarter any more.
My First Copy
The paperback was read and re-read. Somewhere through the years, it vanished, perhaps the victim of a garage sale during a period I call my former life--BD, i.e. before divorce. I hope it least went for the cost of a Krystal, but I doubt it.
Lonely Hunter was not the first McCullers I read. Professor O.B. Emerson, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, The University of Alabama introduced me to Ms. McCullers through . That one cost me a sack of Krystals, too. That's all right. From my current waist line, it doesn't appear I missed too many meals.
Dr. Emerson was a little banty rooster of a man, coal black hair, brilliantined to a shine that reflected the fluorescent lights of the class room. He considered McCullers essential to his curriculum in his Southern Literature course. From my first exposure to McCullers, I was hooked. The little man with the loud colored bow ties, outfitted in seersucker suits and a sporty straw hat made me a convert for life.
After graduation, Professor Emerson and I would converse via telephone from time to time. He was gleeful to learn that had been made into a movie for television in 1974. I heard him click on his set and the ice cubes rattle in his Wild Turkey, his bourbon of choice. In my mind, I could see him with his books shelved floor to ceiling, all arranged, not alphabetically, but by coordinating colors of dust jackets. It was an aesthetic matter. I didn't understand it, and I took art. He was less impressed with the big screen adaptation of in 1974. Both were novels by Hartselle, Alabama author . Professor Emerson was a big Huie fan. He shared one thing in common with Huie. Both had received death threats from the Klan and had crosses burned in their yards--Huie, because of his novel, Emerson because he had Justice Thurgood Marshall over for dinner one night. It was Professor Emerson's proudest moment in life. He gloried in telling the tale.
Since Professor Emerson introduced me to Carson McCullers, this review is for him. He died while I was out of town, some years ago. I missed his memorial service. I don't even know where he is buried. But I owe him much, because he imprinted me with a love of Southern literature. In some ways, I picture his life as one of loneliness, not unlike the characters you frequently encounter in the works of McCullers.
But, I digress. I was supposed to be telling you about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm getting there. We Southerners are prone to digression. It's a manner of story telling in these parts.
My next copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the edition pictured. The jacket features one of my favorite photographs of McCullers.
My Second Copy
The second copy was justified by love. Love justifies a lot. I just gave that edition away out of love for two of whom I call my honorary children, William and Nancy Roane. William is the director of a short film called "Old Photograph." It should premiere this spring. I play a hard shell Baptist type preacher in charge of a home for wayward girls. The screenplay was a collaboration between William and his younger sister, Nancy. I think they are two of the most brilliant and engaging kids I've met. He's going through the Fulbright rounds, a senior at Oberlin, and she's in her first year at Oberlin.
Nancy is a natural writer. Her story, "Everyone knew Ruby," has been published. I've read it. It's good. Everyone only thought they knew Ruby. They found out they didn't when she committed suicide. It is William's next film project.
I asked if either of them had read McCullers. Neither had. The central theme in Nancy's story echoes that in McCuller's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. While celebrating Christmas and New Year's with them at a lunch, a few days ago, I presented them with my copy, inscribed with two quotes from the novel. 鈥淭he most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.鈥� The other was, 鈥淎ll we can do is go around telling the truth.鈥� Then I encouraged the Roane siblings to give the Coen Brothers a run for their money. I think they can.
My third copy of Hunter is a beautiful slip-cased reproduction of the first edition from the former First Editions Library. I understand that Easton bought the company and that as copies in the series are sold, they will not be reprinted. Find this one, if you can. It's just a beautiful book to hold in your hands.
The Third Copy
Finally, I had to have the complete McCullers. I highly recommend
The Fourth Volume of McCullers on my Library Shelf
Although biographical influence is often scorned as a means to literary criticism, I don't think it is possible to fully explore some works without some knowledge of the life of the author. That's definitely true of Hunter.
was born February 19, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia, the daughter of Lamar and Marguerite Waters Smith. Her birth name was Lula Carson Smith. She dropped the Lula around 1930. Her life was relatively short. Having a bout of rheumatic fever during her high school years affected her health until her death caused by a cerebral hemorrhage on September 29, 1967. Her life was spent in fits of creativity marred by acute episodes of depression. A good portion of her life was spent in a wheel chair.
It does not come as a surprise, when you become familiar with McCuller's life that her literary works were filled with the unloved, the outcasts, and misfits. Nor is it any surprise that her works revolve around desperate attempts to form loving relationships and those relationships in which the lover's pursuit is one that remains unrequited.
Carson began taking piano lessons at an early age. Her original plan was to become a concert pianist. You can find this experience as the basis for her story, Wunderkind.
McCullers was a wunderkind until struck with rheumatic fever at the age of fifteen. She gamely continued through school to graduate at age seventeen. She intended to go to Juliard. She never made it there. She began taking creative writing classes at Columbia while working menial jobs.
While in New York she met Reese McCullers whom she fell in love with too quickly and they married. Divorced once. Married twice. He was an alcoholic, prone to depression and ultimately committed suicide, wanting Carson to die with him. She refused, although she had attempted to commit suicide on an earlier occasion, alone.
Shortly after their first marriage, the McCullers traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Reese found work. There, McCullers wrote Hunter. It was published in 1940. McCullers was twenty-three. She was a literary wunderkind. The book was an instant best seller, hitting the top of the market in sales. Critical reception was mixed.
McCuller's title comes from in her poem "The Lonely Hunter," found in . MacLeod wrote:
It is 1931. The setting is a small mill town in Georgia.
McCuller's initially entitled the novel, "The Mute," as the central character is John Singer, a deaf mute, who can truly only communicate with his room mate, a Greek named Spiros Anastopolous. They have been companions for ten years, Singer working as a silver engraver in a jewelry store, and Anastopolous working in his cousin's fruit stand. John and Spiros can communicate through signing. However, Spiros becomes sick, a changed man, engaging in irrational behavior. His cousin commits him to an insane asylum. Singer is left alone, unable to communicate with anyone.
With his companion gone, Singer moves into the Kelly family's boarding house. Mick is a gawky adolescent, unable to recognize the changes occurring in her body, unable to recognize what adolescents haven't yet done, the initiation into sex. She wants to be a musician, she wants to play the piano. Essentially she wants anything that she doesn't believe she can achieve until she begins to compose her own songs. It is with Mick that McCullers addresses the universal awkwardness of the coming of age.
Singer no longer makes his meals in his apartment. Now, he takes his meals at Biff's New York Cafe. Biff's wife Alice dies and he is now alone.
Jake Blount is a customer at Biff's. He is a labor organizer, an agitator. He is a Marxist. Blount drinks to excess. After meeting Singer, he speaks to him at length, incapable of understanding that Singer can't talk back. After becoming too drunk to navigate his way home, Singer walks him back to his room for company and to give Blount a place to stay for the night.
Dr. Copeland is a black physician, disappointed that his children have not become educated but have been satisfied to take the menial jobs available to blacks in the South at that time. He is angry at whites, with the exception of John Singer who had once offered him the kindness of lighting his cigarette. Singer is the only white man who has ever shown him courtesy of any kind.
The novel shifts from point of view, character by character. But Singer is always the central figure in McCuller's novel. Biff, Jake, Copeland, and Mick, all begin to regularly come to Singer's room where they confide their deepest feelings to him. Each feels that he understands what they say and feel. But he does not, nor is he able to communicate his longing for his former companion.
Each of the characters who rotate through Singer's room wear a mask, rarely disclosing what they feel to anyone. It is only to Singer that they reveal their true feelings. It is safe. Who can Singer tell? Singer is almost the priest in the confessional.
While each of the four have found their confidant, Singer grows more alone as he visits Spiros in the asylum, only to find that his friend has become more seriously ill with each visit. Spiros' death will be Singer's unraveling.
Oddly, as Singer unravels, the confessing quartet begin to turn to others and bring them into their lives. Biff turns to his wife's sister, Lucille. Blount and Copeland find a common cause in discussing issues of race, politics, and class struggle. Mick and a young Jewish boy, Harry Minowitz, find first love after a swim in a nearby pond.
In , wrote, "Perhaps the best conversationalist is the man who helps others to talk." John Singer did that very well.
In the years since its debut, Hunter has steadily grown in stature for what is now recognized as its brilliance. The novel is number seventeen on The Modern Library's list of 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century. Time Magazine listed it on its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
, in reviewing McCuller's first novel wrote:
So, Professor Emerson, this review is dedicated to you. I don't have any Wild Turkey, but forgive me as I lift this shot of Gentleman Jack in my toast to you. I miss you.
Yet, as McCullers said,鈥淭here was neither beginning nor end to this sorrow. Nor understanding. How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?鈥�
Amen.
EDIT: This novel was selected as a group read for the goodreads group "On the Southern Literary Trail" for April, 2012. It is shared for the benefit of the group, and, hopefully to draw interest to a novel that deserves to be read.
Mike Sullivan,
Founder and Moderator
References
1. The Carson McCullers Project
2. by
3. The Lonely Hunter from by
4. A Review of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Richard Wright
5. A Timeline of the Life of Carson McCullers
was chosen as a group read by On The Southern Literary Trail for January, 2017. This is the third time McCuller's novel has been selected as a group read by "The Trail," making it the most read novel by members of the group which was founded in February, 2012.
Thanks to a former goodreads friend, I've learned I am only gently mad. It was a relief to discover that. Because my self-analysis has been that I'm excessively obsessive when it comes to the love of books. After having taken his recommendation to read by , my soul is somewhat rested.
However, there remains the fact I have, excuse me, had four copies of . I absolve myself for the first, it was a Bantam paperback picked up at the now defunct college bookstore, Malones. That paperback cost me lunch that day, even though at the time Krystal Hamburgers were only 25 cents apiece. For those not familiar with Krystals, they are much akin to White Castle. They are little, square, and served on a steamed bun, grilled onions,smashed down onto the little thin patty, and given a squirt of cheap yellow mustard. There are still days when I've got to have a Krystal. But they're not a quarter any more.
My First Copy
The paperback was read and re-read. Somewhere through the years, it vanished, perhaps the victim of a garage sale during a period I call my former life--BD, i.e. before divorce. I hope it least went for the cost of a Krystal, but I doubt it.
Lonely Hunter was not the first McCullers I read. Professor O.B. Emerson, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, The University of Alabama introduced me to Ms. McCullers through . That one cost me a sack of Krystals, too. That's all right. From my current waist line, it doesn't appear I missed too many meals.
Dr. Emerson was a little banty rooster of a man, coal black hair, brilliantined to a shine that reflected the fluorescent lights of the class room. He considered McCullers essential to his curriculum in his Southern Literature course. From my first exposure to McCullers, I was hooked. The little man with the loud colored bow ties, outfitted in seersucker suits and a sporty straw hat made me a convert for life.
After graduation, Professor Emerson and I would converse via telephone from time to time. He was gleeful to learn that had been made into a movie for television in 1974. I heard him click on his set and the ice cubes rattle in his Wild Turkey, his bourbon of choice. In my mind, I could see him with his books shelved floor to ceiling, all arranged, not alphabetically, but by coordinating colors of dust jackets. It was an aesthetic matter. I didn't understand it, and I took art. He was less impressed with the big screen adaptation of in 1974. Both were novels by Hartselle, Alabama author . Professor Emerson was a big Huie fan. He shared one thing in common with Huie. Both had received death threats from the Klan and had crosses burned in their yards--Huie, because of his novel, Emerson because he had Justice Thurgood Marshall over for dinner one night. It was Professor Emerson's proudest moment in life. He gloried in telling the tale.
Since Professor Emerson introduced me to Carson McCullers, this review is for him. He died while I was out of town, some years ago. I missed his memorial service. I don't even know where he is buried. But I owe him much, because he imprinted me with a love of Southern literature. In some ways, I picture his life as one of loneliness, not unlike the characters you frequently encounter in the works of McCullers.
But, I digress. I was supposed to be telling you about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm getting there. We Southerners are prone to digression. It's a manner of story telling in these parts.
My next copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the edition pictured. The jacket features one of my favorite photographs of McCullers.
My Second Copy
The second copy was justified by love. Love justifies a lot. I just gave that edition away out of love for two of whom I call my honorary children, William and Nancy Roane. William is the director of a short film called "Old Photograph." It should premiere this spring. I play a hard shell Baptist type preacher in charge of a home for wayward girls. The screenplay was a collaboration between William and his younger sister, Nancy. I think they are two of the most brilliant and engaging kids I've met. He's going through the Fulbright rounds, a senior at Oberlin, and she's in her first year at Oberlin.
Nancy is a natural writer. Her story, "Everyone knew Ruby," has been published. I've read it. It's good. Everyone only thought they knew Ruby. They found out they didn't when she committed suicide. It is William's next film project.
I asked if either of them had read McCullers. Neither had. The central theme in Nancy's story echoes that in McCuller's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. While celebrating Christmas and New Year's with them at a lunch, a few days ago, I presented them with my copy, inscribed with two quotes from the novel. 鈥淭he most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.鈥� The other was, 鈥淎ll we can do is go around telling the truth.鈥� Then I encouraged the Roane siblings to give the Coen Brothers a run for their money. I think they can.
My third copy of Hunter is a beautiful slip-cased reproduction of the first edition from the former First Editions Library. I understand that Easton bought the company and that as copies in the series are sold, they will not be reprinted. Find this one, if you can. It's just a beautiful book to hold in your hands.
The Third Copy
Finally, I had to have the complete McCullers. I highly recommend
The Fourth Volume of McCullers on my Library Shelf
Although biographical influence is often scorned as a means to literary criticism, I don't think it is possible to fully explore some works without some knowledge of the life of the author. That's definitely true of Hunter.
was born February 19, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia, the daughter of Lamar and Marguerite Waters Smith. Her birth name was Lula Carson Smith. She dropped the Lula around 1930. Her life was relatively short. Having a bout of rheumatic fever during her high school years affected her health until her death caused by a cerebral hemorrhage on September 29, 1967. Her life was spent in fits of creativity marred by acute episodes of depression. A good portion of her life was spent in a wheel chair.
It does not come as a surprise, when you become familiar with McCuller's life that her literary works were filled with the unloved, the outcasts, and misfits. Nor is it any surprise that her works revolve around desperate attempts to form loving relationships and those relationships in which the lover's pursuit is one that remains unrequited.
Carson began taking piano lessons at an early age. Her original plan was to become a concert pianist. You can find this experience as the basis for her story, Wunderkind.
McCullers was a wunderkind until struck with rheumatic fever at the age of fifteen. She gamely continued through school to graduate at age seventeen. She intended to go to Juliard. She never made it there. She began taking creative writing classes at Columbia while working menial jobs.
While in New York she met Reese McCullers whom she fell in love with too quickly and they married. Divorced once. Married twice. He was an alcoholic, prone to depression and ultimately committed suicide, wanting Carson to die with him. She refused, although she had attempted to commit suicide on an earlier occasion, alone.
Shortly after their first marriage, the McCullers traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Reese found work. There, McCullers wrote Hunter. It was published in 1940. McCullers was twenty-three. She was a literary wunderkind. The book was an instant best seller, hitting the top of the market in sales. Critical reception was mixed.
McCuller's title comes from in her poem "The Lonely Hunter," found in . MacLeod wrote:
"O never a green leaf whispers, where the
green-gold branches swing:
O never a song I hear now, where one was
wont to sing.
Here in the heart of Summer, sweet is life to
me still,
But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts
on a lonely hill."
It is 1931. The setting is a small mill town in Georgia.
McCuller's initially entitled the novel, "The Mute," as the central character is John Singer, a deaf mute, who can truly only communicate with his room mate, a Greek named Spiros Anastopolous. They have been companions for ten years, Singer working as a silver engraver in a jewelry store, and Anastopolous working in his cousin's fruit stand. John and Spiros can communicate through signing. However, Spiros becomes sick, a changed man, engaging in irrational behavior. His cousin commits him to an insane asylum. Singer is left alone, unable to communicate with anyone.
With his companion gone, Singer moves into the Kelly family's boarding house. Mick is a gawky adolescent, unable to recognize the changes occurring in her body, unable to recognize what adolescents haven't yet done, the initiation into sex. She wants to be a musician, she wants to play the piano. Essentially she wants anything that she doesn't believe she can achieve until she begins to compose her own songs. It is with Mick that McCullers addresses the universal awkwardness of the coming of age.
Singer no longer makes his meals in his apartment. Now, he takes his meals at Biff's New York Cafe. Biff's wife Alice dies and he is now alone.
Jake Blount is a customer at Biff's. He is a labor organizer, an agitator. He is a Marxist. Blount drinks to excess. After meeting Singer, he speaks to him at length, incapable of understanding that Singer can't talk back. After becoming too drunk to navigate his way home, Singer walks him back to his room for company and to give Blount a place to stay for the night.
Dr. Copeland is a black physician, disappointed that his children have not become educated but have been satisfied to take the menial jobs available to blacks in the South at that time. He is angry at whites, with the exception of John Singer who had once offered him the kindness of lighting his cigarette. Singer is the only white man who has ever shown him courtesy of any kind.
The novel shifts from point of view, character by character. But Singer is always the central figure in McCuller's novel. Biff, Jake, Copeland, and Mick, all begin to regularly come to Singer's room where they confide their deepest feelings to him. Each feels that he understands what they say and feel. But he does not, nor is he able to communicate his longing for his former companion.
Each of the characters who rotate through Singer's room wear a mask, rarely disclosing what they feel to anyone. It is only to Singer that they reveal their true feelings. It is safe. Who can Singer tell? Singer is almost the priest in the confessional.
While each of the four have found their confidant, Singer grows more alone as he visits Spiros in the asylum, only to find that his friend has become more seriously ill with each visit. Spiros' death will be Singer's unraveling.
Oddly, as Singer unravels, the confessing quartet begin to turn to others and bring them into their lives. Biff turns to his wife's sister, Lucille. Blount and Copeland find a common cause in discussing issues of race, politics, and class struggle. Mick and a young Jewish boy, Harry Minowitz, find first love after a swim in a nearby pond.
In , wrote, "Perhaps the best conversationalist is the man who helps others to talk." John Singer did that very well.
In the years since its debut, Hunter has steadily grown in stature for what is now recognized as its brilliance. The novel is number seventeen on The Modern Library's list of 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century. Time Magazine listed it on its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
, in reviewing McCuller's first novel wrote:
"Out of the tradition of Gertrude Stein's experiments in style and the clipped, stout prose of Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway comes Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. With the depression as a murky backdrop, this first novel depicts the bleak landscape of the American consciousness below the Mason-Dixon line. Miss McCullers' picture of loneliness, death, accident, insanity, fear, mob violence and terror is perhaps the most desolate that has so far come from the South. Her quality of despair is unique and individual; and it seems to me more natural and authentic than that of Faulkner. Her groping characters live in a world more completely lost than any Sherwood Anderson ever dreamed of. And she recounts incidents of death and attitudes of stoicism in sentences whose neutrality makes Hemingway's terse prose seem warm and partisan by comparison."
So, Professor Emerson, this review is dedicated to you. I don't have any Wild Turkey, but forgive me as I lift this shot of Gentleman Jack in my toast to you. I miss you.
Yet, as McCullers said,鈥淭here was neither beginning nor end to this sorrow. Nor understanding. How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?鈥�
Amen.
EDIT: This novel was selected as a group read for the goodreads group "On the Southern Literary Trail" for April, 2012. It is shared for the benefit of the group, and, hopefully to draw interest to a novel that deserves to be read.
Mike Sullivan,
Founder and Moderator
References
1. The Carson McCullers Project
2. by
3. The Lonely Hunter from by
4. A Review of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Richard Wright
5. A Timeline of the Life of Carson McCullers
October 29, 2018
Each year I attempt to participate in classics bingo in the group catching up on classics. This year, so far, so good. I gave a lot of thought as to which classic book I wanted to use for my classic of North America square. There are a few authors that come to mind as classic American authors, where each piece of literature written by them reads like a story being told on one's front porch. The names Hemingway and Steinbeck first come to my mind, along with that of Carson McCullers. Distinctly southern and writing about the human condition during the era in which she lived, Carson McCullers is a literary treasure. My mother owns the complete set of her writing in one volume and I have previously read Member of a Wedding, which was a gem. It comes as little surprise then that I selected McCullers' definitive work The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter for my classic of North America square this year as her work comes straight from the heart and is a joy to read.
I can not say much about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that has not been written before. Taking place in a Georgia mill town during the Great Depression, McCullers writes of the trials and travails that occurred during that time. The town could have been her own and the female protagonist Mick Kelly could been McCullers when she was younger. She speaks out about racism, fascism, the rights of the disabled, as well as the depression, through the alternating chapters told through the eyes of her archetypal protagonists Singer, Biff Brannon, Jake Blount, Doctor Benedict Copeland, and Mick Kelly. Readers find a woman ahead of her time in that she views blacks, Jews, whites, men, and women as equals, and this was during the 1930s. Perhaps the fact that McCullers was all of twenty three years of age when she wrote this timeless novel speaks to her views of society in that her generation did not emerge as leaders until the later 1940s, when people did start to speak out against racism and lack of rights for women. Published in 1940, McCullers work was slightly ahead of its time and most likely eye opening for many.
With blacks and whites, Jews and gentiles, unmarried men and women sharing dialogue in the south, McCullers work is refreshing for this era as well as the country has become as polarized as it was during the times of separate but equal. Each of her protagonists had much to say about society, and each had a plan as to how to better themselves and the world that they lived in. The world needs more people like Doctor Copeland, Biff Brannon, Jake Blount, Singer, and Mick Kelly. Yet, they are a thing of the past and many of their inclusive views with them. The literary world also needs more writers like Carson McCullers who spoke her mind from a young age. Her work remains as timeless as ever and her Georgia mill town an archetype for forward thinking people. Carson McCullers work should be viewed as North American classic writing, and I look forward to reading more of it in the coming year.
5 timeless stars
I can not say much about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that has not been written before. Taking place in a Georgia mill town during the Great Depression, McCullers writes of the trials and travails that occurred during that time. The town could have been her own and the female protagonist Mick Kelly could been McCullers when she was younger. She speaks out about racism, fascism, the rights of the disabled, as well as the depression, through the alternating chapters told through the eyes of her archetypal protagonists Singer, Biff Brannon, Jake Blount, Doctor Benedict Copeland, and Mick Kelly. Readers find a woman ahead of her time in that she views blacks, Jews, whites, men, and women as equals, and this was during the 1930s. Perhaps the fact that McCullers was all of twenty three years of age when she wrote this timeless novel speaks to her views of society in that her generation did not emerge as leaders until the later 1940s, when people did start to speak out against racism and lack of rights for women. Published in 1940, McCullers work was slightly ahead of its time and most likely eye opening for many.
With blacks and whites, Jews and gentiles, unmarried men and women sharing dialogue in the south, McCullers work is refreshing for this era as well as the country has become as polarized as it was during the times of separate but equal. Each of her protagonists had much to say about society, and each had a plan as to how to better themselves and the world that they lived in. The world needs more people like Doctor Copeland, Biff Brannon, Jake Blount, Singer, and Mick Kelly. Yet, they are a thing of the past and many of their inclusive views with them. The literary world also needs more writers like Carson McCullers who spoke her mind from a young age. Her work remains as timeless as ever and her Georgia mill town an archetype for forward thinking people. Carson McCullers work should be viewed as North American classic writing, and I look forward to reading more of it in the coming year.
5 timeless stars
March 6, 2014
Rating: 4.99* of five
A near-perfect book, a joy of a read, and a heartfelt "thank you" to the goddesses of literature for it. My review has moved out of the purview of censors and moneygrubbers .
A near-perfect book, a joy of a read, and a heartfelt "thank you" to the goddesses of literature for it. My review has moved out of the purview of censors and moneygrubbers .
March 6, 2025
鈥溌緾u谩ntos como nosotros hay en este pa铆s? Diez mil, quiz谩s. O veinte mil. O muchos m谩s. He estado en innumerables sitios y siempre he encontrado muy pocos de los nuestros. Pero cuando un hombre comprende, y ve el mundo tal cual es, se remonta millones de a帽os atr谩s para saber c贸mo lleg贸 a ser lo que es.鈥�
En primer debo decir que este libro tiene uno de los m谩s bellos t铆tulos en la historia de la literatura: 鈥淓l coraz贸n es un cazador solitario鈥�, que proviene de un poema del escoc茅s William Sharp. Tal vez otros lectores que lean mi rese帽a puedan aportar otros t铆tulos. Ser铆a un ejercicio muy interesante.
En segundo t茅rmino confieso que busqu茅 por a帽os hacerme de un ejemplar de esta novela que siempre quise leer y que estaba m谩s cerca de lo que yo imaginaba, as铆 que no perd铆 tiempo y me puse manos a la obra en su lectura.
Me interesaba mucho conocer c贸mo escrib铆a Carson McCullers, esta gran autora norteamericana cuya vida se apag贸 tempranamente pasando los cincuenta a帽os, aunque leg谩ndonos varias novelas, cuentos y hasta obras de teatro para leer, y debo decir que me agrad贸 notablemente.
Su estilo para muchos se asemeja, por escribir sobre la dif铆cil vida de la gente pobre o rural, al de otros autores orientados al estilo de vida sure帽o de los Estados Unidos como John Steinbeck o Harper Lee y tambi茅n a William Faulkner, especialmente en este 煤ltimo por el proceso narrativo en donde cada cap铆tulo nos va contando acerca de un personaje diferente, pero que a la vez todo est谩 encadenado para contribuir a la trama de la novela.
La diferencia con Faulkner estriba en que McCullers no es tan compleja en la contrucci贸n narrativa de sus novelas, no utiliza t茅cnicas de mon贸logo interior y tampoco incurre en saltos temporales argumentales.
En esta novela, nos encontramos con la dura vida de personajes que adolecen casi de lo mismo: la soledad y las ansias de comunicarse con los dem谩s. La falta de conexi贸n social los asfixia y angustia a la vez.
Hasta podr铆a asegurar que existe para m铆 cierta similitud con la 鈥減ar谩lisis鈥� que James Joyce instala en los distintos personajes de su libro de cuentos 鈥淒ublineses鈥� en donde al igual que ac谩 la desesperanza y el desasosiego est谩n a la orden del d铆a.
En esta novela, la autora nos cuenta la vida de los seis personajes principales que viven en el estado de Georgia, descollando fundamentalmente entre todos ellos el de John Singer, este sordomudo querible y entra帽able que abre la novela y alrededor del cual gira todo, puesto que uno a uno ir谩 conociendo a los dem谩s que 茅l va conociendo, entre ellos una chica de pocos atributos y acomplejado raciocinio llamada Mick Kelly, un oscuro y triste hombre llamado Bill Brannon, siempre detr谩s de la caja registradora de su 鈥淐af茅 New York鈥�, el tosco mec谩nico Jake Blount que se har谩 amigo inseparable del sordomudo luego de una infernal borrachera en ese restaurante, el revolucionario doctor Copeland, un m茅dico negro que es marxista, a punto tal de que uno de sus hijos se llama Karl Marx, su hija Portia de importante papel en la historia y podr铆amos agregar a un s茅ptimo personaje, tambi茅n sordomudo y amigo de Singer, Spiros Antonapulos que aparecer谩 al principio y luego fugazmente a lo largo de la novela.
Los temas como el racismo (estamos en el sur de Estados Unidos), la guerra (la historia se desarrolla durante el transcurso de la Segunda Guerra Mundial) y las dif铆ciles relaciones humanas (todos los personajes acarrean traumas que no logran superar), le dan a 鈥淓l coraz贸n es un cazador solitario鈥� el status de una novela con pocos puntos flojos con la m铆nima excepci贸n de tal vez tener algunas p谩ginas de m谩s.
De todos modos, esto no es inconveniente para que el lector se sumerja activamente en las p谩ginas de la historia para saber c贸mo se van desarrollando los distintos sucesos de la novela.
Creo que el acierto de la Carson McCullers es la de haber creado una historia que lleva adelante con un estilo narrativo simple y sin vueltas, contando lo que hay que contar y sin irse por las ramas, tratando temas como el racismo, la pobreza y la guerra con altura sin caer en golpes bajos.
Lamentablemente, y como comentara antes, la temprana muerte de esta autora norteamericana (que tambi茅n me recuerda a otra malograda escritora, Sylvia Plath) no nos impidi贸 de disfrutar una hermosa novela llena de maravillosos personajes que cuesta mucho olvidar.
En primer debo decir que este libro tiene uno de los m谩s bellos t铆tulos en la historia de la literatura: 鈥淓l coraz贸n es un cazador solitario鈥�, que proviene de un poema del escoc茅s William Sharp. Tal vez otros lectores que lean mi rese帽a puedan aportar otros t铆tulos. Ser铆a un ejercicio muy interesante.
En segundo t茅rmino confieso que busqu茅 por a帽os hacerme de un ejemplar de esta novela que siempre quise leer y que estaba m谩s cerca de lo que yo imaginaba, as铆 que no perd铆 tiempo y me puse manos a la obra en su lectura.
Me interesaba mucho conocer c贸mo escrib铆a Carson McCullers, esta gran autora norteamericana cuya vida se apag贸 tempranamente pasando los cincuenta a帽os, aunque leg谩ndonos varias novelas, cuentos y hasta obras de teatro para leer, y debo decir que me agrad贸 notablemente.
Su estilo para muchos se asemeja, por escribir sobre la dif铆cil vida de la gente pobre o rural, al de otros autores orientados al estilo de vida sure帽o de los Estados Unidos como John Steinbeck o Harper Lee y tambi茅n a William Faulkner, especialmente en este 煤ltimo por el proceso narrativo en donde cada cap铆tulo nos va contando acerca de un personaje diferente, pero que a la vez todo est谩 encadenado para contribuir a la trama de la novela.
La diferencia con Faulkner estriba en que McCullers no es tan compleja en la contrucci贸n narrativa de sus novelas, no utiliza t茅cnicas de mon贸logo interior y tampoco incurre en saltos temporales argumentales.
En esta novela, nos encontramos con la dura vida de personajes que adolecen casi de lo mismo: la soledad y las ansias de comunicarse con los dem谩s. La falta de conexi贸n social los asfixia y angustia a la vez.
Hasta podr铆a asegurar que existe para m铆 cierta similitud con la 鈥減ar谩lisis鈥� que James Joyce instala en los distintos personajes de su libro de cuentos 鈥淒ublineses鈥� en donde al igual que ac谩 la desesperanza y el desasosiego est谩n a la orden del d铆a.
En esta novela, la autora nos cuenta la vida de los seis personajes principales que viven en el estado de Georgia, descollando fundamentalmente entre todos ellos el de John Singer, este sordomudo querible y entra帽able que abre la novela y alrededor del cual gira todo, puesto que uno a uno ir谩 conociendo a los dem谩s que 茅l va conociendo, entre ellos una chica de pocos atributos y acomplejado raciocinio llamada Mick Kelly, un oscuro y triste hombre llamado Bill Brannon, siempre detr谩s de la caja registradora de su 鈥淐af茅 New York鈥�, el tosco mec谩nico Jake Blount que se har谩 amigo inseparable del sordomudo luego de una infernal borrachera en ese restaurante, el revolucionario doctor Copeland, un m茅dico negro que es marxista, a punto tal de que uno de sus hijos se llama Karl Marx, su hija Portia de importante papel en la historia y podr铆amos agregar a un s茅ptimo personaje, tambi茅n sordomudo y amigo de Singer, Spiros Antonapulos que aparecer谩 al principio y luego fugazmente a lo largo de la novela.
Los temas como el racismo (estamos en el sur de Estados Unidos), la guerra (la historia se desarrolla durante el transcurso de la Segunda Guerra Mundial) y las dif铆ciles relaciones humanas (todos los personajes acarrean traumas que no logran superar), le dan a 鈥淓l coraz贸n es un cazador solitario鈥� el status de una novela con pocos puntos flojos con la m铆nima excepci贸n de tal vez tener algunas p谩ginas de m谩s.
De todos modos, esto no es inconveniente para que el lector se sumerja activamente en las p谩ginas de la historia para saber c贸mo se van desarrollando los distintos sucesos de la novela.
Creo que el acierto de la Carson McCullers es la de haber creado una historia que lleva adelante con un estilo narrativo simple y sin vueltas, contando lo que hay que contar y sin irse por las ramas, tratando temas como el racismo, la pobreza y la guerra con altura sin caer en golpes bajos.
Lamentablemente, y como comentara antes, la temprana muerte de esta autora norteamericana (que tambi茅n me recuerda a otra malograda escritora, Sylvia Plath) no nos impidi贸 de disfrutar una hermosa novela llena de maravillosos personajes que cuesta mucho olvidar.
December 11, 2018
And here we are in the world full of probabilities, reasoning with the unreasoned existence, awestruck at the purposelessness of life, at actions with no consequences, at endings with no more re-beginnings, once we die, we die. Alone is our planet and so are we, some of us are more alone than the rest though, some of us choose to be so, for some it鈥檚 the only option. And it is the tale of chosen and of those who chose!
A tale of love and of whom who seek love, of abandoned and espoused, of isolated and integrated, of alienated and assimilated, and of whom, who were left alone! Every soul who breaths life, seeks love, to love and be loved the vain and only desire of humans, we can鈥檛 help desiring so, we can鈥檛 help loving those who gave up on us, we can鈥檛 help hoping against hope, and the torment one endures is never justified with any word of any language, but that forsaken love never perishes鈥�
The very essence of platonic love, is seen in the figure of Singer, our main character, It is one of the characteristics of ideal romantic love, derived from Platonism, that it need not be reciprocal; the beloved, indeed, may even be unaware of the lover's existence or the existence of love, love never dies of indifference, never diminishes by ignorance, but the relation of singer with Antonapoulos is not entirely of this sort, it is, in view of the latter's limitations, an approximation of it. Singer's love does not require reciprocation but it does require an object, we may never be in our lives come to see our beloved, but we want him around us, the surety of sharing the same sky can appease much, the certainty of breathing in same air is of comfort immensely, because love needs not reward, or love in return, it鈥檚 not an act that expects to be re-acted, it鈥檚 the whole life as we keep living, we keep loving ,and when Antonopoulos dies, his own reason for living dies too.........
As for other characters, each of the five main characters strives to break out of his or her isolated existence. The reasons each character is isolated are very different: the deaf-mute John Singer cannot communicate with most of the world because he cannot speak; Mick Kelly cannot communicate with anyone in her family because they do not share her intelligence and ambition; Biff Brannon is left alone when his wife dies; Dr. Copeland is alienated from his family and from other black people because of his education and viewpoints; Jake Blount is alone is his radical social viewpoints and in the fact that he is a newcomer in town.
The fact that Carson was only twenty-three when she completed this heartbreaking tale, makes it sadder than before, and I can鈥檛 help thinking, was Carson in truth, trying to carve a home god of her own, who would play silent and listen to her bruised heart? and history says, she didn鈥檛 find any, instead died at fifty with a weighty heart. who had so much to say, but heart........鈥emained a lonely hunter!
A tale of love and of whom who seek love, of abandoned and espoused, of isolated and integrated, of alienated and assimilated, and of whom, who were left alone! Every soul who breaths life, seeks love, to love and be loved the vain and only desire of humans, we can鈥檛 help desiring so, we can鈥檛 help loving those who gave up on us, we can鈥檛 help hoping against hope, and the torment one endures is never justified with any word of any language, but that forsaken love never perishes鈥�
The very essence of platonic love, is seen in the figure of Singer, our main character, It is one of the characteristics of ideal romantic love, derived from Platonism, that it need not be reciprocal; the beloved, indeed, may even be unaware of the lover's existence or the existence of love, love never dies of indifference, never diminishes by ignorance, but the relation of singer with Antonapoulos is not entirely of this sort, it is, in view of the latter's limitations, an approximation of it. Singer's love does not require reciprocation but it does require an object, we may never be in our lives come to see our beloved, but we want him around us, the surety of sharing the same sky can appease much, the certainty of breathing in same air is of comfort immensely, because love needs not reward, or love in return, it鈥檚 not an act that expects to be re-acted, it鈥檚 the whole life as we keep living, we keep loving ,and when Antonopoulos dies, his own reason for living dies too.........
As for other characters, each of the five main characters strives to break out of his or her isolated existence. The reasons each character is isolated are very different: the deaf-mute John Singer cannot communicate with most of the world because he cannot speak; Mick Kelly cannot communicate with anyone in her family because they do not share her intelligence and ambition; Biff Brannon is left alone when his wife dies; Dr. Copeland is alienated from his family and from other black people because of his education and viewpoints; Jake Blount is alone is his radical social viewpoints and in the fact that he is a newcomer in town.
The fact that Carson was only twenty-three when she completed this heartbreaking tale, makes it sadder than before, and I can鈥檛 help thinking, was Carson in truth, trying to carve a home god of her own, who would play silent and listen to her bruised heart? and history says, she didn鈥檛 find any, instead died at fifty with a weighty heart. who had so much to say, but heart........鈥emained a lonely hunter!
April 24, 2017
Like most of McCullers stories, this is concerns lonely people living in the deep south. This one is set during WW2, told with strong musical currents (she had a place to study piano at the Julliard, and this shines through most of her work) and a radical passion against poverty and injustice.
The language is generally quite simple in terms of vocabulary and sentence length, yet the characters and events are all the more poetic and vivid for this apparent simplicity - a difficult literary trick to pull off.
The main character is John Singer, a deaf mute. Biff Brannon (caf茅 owner), Jake Kelly (migrant mechanic and social activist), Dr Copeland (black doctor and communist) and Mick Kelly (girl of 13-14) all attach themselves to Singer, who is of course, the perfect listener for their varied troubles and a blank canvas for them to create him as a god-like figure of whatever kind they each want. The main plot is Singer's relationships with the other four (they have almost none with each other). The subplot is a coming of age strand regarding Mick: moving from passionate and ambitious tomboy to frustrated young woman.
Each character who unburdens themselves to Singer thinks they know him and that he is something of a free spirit. None of them know that he is pining for the burden of caring for Antonapoulos, his former flat mate and fellow deaf mute, now in an asylum. In that relationship, Singer did all the talking and assumed that wisdom and empathy came from Antonapoulos, who largely listened. Now on his own, the tables are turned and he is cast in the role of wise listener. Singer's animated hands are redundant for communication - neglected and stuffed in his pockets.
We all need a Singer, but no one wants to be Singer.
All the closest relationships in this story, even amongst the minor characters, are compromised by literal or emotional distance or largely unreciprocated, though the characters themselves are not always aware of this.
As well as sadness, there is often an underlying sense of menace, though when bad things happen, they are often not what you had expected until a page or two before they happened, making them somehow more shocking.
Overall, a powerful and sad book, yet somehow not a depressing one. Despite much tragedy, there is always a glimmer of hope, arising from love and loyalty (even if it is one-sided).
NB "The Mortgaged Heart" () includes an author鈥檚 outline of this book, which sheds extra light on the story, though some of her preliminary ideas were not in the final book.
The language is generally quite simple in terms of vocabulary and sentence length, yet the characters and events are all the more poetic and vivid for this apparent simplicity - a difficult literary trick to pull off.
The main character is John Singer, a deaf mute. Biff Brannon (caf茅 owner), Jake Kelly (migrant mechanic and social activist), Dr Copeland (black doctor and communist) and Mick Kelly (girl of 13-14) all attach themselves to Singer, who is of course, the perfect listener for their varied troubles and a blank canvas for them to create him as a god-like figure of whatever kind they each want. The main plot is Singer's relationships with the other four (they have almost none with each other). The subplot is a coming of age strand regarding Mick: moving from passionate and ambitious tomboy to frustrated young woman.
Each character who unburdens themselves to Singer thinks they know him and that he is something of a free spirit. None of them know that he is pining for the burden of caring for Antonapoulos, his former flat mate and fellow deaf mute, now in an asylum. In that relationship, Singer did all the talking and assumed that wisdom and empathy came from Antonapoulos, who largely listened. Now on his own, the tables are turned and he is cast in the role of wise listener. Singer's animated hands are redundant for communication - neglected and stuffed in his pockets.
We all need a Singer, but no one wants to be Singer.
All the closest relationships in this story, even amongst the minor characters, are compromised by literal or emotional distance or largely unreciprocated, though the characters themselves are not always aware of this.
As well as sadness, there is often an underlying sense of menace, though when bad things happen, they are often not what you had expected until a page or two before they happened, making them somehow more shocking.
Overall, a powerful and sad book, yet somehow not a depressing one. Despite much tragedy, there is always a glimmer of hope, arising from love and loyalty (even if it is one-sided).
NB "The Mortgaged Heart" () includes an author鈥檚 outline of this book, which sheds extra light on the story, though some of her preliminary ideas were not in the final book.
June 22, 2020
I read this years ago -before being a member on 欧宝娱乐. (Just forgot to post any comments)--Thanks to 'Steve' for the inspiration of memory!
"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" one of those books that leaves a lasting tattoo on your heart forever!
Not only does it take place during the Great Depression -during times of racial injustice --
not only do we 'see-feel-touch-experience' loneliness through a character so profound deeper than most have ever been written--
--but it was 'THIS' novel where I learned the full beauty of 'feeling' music through sign language.
A Classic Best!!!
5 +++++ stars!!!
"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" one of those books that leaves a lasting tattoo on your heart forever!
Not only does it take place during the Great Depression -during times of racial injustice --
not only do we 'see-feel-touch-experience' loneliness through a character so profound deeper than most have ever been written--
--but it was 'THIS' novel where I learned the full beauty of 'feeling' music through sign language.
A Classic Best!!!
5 +++++ stars!!!
December 22, 2021
*10 out of 5 lonely, burning stars, light years apart, yet winking together in a shared cosmos.
This is not a love-story! Not in the romantic sense, in any case. Somehow the title had always made me think it was a soppy love story about unrequited romantic love.
There is love in the novel, but for the most part not of the romantic kind.
Rather, it is a cry into the existential darkness that surrounds humankind, and in many respects it is a deeply political, even philosophical novel, which reminded me of 's .
The existential futility of lives beating like waves upon rocks, reminded me of the poetry of .
Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
...And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
...Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
...
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
...
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
...
"Falls the Shadow" ...the dividing line between striving and achievement, between longing and possession, between moving towards and reaching, between wanting and having, between potentiality and actuality.
...for in Heart, there is constant striving that falls just short of the Shadow, just short of reaching its goal. Blind striving, passionate striving, where helpless humans blindly beat at the bonds of their existence, only managing to escape the fetters of class and gender and biology and society in their minds, in their hearts, in their dreams; ...and for some, the dream, the desire to transcend, the desire for agency, the desire toward actualization, and ultimately, the desire for recognition and understanding, is snuffed out like a candle in a gale.
In this, the novel is a tour de force of characterization and of apt psychological insight. The book can be read on various levels. For example, the Freudian implications in the unseen pivot around whom the novel secretly spins, the mute John Singer. In his relationship with Greek mute Antonapoulos, the latter seems too much of a caricature of Freud's concept of the Id, for me not to see the relationship between Singer and Antonapoulos, as analogous to the relationship between the Ego and the Id.
Virginia Woolf is one of the most subtle literary composers, capable of the most intricate patterns in her literary structures that I have ever come across. This novel has qualities reminiscent of Woolf's genius for structure. Mc Cullers' technique is perhaps not quite as refined as that of a mature Woolf, but it is impressive nonetheless.
Mc Cullers herself likened the composition of the novel to a Baroque fugue, in which each voice is introduced separately to later form powerful contrapuntal harmonies between various singing voices, with four main 'voices' or melodies revolving around the central duet.
The thread of the opening leitmotif that forms the exposition of the fugue, the 'center', the eye of the storm, so to speak, the blind mirror, the inert heart of the novel, is introduced to us initially as a gentle melody that runs like a subtle, almost invisible theme through the development of the novel-fugue. Brilliantly, when this initial melody is echoed in the other four melodies or voices, it is reversed; a mirror. This initial theme that remains at the center, almost hidden, is present at the climax of the novel - in fact, the climax of the center sets in motion the climax of the entire novel and causes all of the separate peripheral melodies that had been brought in, one by one, like in a Bach or H盲ndel fugue, to each reach climax and spiral away from the center, where the fugue ends as an adagio sung in one of the most subtle of the voices in the fugue-novel.
...but the book is much more than a metaphorical fugue or a Freudian analogy; it is also a Marxist critique of not only the race relations in the American South but also a bitter slap in the face of the Capitalist North:
"'We live in the richest country in the world. There鈥檚 plenty and to spare for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great, true principle--the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of that start?
There are corporations worth billions of dollars--and hundreds of thousands of people who don鈥檛 get to eat. And here in these thirteen states the exploitation of human beings is so that--that it鈥檚 a thing you got to take in with your own eyes. In my life I seen things that would make a man go crazy. At least one third of all Southerners live and die no better off than the lowest peasant in any European Fascist state.
[...] Everywhere there鈥檚 pellagra and hookworm and anemia. And just plain, pure starvation. [...] 鈥楤ut!鈥� he repeated. Those are only the evils you can see and touch. The other things are worse. I鈥檓 talking about the way that the truth has been hidden from the people. The things they have been told so they can鈥檛 see the truth. The poisonous lies. So they aren鈥檛 allowed to know.鈥�
...鈥榃ho owns the South? Corporations in the North own three fourths of all the South. They say the old cow grazes all over--in the south, the west, the north, and the east. But she鈥檚 milked in just one place. Her old teats swing over just one spot when she鈥檚 full. She grazes everywhere and is milked in New York. Take our cotton mills, our pulp mills, our harness factories, our mattress factories. The North owns them. And what happens?鈥�
Absentee ownership. In the village is one huge brick mill and maybe four or five hundred shanties. The houses aren鈥檛 fit for human beings to live in. Moreover, the houses were built to be nothing but slums in the first place. ...-built with far less forethought than barns to house cattle. Built with far less attention to needs than sties for pigs. For under this system pigs are valuable and men are not. You can鈥檛 make pork chops and sausage out of skinny little mill kids. You can鈥檛 sell but half the people these days. But a pig--鈥�
...With three or four younguns they are held down the same as if they had on chains. That is the whole principle of serfdom. Yet here in America we call ourselves free. And the funny thing is that this has been drilled into the heads of sharecroppers and lintheads and all the rest so hard that they really believe it. But it鈥檚 taken a hell of a lot of lies to keep them from knowing.鈥�
...Less than a hundred corporations have swallowed all but a few leavings. These industries have already sucked the blood and softened the bones of the people. The old days of expansion are gone. The whole system of capitalistic democracy is rotten and corrupt. There remains only two roads ahead. One: Fascism. Two: reform of the most revolutionary and permanent kind.鈥�
...鈥楢nd the Negro. Do not forget the Negro. So far as I and my people are concerned the South is Fascist now and always has been.鈥� 鈥榊eah.鈥� 鈥楾he Nazis rob the Jews of their legal, economic, and cultural life. Here the Negro has always been deprived of these. And if wholesale and dramatic robbery of money and goods has not taken place here as in Germany, it is simply because the Negro has never been allowed to accrue wealth in the first place.鈥�
鈥楾hat鈥檚 the system,鈥� Jake said. "
It is rather strange that a book so hostile to the political status quo had such a mellow reception upon publication, but maybe it is because of that uncomfortable hostility which made no bones about the economic, political, and ideological realities of the situation, that the candid commentary taking place in the novel was sidestepped by commentators upon the novel, so to speak. Possibly it was partly due to the fact that Mc Cullers was female. Maybe it is because she wove her narrative so masterfully, interweaving its multifarious threads and blending them in on many levels, as she said herself, like a fugue with interleaving voices and melodies. (Threnodies?)
One is reminded that another female writer writing in more or less a similar time-frame, a much less talented writer writing in a shrill voice, a capitalist apologist in favor of supreme narcissism, writing under the pseudonym of , received a much more marked response, both positive and negative.
...and speaking of female - not only does Mc Cullers utter a subdued feminist voice in the striving of young Mick, a 14-year old girl; not only does she subtly point out the fate of especially females from the poorer classes, but she manages to masterfully do a subtle sub-commentary on gender roles with her characters, especially with tom-boyish Mick, almost genderless Singer, and then a brilliantly done increasing fusion of genders in the leanings and yearnings of Biff Brannon, the dark-bearded tavern owner who starts to wear his wife's perfume and who is an adept needleman. (The male of needlewoman?) Biff Brannon, who does the most divine flower arrangements and who longs to nurture children.
One wonders if the social commentary and political message of writers like Victor Hugo and Carson Mc Cullers sometimes goes almost unnoticed because there is so much emotive power, so much humanity, in their narratives.
Both writers are masters at showing human pain in its various guises, but they are also masterful at showing us social injustice: the one showing a man effectively ending up serving almost a life sentence because he was poor and from the lowest classes and his family was hungry and desperately needed the bread he stole for them to eat; the other showing a man losing his legs because justice for white men and justice for black men are not the same kind of justice; the one showing a woman so desperate to keep her child alive that she ends up selling even her hair and her teeth ; the other showing a promising young girl who should have the world as her oyster, being forced to give up her dreams for the future because she was cheated by "the system".
... but one almost cannot help feeling that Mc Cullers would have understood if and why her work was slighted. After all, a great part of the novel is about people trying to get messages across, and failing, because their audience is not ready to hear that message.
I like to think that she felt like Dylan Thomas about the matter:
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for thelovers [love of the common people], their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.
Because you, Carson, wrote .
And it shows.
This is not a love-story! Not in the romantic sense, in any case. Somehow the title had always made me think it was a soppy love story about unrequited romantic love.
There is love in the novel, but for the most part not of the romantic kind.
Rather, it is a cry into the existential darkness that surrounds humankind, and in many respects it is a deeply political, even philosophical novel, which reminded me of 's .
The existential futility of lives beating like waves upon rocks, reminded me of the poetry of .
Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
...And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
...Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
...
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
...
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
...
"Falls the Shadow" ...the dividing line between striving and achievement, between longing and possession, between moving towards and reaching, between wanting and having, between potentiality and actuality.
...for in Heart, there is constant striving that falls just short of the Shadow, just short of reaching its goal. Blind striving, passionate striving, where helpless humans blindly beat at the bonds of their existence, only managing to escape the fetters of class and gender and biology and society in their minds, in their hearts, in their dreams; ...and for some, the dream, the desire to transcend, the desire for agency, the desire toward actualization, and ultimately, the desire for recognition and understanding, is snuffed out like a candle in a gale.
In this, the novel is a tour de force of characterization and of apt psychological insight. The book can be read on various levels. For example, the Freudian implications in the unseen pivot around whom the novel secretly spins, the mute John Singer. In his relationship with Greek mute Antonapoulos, the latter seems too much of a caricature of Freud's concept of the Id, for me not to see the relationship between Singer and Antonapoulos, as analogous to the relationship between the Ego and the Id.
Virginia Woolf is one of the most subtle literary composers, capable of the most intricate patterns in her literary structures that I have ever come across. This novel has qualities reminiscent of Woolf's genius for structure. Mc Cullers' technique is perhaps not quite as refined as that of a mature Woolf, but it is impressive nonetheless.
Mc Cullers herself likened the composition of the novel to a Baroque fugue, in which each voice is introduced separately to later form powerful contrapuntal harmonies between various singing voices, with four main 'voices' or melodies revolving around the central duet.
The thread of the opening leitmotif that forms the exposition of the fugue, the 'center', the eye of the storm, so to speak, the blind mirror, the inert heart of the novel, is introduced to us initially as a gentle melody that runs like a subtle, almost invisible theme through the development of the novel-fugue. Brilliantly, when this initial melody is echoed in the other four melodies or voices, it is reversed; a mirror. This initial theme that remains at the center, almost hidden, is present at the climax of the novel - in fact, the climax of the center sets in motion the climax of the entire novel and causes all of the separate peripheral melodies that had been brought in, one by one, like in a Bach or H盲ndel fugue, to each reach climax and spiral away from the center, where the fugue ends as an adagio sung in one of the most subtle of the voices in the fugue-novel.
...but the book is much more than a metaphorical fugue or a Freudian analogy; it is also a Marxist critique of not only the race relations in the American South but also a bitter slap in the face of the Capitalist North:
"'We live in the richest country in the world. There鈥檚 plenty and to spare for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great, true principle--the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of that start?
There are corporations worth billions of dollars--and hundreds of thousands of people who don鈥檛 get to eat. And here in these thirteen states the exploitation of human beings is so that--that it鈥檚 a thing you got to take in with your own eyes. In my life I seen things that would make a man go crazy. At least one third of all Southerners live and die no better off than the lowest peasant in any European Fascist state.
[...] Everywhere there鈥檚 pellagra and hookworm and anemia. And just plain, pure starvation. [...] 鈥楤ut!鈥� he repeated. Those are only the evils you can see and touch. The other things are worse. I鈥檓 talking about the way that the truth has been hidden from the people. The things they have been told so they can鈥檛 see the truth. The poisonous lies. So they aren鈥檛 allowed to know.鈥�
...鈥榃ho owns the South? Corporations in the North own three fourths of all the South. They say the old cow grazes all over--in the south, the west, the north, and the east. But she鈥檚 milked in just one place. Her old teats swing over just one spot when she鈥檚 full. She grazes everywhere and is milked in New York. Take our cotton mills, our pulp mills, our harness factories, our mattress factories. The North owns them. And what happens?鈥�
Absentee ownership. In the village is one huge brick mill and maybe four or five hundred shanties. The houses aren鈥檛 fit for human beings to live in. Moreover, the houses were built to be nothing but slums in the first place. ...-built with far less forethought than barns to house cattle. Built with far less attention to needs than sties for pigs. For under this system pigs are valuable and men are not. You can鈥檛 make pork chops and sausage out of skinny little mill kids. You can鈥檛 sell but half the people these days. But a pig--鈥�
...With three or four younguns they are held down the same as if they had on chains. That is the whole principle of serfdom. Yet here in America we call ourselves free. And the funny thing is that this has been drilled into the heads of sharecroppers and lintheads and all the rest so hard that they really believe it. But it鈥檚 taken a hell of a lot of lies to keep them from knowing.鈥�
...Less than a hundred corporations have swallowed all but a few leavings. These industries have already sucked the blood and softened the bones of the people. The old days of expansion are gone. The whole system of capitalistic democracy is rotten and corrupt. There remains only two roads ahead. One: Fascism. Two: reform of the most revolutionary and permanent kind.鈥�
...鈥楢nd the Negro. Do not forget the Negro. So far as I and my people are concerned the South is Fascist now and always has been.鈥� 鈥榊eah.鈥� 鈥楾he Nazis rob the Jews of their legal, economic, and cultural life. Here the Negro has always been deprived of these. And if wholesale and dramatic robbery of money and goods has not taken place here as in Germany, it is simply because the Negro has never been allowed to accrue wealth in the first place.鈥�
鈥楾hat鈥檚 the system,鈥� Jake said. "
It is rather strange that a book so hostile to the political status quo had such a mellow reception upon publication, but maybe it is because of that uncomfortable hostility which made no bones about the economic, political, and ideological realities of the situation, that the candid commentary taking place in the novel was sidestepped by commentators upon the novel, so to speak. Possibly it was partly due to the fact that Mc Cullers was female. Maybe it is because she wove her narrative so masterfully, interweaving its multifarious threads and blending them in on many levels, as she said herself, like a fugue with interleaving voices and melodies. (Threnodies?)
One is reminded that another female writer writing in more or less a similar time-frame, a much less talented writer writing in a shrill voice, a capitalist apologist in favor of supreme narcissism, writing under the pseudonym of , received a much more marked response, both positive and negative.
...and speaking of female - not only does Mc Cullers utter a subdued feminist voice in the striving of young Mick, a 14-year old girl; not only does she subtly point out the fate of especially females from the poorer classes, but she manages to masterfully do a subtle sub-commentary on gender roles with her characters, especially with tom-boyish Mick, almost genderless Singer, and then a brilliantly done increasing fusion of genders in the leanings and yearnings of Biff Brannon, the dark-bearded tavern owner who starts to wear his wife's perfume and who is an adept needleman. (The male of needlewoman?) Biff Brannon, who does the most divine flower arrangements and who longs to nurture children.
One wonders if the social commentary and political message of writers like Victor Hugo and Carson Mc Cullers sometimes goes almost unnoticed because there is so much emotive power, so much humanity, in their narratives.
Both writers are masters at showing human pain in its various guises, but they are also masterful at showing us social injustice: the one showing a man effectively ending up serving almost a life sentence because he was poor and from the lowest classes and his family was hungry and desperately needed the bread he stole for them to eat; the other showing a man losing his legs because justice for white men and justice for black men are not the same kind of justice; the one showing a woman so desperate to keep her child alive that she ends up selling even her hair and her teeth ; the other showing a promising young girl who should have the world as her oyster, being forced to give up her dreams for the future because she was cheated by "the system".
... but one almost cannot help feeling that Mc Cullers would have understood if and why her work was slighted. After all, a great part of the novel is about people trying to get messages across, and failing, because their audience is not ready to hear that message.
I like to think that she felt like Dylan Thomas about the matter:
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.
Because you, Carson, wrote .
And it shows.
November 3, 2024
Carson McCullers evokes this complex South, social misery, and racial segregation, in which violence sometimes explodes unexpectedly. Her view of the world is pessimistic. Their characters struggle in desperate battles, which have no way out.
It's a great novel, very well constructed, based on small facts, heroes of a complex daily life, which speaks to us of many things: the end of childhood, the difficulty of an era, impossible dreams, and shameful loves.
That's an essential author, a novel that leaves you wondering for a moment.
It's a great novel, very well constructed, based on small facts, heroes of a complex daily life, which speaks to us of many things: the end of childhood, the difficulty of an era, impossible dreams, and shameful loves.
That's an essential author, a novel that leaves you wondering for a moment.
August 4, 2019
Loneliness and isolation have been bottled up and painted onto the page here, in Carson McCullers' debut (and now classic) novel set in 1930s small town Georgia. Poverty, segregation, disease, and struggle are all themes in this southern gothic beauty, but it is loneliness that reigns supreme here, a truly desperate need to connect, and an ache-inducing inability to do just that.
John Singer, a deaf-mute who reads lips, is the central figure of this book. He is a magnet that the four main characters (Mick, Jake, Biff and Dr. Copeland) are drawn to. He is the friendly face, the listening ear, the sounding board for their dreams. He provides a respite for their hopelessness. He's like a Jesus figure in the middle of a desert, offering cool refreshment. He becomes what each person wants him to be - an amazing magic trick spun by the simple fact that he does not speak.
But what they don't know is that Singer has his own Jesus figure, his own centre of gravity - another deaf-mute man and his only friend, Antonapoulos - a self centred and piggish man who lives in an asylum. Singer's devotion to Antonapoulos is baffling and makes the reader question Singer's wisdom, as well as warm compassion for a man who seemingly receives nothing in return for the outpouring of his heart.
So what happens if we lose our beacon, our life raft, and find ourselves alone, truly alone?
Maybe she would think about a phrase of hurrying jazz music. Or that a bowl of jello would be in the refrigerator after she got home. Or plan to smoke a cigarette behind the coal house. Maybe she would try to think a long way ahead to the time she would go north and see snow, or even travel somewhere in a foreign land. But these thoughts about good things wouldn't last. The jello was gone in five minutes and the cigarette smoked. Then what was there after that?
This book is understated in that there is no grandness to the plot, no spiking crescendo of action. The people in this book are not exceptional - they are real, living their lives, and they want more from the world than what they have been given.
It's clear Carson McCullers grew up faster than most, given her deep understanding of the world by the age of twenty-three, when she wrote this book. A melodious, sorrowful tune plays through these pages - a tune that I'll be humming for some time.
John Singer, a deaf-mute who reads lips, is the central figure of this book. He is a magnet that the four main characters (Mick, Jake, Biff and Dr. Copeland) are drawn to. He is the friendly face, the listening ear, the sounding board for their dreams. He provides a respite for their hopelessness. He's like a Jesus figure in the middle of a desert, offering cool refreshment. He becomes what each person wants him to be - an amazing magic trick spun by the simple fact that he does not speak.
But what they don't know is that Singer has his own Jesus figure, his own centre of gravity - another deaf-mute man and his only friend, Antonapoulos - a self centred and piggish man who lives in an asylum. Singer's devotion to Antonapoulos is baffling and makes the reader question Singer's wisdom, as well as warm compassion for a man who seemingly receives nothing in return for the outpouring of his heart.
So what happens if we lose our beacon, our life raft, and find ourselves alone, truly alone?
Maybe she would think about a phrase of hurrying jazz music. Or that a bowl of jello would be in the refrigerator after she got home. Or plan to smoke a cigarette behind the coal house. Maybe she would try to think a long way ahead to the time she would go north and see snow, or even travel somewhere in a foreign land. But these thoughts about good things wouldn't last. The jello was gone in five minutes and the cigarette smoked. Then what was there after that?
This book is understated in that there is no grandness to the plot, no spiking crescendo of action. The people in this book are not exceptional - they are real, living their lives, and they want more from the world than what they have been given.
It's clear Carson McCullers grew up faster than most, given her deep understanding of the world by the age of twenty-three, when she wrote this book. A melodious, sorrowful tune plays through these pages - a tune that I'll be humming for some time.
July 1, 2019
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the debut novel by Carson McCullers, written when she was just 23.
This classic American novel, set in 1930鈥檚 Georgia, sees a disparate group of characters make their solitary way amid the teeming life of an unnamed mill town. A world of ten cent stores, crumbling tenements, gin soaked alleys, raucous fair grounds and cheap neighbourhood boarding houses.
This is a tale of the lonely, the dispossessed and those, who for various reasons feel like outsiders.
The main players are Biff, the sad and thoughtful owner of the local diner, Blount, an alcoholic drifter full of rage, Mick, a 13 year girl fast approaching womanhood and Copeland, a disillusioned doctor to the black community. At the centre of this group is Singer, a deaf mute - an intelligent and sympathetic receptacle for their hopes, anger and fears.
Singer is a wonderful character, a quiet urbane gent who when not tending to the spiritual needs of his friends, is visiting his lifelong soulmate in a mental institution.
This is a story primarily about ordinary, unremarkable people and their daily struggles, but it is also a book about bigger issues ............ grinding poverty, the great racial divide between the black and white communities and raw politics, as the hot seam of anger bubbles over in the minds of those who rail against the injustice that surrounds them. Anger that often deflates into a sense of hopelessness.
This is a melancholy, often heartbreaking novel but the narrative is full of incident, the characters fully realised and the writing enriched by the lyrical, painterly eye of the author.
An engrossing, classic read and very much recommended!
This classic American novel, set in 1930鈥檚 Georgia, sees a disparate group of characters make their solitary way amid the teeming life of an unnamed mill town. A world of ten cent stores, crumbling tenements, gin soaked alleys, raucous fair grounds and cheap neighbourhood boarding houses.
This is a tale of the lonely, the dispossessed and those, who for various reasons feel like outsiders.
The main players are Biff, the sad and thoughtful owner of the local diner, Blount, an alcoholic drifter full of rage, Mick, a 13 year girl fast approaching womanhood and Copeland, a disillusioned doctor to the black community. At the centre of this group is Singer, a deaf mute - an intelligent and sympathetic receptacle for their hopes, anger and fears.
Singer is a wonderful character, a quiet urbane gent who when not tending to the spiritual needs of his friends, is visiting his lifelong soulmate in a mental institution.
This is a story primarily about ordinary, unremarkable people and their daily struggles, but it is also a book about bigger issues ............ grinding poverty, the great racial divide between the black and white communities and raw politics, as the hot seam of anger bubbles over in the minds of those who rail against the injustice that surrounds them. Anger that often deflates into a sense of hopelessness.
This is a melancholy, often heartbreaking novel but the narrative is full of incident, the characters fully realised and the writing enriched by the lyrical, painterly eye of the author.
An engrossing, classic read and very much recommended!
Read
August 24, 2018I've been reading Carson McCullers for the last month. I started with this book and then picked up each of her five other books one after the other, leaving myself no time in between to think about what I've read or consider writing a review. Today, I'm glad that I didn't attempt a review of this one because I just came across a piece in the sixth book, , entitled Author's Outline of 'The Mute' (later published as 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter').
Her own words describe her intentions for this book so clearly that I'm going to use them in lieu of a review:
....The general outline of this work can be expressed very simply. It is the story of five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves. One of these five is a deaf man, John Singer - and it is around him that the whole book pivots. Because of their loneliness these other four people see in the mute a certain mystic superiority and he becomes in a sense their ideal. Because of Singer's infirmity his outward character is vague and unlimited. His friends are able to impute to him all the qualities which they would wish for him to have. Each of the these four people creates his understanding of the mute from his own desires...In his eternal silence there is something compelling. Each one of these persons makes the mute the repository for his most personal feelings and ideas...
This situation between the four people and the mute has an exact parallel in the relation between Singer and his deaf-mute friend, Antonopoulos. Singer is the only person who could attribute to Antonopoulos dignity and a certain wisdom...
About this central idea there is much of the quality of a legend. All the parts dealing directly with Singer are written in the simple style of a parable.
Before the reasons why this situation came about can be fully understood it is necessary to know each of the principal characters in some detail. But the characters cannot be described adequately without the events which happen to them being involved. Nearly all the happenings in the book spring directly from the characters. During the space of this book each person is shown in his strongest and most typical actions.
Of course it must be understood that none of these personal characteristics are told in the didactic manner in which they are set down here. They are implied in one successive scene after another - and it is only at the end, when the sum of of these implications is considered, that the real characters are understood in all of their deeper aspects....
Carson McCullers then goes on to describe her plot and characters in great detail before finishing with some notes about time, place and structure. I was very interested to see that she had a musical structure in mind because I'd experienced the book in musical terms even as I was reading it. This is how she describes the structure: The form is contrapuntal throughout. Like a voice in a fugue each one of the main characters is an entirety in himself - but his personality takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters in the book.
One of the other interesting things that emerged for me is the amount of material she eventually left out of this novel. Because I've read all of her novels and most of her stories at this point, I realise that she recycled some of those deleted scenes. Characters' names and circumstances have also been recycled which makes reading all of her work together extra rewarding. The reader begins to see the entire cast of characters as part of one big family and all of her themes as being connected. She is always writing, in one way or another, about inner isolation and the battle to overcome it.
Her own words describe her intentions for this book so clearly that I'm going to use them in lieu of a review:
....The general outline of this work can be expressed very simply. It is the story of five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves. One of these five is a deaf man, John Singer - and it is around him that the whole book pivots. Because of their loneliness these other four people see in the mute a certain mystic superiority and he becomes in a sense their ideal. Because of Singer's infirmity his outward character is vague and unlimited. His friends are able to impute to him all the qualities which they would wish for him to have. Each of the these four people creates his understanding of the mute from his own desires...In his eternal silence there is something compelling. Each one of these persons makes the mute the repository for his most personal feelings and ideas...
This situation between the four people and the mute has an exact parallel in the relation between Singer and his deaf-mute friend, Antonopoulos. Singer is the only person who could attribute to Antonopoulos dignity and a certain wisdom...
About this central idea there is much of the quality of a legend. All the parts dealing directly with Singer are written in the simple style of a parable.
Before the reasons why this situation came about can be fully understood it is necessary to know each of the principal characters in some detail. But the characters cannot be described adequately without the events which happen to them being involved. Nearly all the happenings in the book spring directly from the characters. During the space of this book each person is shown in his strongest and most typical actions.
Of course it must be understood that none of these personal characteristics are told in the didactic manner in which they are set down here. They are implied in one successive scene after another - and it is only at the end, when the sum of of these implications is considered, that the real characters are understood in all of their deeper aspects....
Carson McCullers then goes on to describe her plot and characters in great detail before finishing with some notes about time, place and structure. I was very interested to see that she had a musical structure in mind because I'd experienced the book in musical terms even as I was reading it. This is how she describes the structure: The form is contrapuntal throughout. Like a voice in a fugue each one of the main characters is an entirety in himself - but his personality takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters in the book.
One of the other interesting things that emerged for me is the amount of material she eventually left out of this novel. Because I've read all of her novels and most of her stories at this point, I realise that she recycled some of those deleted scenes. Characters' names and circumstances have also been recycled which makes reading all of her work together extra rewarding. The reader begins to see the entire cast of characters as part of one big family and all of her themes as being connected. She is always writing, in one way or another, about inner isolation and the battle to overcome it.
November 3, 2021
This is a novel of the American South in the decade or so preceding the Civil Rights Movement. The central character is a deaf mute of almost saintly demeanor, Singer. His story constitutes the narrative spine along which the stories of his fellow characters are strung. These include Mink Kelley, a 13 year old girl; Dr. Copeland, the unnamed town's "negro" doctor, who knows that civil rights for his people is in the offing but is frustrated and angry that his own efforts toward that end have been ineffective; the alcoholic, Jake Blount, a carney whose narrow ideological Communism leaves him frustrated and angry. Blount is in many ways the white counterpart of Dr. Copeland. Their thinking is similar on many levels, but their meeting of the minds is not a productive one. Biff Brannon is the owner of a local restaurant, the New York Cafe. He is probably gay, as may be Singer, whose mute roommate Antonapoulis is committed to an asylum in the early going because of anti-social behavior.
There's a wonderful, almost unflagging narrative sweep here that is rare in my reading experience. McCullers wrote this when she was 21 and 22. I think her greatest gift as an author is her deep empathy for her characters. It is this empathy that gives the book its powerful emotional appeal. The novel is mostly rendered as straightforward chronology. There are a few flashbacks, but McCuller keeps these to a minimum. The action takes place in an unnamed southern mill town in what is perhaps Mississippi between two distinct historical events: British PM Chamberlain's appeasement of Nazi Germany at Munich (30 Sept. 1938) and Hitler's demand for Danzig from Poland (late August 1939). But these events are only meant to provide context, and the immediate threat they represent to the nation is not a major concern. It is the South. The hot, humid, muggy, buggy American South. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is a classic and I recommend it strongly.
There's a wonderful, almost unflagging narrative sweep here that is rare in my reading experience. McCullers wrote this when she was 21 and 22. I think her greatest gift as an author is her deep empathy for her characters. It is this empathy that gives the book its powerful emotional appeal. The novel is mostly rendered as straightforward chronology. There are a few flashbacks, but McCuller keeps these to a minimum. The action takes place in an unnamed southern mill town in what is perhaps Mississippi between two distinct historical events: British PM Chamberlain's appeasement of Nazi Germany at Munich (30 Sept. 1938) and Hitler's demand for Danzig from Poland (late August 1939). But these events are only meant to provide context, and the immediate threat they represent to the nation is not a major concern. It is the South. The hot, humid, muggy, buggy American South. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is a classic and I recommend it strongly.
October 16, 2014
Let's get this out of the way. Garima, Dolors and Aubrey's gorgeously written tributes to the spirit of this American classic have pretty much made the task of composing additional paeans unnecessary. So my review is only going to be a shoddily-disguised justification for upgrading an initial 4-star rating to a deserving 5-star one. No I didn't choose to accord that previously withheld star bowing to a monster named 'peer pressure'.
The actual worth of a work of literature can be measured by the power it wields over a reader once the last page has been turned. And this is exactly that kind of narrative which refuses to let go even after you have managed to extricate yourself from its emotional chokehold. I had believed the specter of oppressive gloom to be well and truly exorcized once I closed the book a few days ago, comfortable in the certainty that other pending items on the to-read list will monopolize my attention soon. And yet that didn't happen. As much as I appreciated falling under the spell of Shirley Jackson's dark and disqueting 'Hill House' or revelled in Erica Jong's tongue-in-cheek brazenness, a sort of inexplicable wistfulness came over me last night. I longed for the tedium of that nameless, ramshackle town in the deep south and that familiar all-consuming sense of doom shared by its inhabitants. I craved once again to listen to the conflicted inner voices of the forlorn quartet who sought to purge the spiritual turmoil brewing within them through the companionable silence of a kindred spirit.
The hauntingly plaintive notes of their emotional desolation reach me no more; the dirge has played itself over after all. But their untameable restlessness has seeped into my being unknowingly. I resent this inability to wrench myself away from the world of Mick Kelly, Biff Brannon, Jake Blount, Doctor Copeland and John Singer. I cherish it at the same time. And I want to live in exile in the company of these solitary outcasts, perpetually engaged in the futile quest of disentangling the mess of existence.
There are layers upon layers to this book that reveal themselves once the post-reading rumination phase begins. At the time of its publication, the deep south was carving out an existence around a kind of fragile status quo almost in the same manner as South Africa under Apartheid was. My mind still fresh from MLK's autobiography, thus, Doctor Copeland's unwavering faith in a 'strong, true purpose' appeared as a kind of foreshadowing of the rise of a Martin Luther King a decade and a half later, a veritable leader fated to help instill a fierce sense of self-esteem in the members of a disinherited community and consequently save an entire nation from a dangerous identity crisis. McCullers's depiction of race relations is imbued with a kind of subliminal prophetic certainty that the already tottering edifice of discrimination and injustice cannot possibly stand for long.
And the above quote from is the final and most definitive reason for awarding this enduring classic 5 stars. It's not just McCullers's voice which rings out in mournful solidarity with the disaffection and thwarted aspirations of the central characters in this novel. Rather it's the imperfectly harmonized chorus of voices of an entire generation belting out a sombre refrain and asking for release, for freedom from countless indignities, for the assurance of a life worth living.
The lonely hunters may have bid me farewell already but they have shared with me their wisdom and courage and taught me the language of their despair and feeble hope. Herefrom I draw my solace.
The actual worth of a work of literature can be measured by the power it wields over a reader once the last page has been turned. And this is exactly that kind of narrative which refuses to let go even after you have managed to extricate yourself from its emotional chokehold. I had believed the specter of oppressive gloom to be well and truly exorcized once I closed the book a few days ago, comfortable in the certainty that other pending items on the to-read list will monopolize my attention soon. And yet that didn't happen. As much as I appreciated falling under the spell of Shirley Jackson's dark and disqueting 'Hill House' or revelled in Erica Jong's tongue-in-cheek brazenness, a sort of inexplicable wistfulness came over me last night. I longed for the tedium of that nameless, ramshackle town in the deep south and that familiar all-consuming sense of doom shared by its inhabitants. I craved once again to listen to the conflicted inner voices of the forlorn quartet who sought to purge the spiritual turmoil brewing within them through the companionable silence of a kindred spirit.
"She wondered what kind of music he heard in his mind that his ears couldn't hear. Nobody knew. And what kind of things he would say if he could talk. Nobody knew that either."
The hauntingly plaintive notes of their emotional desolation reach me no more; the dirge has played itself over after all. But their untameable restlessness has seeped into my being unknowingly. I resent this inability to wrench myself away from the world of Mick Kelly, Biff Brannon, Jake Blount, Doctor Copeland and John Singer. I cherish it at the same time. And I want to live in exile in the company of these solitary outcasts, perpetually engaged in the futile quest of disentangling the mess of existence.
There are layers upon layers to this book that reveal themselves once the post-reading rumination phase begins. At the time of its publication, the deep south was carving out an existence around a kind of fragile status quo almost in the same manner as South Africa under Apartheid was. My mind still fresh from MLK's autobiography, thus, Doctor Copeland's unwavering faith in a 'strong, true purpose' appeared as a kind of foreshadowing of the rise of a Martin Luther King a decade and a half later, a veritable leader fated to help instill a fierce sense of self-esteem in the members of a disinherited community and consequently save an entire nation from a dangerous identity crisis. McCullers's depiction of race relations is imbued with a kind of subliminal prophetic certainty that the already tottering edifice of discrimination and injustice cannot possibly stand for long.
"For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice." - Virginia Woolf
And the above quote from is the final and most definitive reason for awarding this enduring classic 5 stars. It's not just McCullers's voice which rings out in mournful solidarity with the disaffection and thwarted aspirations of the central characters in this novel. Rather it's the imperfectly harmonized chorus of voices of an entire generation belting out a sombre refrain and asking for release, for freedom from countless indignities, for the assurance of a life worth living.
"...in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valor. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who-one word-love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him he felt a warning, a shaft of terror. Between two worlds he was suspended."
The lonely hunters may have bid me farewell already but they have shared with me their wisdom and courage and taught me the language of their despair and feeble hope. Herefrom I draw my solace.
May 19, 2017
Storytelling of the highest order, characters that pull at the heart strings, and a moment of intense sadness that really hits you, McCullers has a written a novel I will never forget. the sympathy I felt for poor old Mr Singer was off the scale, a sweet and caring gentleman but who is also fragile minded, has a yearning for those close to him including the tom-boyish Mick who is trying to grow up too fast and wonders what the future will hold for her. Tingled with a sadness and longing that leaves a lump in the throat, where everything is carried along with a deep reflection of times gone by when things were a struggle for everyday folk in small town america. The fact Carson McCullers was in her early 20's when this was written shows a maturity beyond her years. Unforgettable, and cause of much heartache.
March 29, 2022
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a story of heartbreaking solitude and the brutal clash between dreams and reality. Biff in his New York Caf茅, Mr. Singer in his muteness, Mick in her Inside Room, and Dr. Copeland in his sickness are all joined together by a longing, unrealized, to surpass their circumstances.
In Biff's words, "Why? Because in some men it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons - throw it to some human being or some human idea. They have to." (P. 32).
Seeking clarity, Dr. Copeland says to his daughter Portia, "I am not interested in subterfuges...I am interested only in real truths." (P. 78)
There is little redemption for these characters as their truths will ultimately break, as Mick's brother Bubber/George says prophetically, "I come to believe we all gonna drown." (P. 160)
The languid descriptions of the Southern town where the story takes place tell the interior story of the characters: Mick trying to coax Bubber out of hiding, "The yard was lonesome and the wind made quick, scary shadows and a mourning kind of sound in the darkness." (P. 175)
Copeland strains against his heart, "The faces of his suffering people moved in a swelling mass before his eyes. And as he steered the automobile slowly down the street his heart turned with this angry restless love." (P. 197)
The "angry, restless love" actually plagues each of the tortured and beautifully drawn characters during the year that the book takes place.
Meanwhile, the mute Singer is plagued with memories of his interned friend Antonapoulos: "Those ugly memories wove through his thoughts during the first months like bad threads through a carpet." (P. 203). Singer serves as a kind of Zen figure, a center around which the other characters turn and in whom they project their fears and hopes.
How Carson McCullers could have achieved this kind of maturity by writing this book when she was only 23 is just short of a miracle. Suffice it to say that nearly any other description I could give would spoil the story for you, so I will just leave you to discover (or rediscover) this masterpiece. A must-read.
This was another case where the Pulitzer committee blew it. Here's what wikipedia says about the 1941 prize for which McCullers would have been eligible:
The fiction jury had recommended the 1941 award be shared by by Conrad Richter and by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. While the Pulitzer Board initially intended to give the award to the jury's third choice, Ernest Hemingway's , the president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, persuaded the board to reverse its judgment because he deemed the novel offensive, and no award was given that year.
What a travesty! Arguably, the prize should have been a choice between McCullers and Hemingway. I liked Ritcher's book, but have not read Clark's classic. But, how dumb to not give an award at all and give zero chance to this masterpiece.
My list of Pulitzers
In Biff's words, "Why? Because in some men it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons - throw it to some human being or some human idea. They have to." (P. 32).
Seeking clarity, Dr. Copeland says to his daughter Portia, "I am not interested in subterfuges...I am interested only in real truths." (P. 78)
There is little redemption for these characters as their truths will ultimately break, as Mick's brother Bubber/George says prophetically, "I come to believe we all gonna drown." (P. 160)
The languid descriptions of the Southern town where the story takes place tell the interior story of the characters: Mick trying to coax Bubber out of hiding, "The yard was lonesome and the wind made quick, scary shadows and a mourning kind of sound in the darkness." (P. 175)
Copeland strains against his heart, "The faces of his suffering people moved in a swelling mass before his eyes. And as he steered the automobile slowly down the street his heart turned with this angry restless love." (P. 197)
The "angry, restless love" actually plagues each of the tortured and beautifully drawn characters during the year that the book takes place.
Meanwhile, the mute Singer is plagued with memories of his interned friend Antonapoulos: "Those ugly memories wove through his thoughts during the first months like bad threads through a carpet." (P. 203). Singer serves as a kind of Zen figure, a center around which the other characters turn and in whom they project their fears and hopes.
How Carson McCullers could have achieved this kind of maturity by writing this book when she was only 23 is just short of a miracle. Suffice it to say that nearly any other description I could give would spoil the story for you, so I will just leave you to discover (or rediscover) this masterpiece. A must-read.
This was another case where the Pulitzer committee blew it. Here's what wikipedia says about the 1941 prize for which McCullers would have been eligible:
The fiction jury had recommended the 1941 award be shared by by Conrad Richter and by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. While the Pulitzer Board initially intended to give the award to the jury's third choice, Ernest Hemingway's , the president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, persuaded the board to reverse its judgment because he deemed the novel offensive, and no award was given that year.
What a travesty! Arguably, the prize should have been a choice between McCullers and Hemingway. I liked Ritcher's book, but have not read Clark's classic. But, how dumb to not give an award at all and give zero chance to this masterpiece.
My list of Pulitzers
September 20, 2013
By the time Mozart was 5, he was composing his own music and performing for royalty. John Stuart Mill had mastered Latin, Greek, Algebra and Euclidean Geometry by the time he was 8. Bobby Fischer won the US Chess Championship at the age of 14. When Orson Welles was 20, he directed his own adaptation of Macbeth as a WPA project with unemployed black performers in Harlem. Why I myself, if you鈥檒l forgive me for crowing, memorized the batting averages of every member of the Cincinnati Reds鈥� starting lineup as a 12-year-old. So is it really all that impressive that Carson McCullers wrote this top 100 book* at the ripe old age of 23?! (Sorry, my humor never matured much beyond the days of Reds鈥� glory.)
I have to confess that it was almost a distraction to read this knowing how young McCullers was to have written something so insightful, polished and world-weary. She managed to get deep inside the heads of five very different characters in a mill town in Georgia just prior to WWII and give voice to their many valid concerns. In the case of John Singer, the voice was purely an inner one. He was a deaf mute. In a way, he was the central island in the archipelago to which the others hoped to connect. Singer was a good listener (reading lips) and had understanding eyes, but there was a bit of Chauncey Gardiner about him, too, in that people assumed more of a Christ-like, simpatico alliance than was possible from their confidant. They didn鈥檛 realize how sad and lonely he was himself when his only friend, another deaf man, had been sent to the asylum. Singer鈥檚 hands (used for signing) became silent.
Among the other characters, the adolescent tomboy, Mick Kelly, was most prominent. She鈥檚 said to be a semiautobiographical construct, which is easy to believe given her lanky appearance, her artistic sensitivity, and her advanced intellect. To me, she was a more human (read flawed, troubled and nuanced) version of Harper Lee鈥檚 Scout. She was written so powerfully 鈥� it was easy to ache alongside her as she craved more music (her big love in life) and peace of mind (that family circumstances would not allow).
Doctor Copeland was another memorable character. As a highly educated black physician, he had few peers, but he had a vision for lifting his people and combating racial injustice. The lack of progress was brought home convincingly as McCullers did an excellent job personalizing it through him and his family. She was evidently ahead of her time, casting a critical, clear-sighted eye on the relations of the day.
The two other POV characters were Jake Blount, a hard-drinking carnie mechanic with a Marxist bent, and Biff Brannon, a caf茅/bar owner with a generous, aesthetic spirit struggling against alienation. They, too, bared their souls to John Singer as a part of an empathetic hub and spoke model.
We get to know a handful of other characters, too, valuable for advancing the plot and populating the communal landscape. The Jewish boy growing up with Mick who fears the news out of Europe, Dr. Copeland鈥檚 son who finds himself on the wrong (black) side of the (white) law, Mick鈥檚 little brother George whose impulsive actions led to dramatic changes (most profoundly in himself) 鈥� they all had important parts to play.
Things happen in this book, but I wouldn鈥檛 call it plot-driven. It鈥檚 mostly profiles of the people and reactions to the times. There was precious little cheer to go around. Faced with that fact, McCullers never did flinch. As one of the chaps in Spinal Tap once said, standing at Elvis鈥檚 grave, it was almost 鈥渢oo much bloody perspective.鈥� Sugar must have been scarce in the Depression-era South 鈥� scant amounts to coat the world that she saw. But there seemed to be hope for sweeter days ahead. Even if I鈥檓 wrong about those hopes, this is an important and authentically observed book, well worth the time.
*In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter seventeenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. (Copied from Wikipedia)
I have to confess that it was almost a distraction to read this knowing how young McCullers was to have written something so insightful, polished and world-weary. She managed to get deep inside the heads of five very different characters in a mill town in Georgia just prior to WWII and give voice to their many valid concerns. In the case of John Singer, the voice was purely an inner one. He was a deaf mute. In a way, he was the central island in the archipelago to which the others hoped to connect. Singer was a good listener (reading lips) and had understanding eyes, but there was a bit of Chauncey Gardiner about him, too, in that people assumed more of a Christ-like, simpatico alliance than was possible from their confidant. They didn鈥檛 realize how sad and lonely he was himself when his only friend, another deaf man, had been sent to the asylum. Singer鈥檚 hands (used for signing) became silent.
Among the other characters, the adolescent tomboy, Mick Kelly, was most prominent. She鈥檚 said to be a semiautobiographical construct, which is easy to believe given her lanky appearance, her artistic sensitivity, and her advanced intellect. To me, she was a more human (read flawed, troubled and nuanced) version of Harper Lee鈥檚 Scout. She was written so powerfully 鈥� it was easy to ache alongside her as she craved more music (her big love in life) and peace of mind (that family circumstances would not allow).
Doctor Copeland was another memorable character. As a highly educated black physician, he had few peers, but he had a vision for lifting his people and combating racial injustice. The lack of progress was brought home convincingly as McCullers did an excellent job personalizing it through him and his family. She was evidently ahead of her time, casting a critical, clear-sighted eye on the relations of the day.
The two other POV characters were Jake Blount, a hard-drinking carnie mechanic with a Marxist bent, and Biff Brannon, a caf茅/bar owner with a generous, aesthetic spirit struggling against alienation. They, too, bared their souls to John Singer as a part of an empathetic hub and spoke model.
We get to know a handful of other characters, too, valuable for advancing the plot and populating the communal landscape. The Jewish boy growing up with Mick who fears the news out of Europe, Dr. Copeland鈥檚 son who finds himself on the wrong (black) side of the (white) law, Mick鈥檚 little brother George whose impulsive actions led to dramatic changes (most profoundly in himself) 鈥� they all had important parts to play.
Things happen in this book, but I wouldn鈥檛 call it plot-driven. It鈥檚 mostly profiles of the people and reactions to the times. There was precious little cheer to go around. Faced with that fact, McCullers never did flinch. As one of the chaps in Spinal Tap once said, standing at Elvis鈥檚 grave, it was almost 鈥渢oo much bloody perspective.鈥� Sugar must have been scarce in the Depression-era South 鈥� scant amounts to coat the world that she saw. But there seemed to be hope for sweeter days ahead. Even if I鈥檓 wrong about those hopes, this is an important and authentically observed book, well worth the time.
*In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter seventeenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. (Copied from Wikipedia)
July 8, 2017
Hell, the title alone is marvelous!!! Great reader. A wonder of a book from an essentially child genius lesbian author that delves into so many issues as integral to when it was written as to now. Among them; how one person's struggle influences everyone around them for generations and how life can be beautiful in its struggle. This is one of a handful of books (ie books of Truman Capote & David Sedaris) that make me wish I phrased things as beautifully as southerners can!
September 29, 2013
鈥淕o, my songs, to the lonely and the unsatisfied,
Go also to the nerve-racked, go to the enslaved-by-convention,
Bear to them my contempt for their oppressors.
Go as a great wave of cool water,
Bear my contempt of oppressors.鈥�
鈥淕辞鈥�, commands Ezra Pound in his poem 鈥淐辞尘颈蝉蝉颈辞苍鈥� .
And so I obey, and I go.
I go and listen to the mute choir of the lonesome and the restless, of the disinherited and the excluded, of the alienated and the embittered.
Isolated voices withering in despair, wrestling in incomprehension, anguished voices that interweave with each other creating a desolate fugue where only the tuneless can sing.
A nameless mill town in the middle of the deep South during the thirties serves, not only as a background orchestra for these discordant voices, but also as the universal representative of the spiritual solitude that underlines the human condition. Four main characters struggle against different kinds of afflictions depending on race, class, age and sexuality.
Thirteen-year-old Mick Kelly nurtures her passion for music locked in her secret 鈥渋nside-room鈥�. Mr.Coperland, a colored doctor, tries to control his anger against the submissiveness of his race. Jake Blount, an alcoholic communist wanders from town to town spreading his inner contradictions. Biff Brannon, the owner of the Caf茅, sits behind the booth and observes it all, especially boyish Mick, who seems frozen into eternal youth.
These disconnected individuals, eager to appease their escalating sense of alienation, pivot around John Singer, a deaf mute, whose grey eyes offer mute solace.
鈥淪peak against unconscious oppression,
Speak against the tyranny of the unimaginative,
Speak against bonds.鈥�
鈥沦辫别补办鈥�, continues Pound鈥檚 song.
And speak is what these four rotating 鈥渟atellites鈥� do while hovering around their beaming sun, their self-created icon, like blind moths being drawn recklessly towards the scorching lightbulb. They all turn to Singer like starving souls, pouring all their turmoil into his opaque face, which looks back with a peaceful glance, a glance that swallows it all. Despair, anger, shame, pain, emptiness. All of them gone, diluted in the indefinite wells of easiness emanating from John Singer鈥檚 being, who becomes the so much coveted savior, the embodiment of goodness and empathy, the guardian angel who listens and understands.
鈥淢ick Kelly and Jake Blount and Doctor Coperland would come and talk in the silent room 鈥� for they felt that the mute would always understand whatever they wanted to say to him. And maybe even more than that.鈥� (87)
But does Mr. Singer really hear the uneasy songs of his faithful 鈥渄isciples鈥�? Can he fully grasp the implications of their vivid speech? Oh, the talking. Isn鈥檛 all the talking less about communicating rather than unburdening oneself? Isn鈥檛 the soul after all, as Virginia Woolf said, a 鈥渨edge-shaped core of darkness鈥� ? Something invisible to others?
For what these lost souls don鈥檛 know is that Mr. Singer wanders the night as the most lonely of them all, imagining the face of his friend, his lover, the face of his only reason to keep on moving, his only reason to be.
Love, even when seemingly directed at another, is often a form of egoism.
What is then, the adored one?
Only a blank canvas on to which anything can be painted, only a shallow mirror reflecting whatever is wished. As in a chimerical fantasy, these off-balance voices, enraged by events, at once bruised and musing, fixate on the make-believe scene they create in their locked minds and think they live, cheating themselves.
鈥淥h how hideous it is
To see three generations of one house gathered together!
It is like an old tree with shoots,
And with some branches rotten and falling.鈥�
As the trees in Ezra Pound鈥檚 poem, the condemned, the voiceless and the rejected stand staring at the abyss of their own incomprehension, in a world hovering on the edge of a Great War. Some will fight their loneliness with violence and depravity, some with sex or drink, and some 鈥� like Mick 鈥� with a quiet but fierce resolution to keep the beauty of Beethoven鈥檚 (also a deaf) 鈥淓谤辞颈肠补鈥� engraved in the most recondite part of her soul.
But mostly, they will be suspended in uncertainty, swaying between radiance and darkness, between bitter irony and faith, between music and silence; eternally bend in a double-edged posture where empathy can be corrosive as well as liberating, where one can imagine the other as a melody of life, or as McCullers appears to be saying, as a melody of death.
鈥淲onderful music like this was the worst hurt there could be. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen.鈥� (107)
Note: I have had the pleasure to read this novel at the same time that my friend Tej and his criss- crossed comments and kind encouragement have made of this novel an even more intense reading experience. Thanks for sharing and building expectations along with me, Tej.
Go also to the nerve-racked, go to the enslaved-by-convention,
Bear to them my contempt for their oppressors.
Go as a great wave of cool water,
Bear my contempt of oppressors.鈥�
鈥淕辞鈥�, commands Ezra Pound in his poem 鈥淐辞尘颈蝉蝉颈辞苍鈥� .
And so I obey, and I go.
I go and listen to the mute choir of the lonesome and the restless, of the disinherited and the excluded, of the alienated and the embittered.
Isolated voices withering in despair, wrestling in incomprehension, anguished voices that interweave with each other creating a desolate fugue where only the tuneless can sing.
A nameless mill town in the middle of the deep South during the thirties serves, not only as a background orchestra for these discordant voices, but also as the universal representative of the spiritual solitude that underlines the human condition. Four main characters struggle against different kinds of afflictions depending on race, class, age and sexuality.
Thirteen-year-old Mick Kelly nurtures her passion for music locked in her secret 鈥渋nside-room鈥�. Mr.Coperland, a colored doctor, tries to control his anger against the submissiveness of his race. Jake Blount, an alcoholic communist wanders from town to town spreading his inner contradictions. Biff Brannon, the owner of the Caf茅, sits behind the booth and observes it all, especially boyish Mick, who seems frozen into eternal youth.
These disconnected individuals, eager to appease their escalating sense of alienation, pivot around John Singer, a deaf mute, whose grey eyes offer mute solace.
鈥淪peak against unconscious oppression,
Speak against the tyranny of the unimaginative,
Speak against bonds.鈥�
鈥沦辫别补办鈥�, continues Pound鈥檚 song.
And speak is what these four rotating 鈥渟atellites鈥� do while hovering around their beaming sun, their self-created icon, like blind moths being drawn recklessly towards the scorching lightbulb. They all turn to Singer like starving souls, pouring all their turmoil into his opaque face, which looks back with a peaceful glance, a glance that swallows it all. Despair, anger, shame, pain, emptiness. All of them gone, diluted in the indefinite wells of easiness emanating from John Singer鈥檚 being, who becomes the so much coveted savior, the embodiment of goodness and empathy, the guardian angel who listens and understands.
鈥淢ick Kelly and Jake Blount and Doctor Coperland would come and talk in the silent room 鈥� for they felt that the mute would always understand whatever they wanted to say to him. And maybe even more than that.鈥� (87)
But does Mr. Singer really hear the uneasy songs of his faithful 鈥渄isciples鈥�? Can he fully grasp the implications of their vivid speech? Oh, the talking. Isn鈥檛 all the talking less about communicating rather than unburdening oneself? Isn鈥檛 the soul after all, as Virginia Woolf said, a 鈥渨edge-shaped core of darkness鈥� ? Something invisible to others?
For what these lost souls don鈥檛 know is that Mr. Singer wanders the night as the most lonely of them all, imagining the face of his friend, his lover, the face of his only reason to keep on moving, his only reason to be.
Love, even when seemingly directed at another, is often a form of egoism.
What is then, the adored one?
Only a blank canvas on to which anything can be painted, only a shallow mirror reflecting whatever is wished. As in a chimerical fantasy, these off-balance voices, enraged by events, at once bruised and musing, fixate on the make-believe scene they create in their locked minds and think they live, cheating themselves.
鈥淥h how hideous it is
To see three generations of one house gathered together!
It is like an old tree with shoots,
And with some branches rotten and falling.鈥�
As the trees in Ezra Pound鈥檚 poem, the condemned, the voiceless and the rejected stand staring at the abyss of their own incomprehension, in a world hovering on the edge of a Great War. Some will fight their loneliness with violence and depravity, some with sex or drink, and some 鈥� like Mick 鈥� with a quiet but fierce resolution to keep the beauty of Beethoven鈥檚 (also a deaf) 鈥淓谤辞颈肠补鈥� engraved in the most recondite part of her soul.
But mostly, they will be suspended in uncertainty, swaying between radiance and darkness, between bitter irony and faith, between music and silence; eternally bend in a double-edged posture where empathy can be corrosive as well as liberating, where one can imagine the other as a melody of life, or as McCullers appears to be saying, as a melody of death.
鈥淲onderful music like this was the worst hurt there could be. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen.鈥� (107)
Note: I have had the pleasure to read this novel at the same time that my friend Tej and his criss- crossed comments and kind encouragement have made of this novel an even more intense reading experience. Thanks for sharing and building expectations along with me, Tej.
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