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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers Books

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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers Books

I have been an avid reader all of my life. I read my way through the children's' section of our hometown library by the time I was finished with third grade and waded right on into the adult section. We went to the library every week and my mom, to her credit, never stopped me from reading anything I wanted to read.

I was eleven when I read Carson McCullers novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". I even stayed home from an Elvis Presley movie with the family when I was deep into it to finish reading it. The feelings I had at the time stuck with me as I felt them deeply but I didn't remember much about the plot. I decided to pay the story a revisit yesterday. I wondered (as almost sixty year old Susan) whether I could reconnect with my eleven year old self and figure out what captivated her so. I found that the book still affected me deeply and that in many ways the characters and their feelings and experiences foreshadowed many of my own.

Though set in the late 1930s and published in 1940 the themes hold up today. Here is a brief description of the book from a net source:

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the début novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 at the time of publication. It is about a deaf man who does not speak named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia.

Plot introduction

The book begins with a focus on the relationship between two close friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulous. The two are described as deaf-mutes who have lived together for several years. There are homosexual overtones to their intimate friendship, though there is nothing overt. Antonopoulous becomes mentally ill, misbehaves, and despite attempts at intervention from Singer, is eventually put into an insane asylum in Chicago. Now alone, Singer moves into a new room.

The remainder of the narrative centers on the struggles of four of John Singer's acquaintances: Mick Kelly, a tomboyish girl who loves music and dreams of buying a piano; Jake Blount, an alcoholic labor agitator; Biff Brannon, the observant owner of a diner; and Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, an idealistic black physician.

Reception

When published it created a literary sensation, enjoying a meteoric rise to the top of the bestseller lists in 1940; it was the first in a string of works by McCullers that give voice to those who are rejected, forgotten, mistreated or oppressed.

The Modern Library ranked the novel seventeenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included it in TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. In 2004 the novel was selected for Oprah's Book Club."

I love you, little Susan. :)


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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers Books Reviews

I know this is supposed to be a classic, but I just couldn't get into it. Honestly, that is probably more a problem with me than this book. Introspection just isn't one of the qualities I enjoy in a read.
It's hard to believe that Carson McCullers was only 23 years old when she wrote this masterful novel. It is a rambling, rambunctious, and dark but brilliant insight into life in the south when racial divides were still rigidly in place. The book follows the lives of six main characters - a deaf mute, a cafe owner, a brawling drunkard communist ne'er do well, a young girl rapidly coming of age, and an elderly black doctor. The deaf mute is the central character insomuch that the other players see him as almost iconic, and assign him idealized characteristics and qualities since his inability to hear or speak makes him almost a blank canvas to be painted as each of them wishes him to be. The writing is off the charts brilliant - the author's depth of feeling for the period, the travails of life that are undergone, and the dialogue and thoughts brought forward are masterful. I almost had a feeling of being exhausted when finishing the book, having been taken on a roller coaster ride of emotions and perspectives. I loved the book.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is about loneliness. At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. The townspeople are fascinated by him. He is not fascinated by them however. He just misses his friend, Spiros Antonapoulos, another deaf-mute who is sent to an insane asylum. Everyone in the nameless Georgia town experiences a form of loneliness. McCullers made me examine my own feelings as well. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a lovely novel that makes you feel all the feelings.
It's been years since I read this the first time, minutes after crying my way through the ending of the movie.

The book is fairly complex, and there were moments I felt it was a tad thick and slow. But McCullers is a master of tension, too, and the sequence leading up to -- hmmmm, how do I put this spoilerlessly -- the sequence with the rifle is an absolute textbook example of a writer in complete control of her material and her reader. Can you read "on the edge of your seat"? Why yes, yes you can.

This is a fine classic book, well deserving of its place in the canon. The outlook is dark, but not unremittingly so. The sentences are beautiful, and sometimes astonishingly so. The plot is rich, sometimes funny, not over-determined or schematic. A lovely read.
All through the book, I kept asking myself how could someone so young as Carson McCullers have such an insight into the hearts and minds of these characters? A deaf mute who loves another mute, a man seemingly unlovable; a drunk socialist; a black doctor who wants to advance civil rights for black citizens; a young girl born into poverty with majestic dreams to learn about music and the world beyond the small Alabama town; a cafe owner with a sense of beauty and art and an interest in young female children that he doesn't understand. All of them have a special relationship with Mr. Singer, the deaf mute man who lives in the young girl's family's boarding house. They all feel Mr.Singer understands their particular problems and bring their inner thoughts and dreams to him. I am not sure yet if I have a clear understanding of all the nuances of this book, except when I reflect on her other stories and plays, they often talk of forbidden or unusual love. It will probably take more reflection on my part, but if you enjoy stories which raise more questions than answers, this is a book to read.
I have been an avid reader all of my life. I read my way through the children's' section of our hometown library by the time I was finished with third grade and waded right on into the adult section. We went to the library every week and my mom, to her credit, never stopped me from reading anything I wanted to read.

I was eleven when I read Carson McCullers novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". I even stayed home from an Elvis Presley movie with the family when I was deep into it to finish reading it. The feelings I had at the time stuck with me as I felt them deeply but I didn't remember much about the plot. I decided to pay the story a revisit yesterday. I wondered (as almost sixty year old Susan) whether I could reconnect with my eleven year old self and figure out what captivated her so. I found that the book still affected me deeply and that in many ways the characters and their feelings and experiences foreshadowed many of my own.

Though set in the late 1930s and published in 1940 the themes hold up today. Here is a brief description of the book from a net source

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the début novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 at the time of publication. It is about a deaf man who does not speak named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia.

Plot introduction

The book begins with a focus on the relationship between two close friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulous. The two are described as deaf-mutes who have lived together for several years. There are homosexual overtones to their intimate friendship, though there is nothing overt. Antonopoulous becomes mentally ill, misbehaves, and despite attempts at intervention from Singer, is eventually put into an insane asylum in Chicago. Now alone, Singer moves into a new room.

The remainder of the narrative centers on the struggles of four of John Singer's acquaintances Mick Kelly, a tomboyish girl who loves music and dreams of buying a piano; Jake Blount, an alcoholic labor agitator; Biff Brannon, the observant owner of a diner; and Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, an idealistic black physician.

Reception

When published it created a literary sensation, enjoying a meteoric rise to the top of the bestseller lists in 1940; it was the first in a string of works by McCullers that give voice to those who are rejected, forgotten, mistreated or oppressed.

The Modern Library ranked the novel seventeenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included it in TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. In 2004 the novel was selected for Oprah's Book Club."

I love you, little Susan. )