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Paperback
Publisher: Mariner
ISBN13: 9780618526413
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
With the publication of her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, all of twenty-three, became a literary sensation. With its profound sense of moral isolation and its compassionate glimpses into its characters' inner lives, the novel is considered McCullers' finest work, an enduring masterpiece first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1940. At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for all various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book's heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully attune to the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition, and with a deft sense for racial tensions in the South, McCullers spins a haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the forgotten, and the mistreated -- and, through Mick Kelly, gives voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.
Richard Wright praised Carson McCullers for her ability "to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness." She writes "with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming," said the NEW YORK TIMES. McCullers became an overnight literary sensation, but her novel has endured, just as timely and powerful today as when it was first published. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, endearing best.
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| An Ache That Becomes A Symphony |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Its reputation as one of the great depressing American novels notwithstanding, "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" offers unexpected riches, presenting the "Southern Gothic" style at its most accessible and immediate as well as multiple story arcs that flow rather seamlessly toward a common end. Yes, it's depressing, and wantonly so at that. So, too often, is life.
The four characters whose story arcs make up "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" converge on one man, friend to all but known by none, a deaf-mute named John Singer. Is it his tranquil, compassionate face that stirs the four divergent characters to seek him out? Or is his voiceless condition an opportunity for them to see in him what they want, and disregard the rest?
Carson McCullers was a young woman just finding herself when she published this in 1940. Knowing this, it's easy to recognize her in the character of Mick Kelly, a young girl taking a larger view of life through art. In Mick's case, music is her muse.
At one point Mick catches an orchestral piece on Singer's radio. What Singer is doing with a radio is just one of many questions that identify him as a kind of secular Christ-figure, finding joy only by giving to others. Mick's reaction seems to capture some of the pain behind McCullers' worldview.
"Wonderful 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."
Some will find that sentiment twee and quaint, but it is backed up by a book that seems to work like a symphonic piece, its four movements running simultaneously rather than sequentially, and assorted common motifs and themes darting in and out. One can't help thinking of a Robert Altman film, or a really good episode of "The Office", working their magic along similar lines. But McCullers got there first.
What doesn't move me? I thought the ending a little abrupt and too "Richard Cory" for its own good. Others say it's the book's greatest moment, but to me it was a cheap out. Mick has a sexual experience so tastefully written it seems to take place only in her head, though I don't think that was the author's intention. The character I was most interested in, café owner Biff Brannon, is never developed in the same deep way as the other three core players and seemed mostly employed as a narrative device for processing observations.
"Do not attempt to stand alone" says the black Marxist, Doctor Copeland, even though its advice he's in no position to heed. His story, and that of the more radically-minded Jake Blount, give the novel much of its passion, its best lines, and root it firmly in the pre-World War II period where depression at home and fascism abroad were challenging what Americans believed about themselves. McCullers is too smart and too focused to allow communism to be presented as the be-all answer; it's one of the book's many ironies that two such like-minded fellows find so much about which they can violently disagree.
The book is, like the title suggests, an essay on loneliness, one that sidesteps incident (though wild things do happen) for character and an overriding sense of existential ache. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but blue-minded people will find a lot to commiserate with here.
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| Worldly Wise Beyond her Years... |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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My first impression of McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was amazement: amazement that a twenty-three year old woman had both the life experience and writing skills to craft such a book. In terse, no nonsense sentences McCullers tells a haunting story of friendships strange and unlikely. The story opens with the relationship between the deaf mute, John Singer and his mute friend Spiros Antonapoulus. Their handicaps seem to be the only thing they have in common. Spiros is a slow-witted fellow much like Lennie in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; Singer is a compassionate loner who takes Spiros into his care and even though the two are separated, remains devoted to his friend until the end. Whether it is Singer's compassionate nature or the fact that in spite of his handicap he appears to understand and empathize with others, he acquires a following of damaged and wounded souls: young Mick Kelly (perhaps the author herself) who loves music and aspires to compose and play the piano; Jake Blount whose political idealism drives him to berserk rants; the Negro doctor Benedict Mady Copeland equally idealistic and crazed about leading his "people" out of ignorance and poverty and sacrifices his health in doing so; and Biff Brannon, owner of the New York Cafe and widower whose own loneliness is eased by the presence of the deaf mute. Singer becomes a sort of kingpin in these characters' lives and satisfies a hungry need in each. When Singer abruptly leaves the story in the manner of E. A. Robinson's Richard Cory, his four disciples are devastated and cast helplessly upon the winds of their own lives.
There is something about the South that makes its authors twist stories and characters to the bizarre. In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter McCullers' tale is steeped in this gothic darkness: Bubber's accidental shooting of Baby Wilson; Copeland's son Willie loses his "feets" to amputation, the effect of cruel and inhumane treatment by his white jailors. McCullers' South is the South of Flannery O'Connor and Tennessee Williams. But because we are human and once young, we are moved to pathos by young Mick Kelly's two rooms: her "inside" room where she holds her dreams in safe keeping, a room that only Singer is allowed to enter and her "outside" room, which is life, its ugliness, disappointments and dashed hopes. As the door shuts on Mick's inside room, we mourn for her. And we mourn for ourselves.
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| Depressing |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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This story is set in the 1930's .The main character is John Singer a deaf - mute and the people around him for which he is a sounding board even though he cannot hear them.
This book to me was depressing it does not have a happy ending or for that matter a happy beginning or middle. There is no action it is a character study. I understand that Miss. McCullers published this book when she was just 23 years old and for that reason I do see somewhat what all the hype is on this book because it is well written hence the 3 stars. But for me I did not enjoy this book, it depressed me and confused me. I felt the climax *no spoilers* was extremely anti-climatic. So much in this book was not explained and left me wondering and not in a good way about the reasons people did things. Over all a well written book but not one I would recommend or read again.
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| The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter *best book ever* |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a well written detail oriented look at the south as pertains to a deaf mute and his mentally disabled mute friend. It is a book that will choke you up, and keep you hooked. I like to read a book and finish it feeling changed in some way, and this book changes you. There are deep rants concenring communism, or the basic ideals of communism, which in theory are beautiful. Human nature robs communistic ideals of their beauty. The charachters in this book are very strong and interesting, and the way they are all drawn to the mute Mr. Singer, shows that we all want to be listened to. This is a great book that I feel every single person should read, and at the same time, I want to hide it and keep it all for myself.
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| As Advertised |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The book arrived as described: brand new and shipment took about a week for standard book rate. Would purchase from this seller again.
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