A new trade paperback edition of McCullers' second novel, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, immortalized by the 1967 film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Mar...
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Aug 04, 2011
Une autre relecture inspirée par la mort d'Elisabeth Taylor... Cette fois lu en anglais, avec parfois un peu de difficulté mais toujours autant de plaisir. Une histoire tragique dont on sait d'emblée qu'elle se passe dans un fort militaire du Sud profond, où un meurtre a été commis et dont les "acteurs sont deux officiers, un soldat, deux femmes, un Philippin et un cheval" (sic).
C'est un livre un peu à part, où on reste à la surface de l'histoire comme le suggère le titre, où les perso More...
C'est un livre un peu à part, où on reste à la surface de l'histoire comme le suggère le titre, où les perso More...
Jan 17, 2011
Adam
rated it: 
I inherited this book from a professor who was unloading his books he had kept in storage for years--this one, among a bunch of old Baldwin paperbacks and urban theory. In turns out to be a real find. This is my first introduction to Carson McCullers, and I’m eager to read more. “Reflections in a Golden Eye” is eerie in its indifferent narration, queer characters, and inevitable plot.
Early on, the reader learns how the book must end, and anticipation builds with each strange scene More...
Early on, the reader learns how the book must end, and anticipation builds with each strange scene More...
Dec 08, 2010
El
rated it: 
I loved The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding. I love McCullers's minimalist writing style.
I did not love Reflections in a Golden Eye.
It seems like a good story - a true love-triangle. (Or love-square? Maybe love-trapezoid.) Taking place on an Army base in the American South we have Captain Penderton and his wife, Leonora, and Major Langdon, his sickly wife, Alison, and their houseboy, Anacleto. Then there's Private Williams who once s More...
I did not love Reflections in a Golden Eye.
It seems like a good story - a true love-triangle. (Or love-square? Maybe love-trapezoid.) Taking place on an Army base in the American South we have Captain Penderton and his wife, Leonora, and Major Langdon, his sickly wife, Alison, and their houseboy, Anacleto. Then there's Private Williams who once s More...
Aug 18, 2010
Darryl
rated it: 
Reflections in a Golden Eye is McCullers's follow up to her wildly successful and brilliant debut novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Her sophomore effort was written in 1939, and was based on a story about a peeping tom at an Army base that her husband told her. It originally appeared in Harper's Bazaar at the end of 1940, and was published in book form the following year.
The novel takes place at an Army base in a small Southern town in peacetime, and McCullers tells us in the first p More...
The novel takes place at an Army base in a small Southern town in peacetime, and McCullers tells us in the first p More...
Nov 21, 2011
Yves
rated it: 
Merveilleux film, merveilleux livre.
Ce qui frappe, c'est la totale fidélité du film au livre.
Certes, chez John Huston l'histoire est contemporaine alors que Carson McCullers la situe au début du siècle dans une garnison militaire. Mais l'époque est sans importance : ce huis clos étouffant - qui pourtant se déroule pour l'essentiel en extérieur - pourrait se dérouler n'importe où, n'importe quand.
Personne n'était mieux placée que Liz Taylor pour jouer Leonora Penderton, l'épouse li More...
Ce qui frappe, c'est la totale fidélité du film au livre.
Certes, chez John Huston l'histoire est contemporaine alors que Carson McCullers la situe au début du siècle dans une garnison militaire. Mais l'époque est sans importance : ce huis clos étouffant - qui pourtant se déroule pour l'essentiel en extérieur - pourrait se dérouler n'importe où, n'importe quand.
Personne n'était mieux placée que Liz Taylor pour jouer Leonora Penderton, l'épouse li More...
May 20, 2011
Bryan
rated it:
I was itching to read this after seeing John Huston's adaptation as part of the Belcourt's Visions of the South. In a career of brave roles Brando's Captain Penderton had to be one of his bravest, and the same for Elizabeth Taylor’s Leonora.
So I had high hopes.
I fear the lashing I will get for writing this, but this may be one of those rare examples where the film adaptation is more interesting than source material. I was not particularly entranced by McCullers prose. Themati More...
So I had high hopes.
I fear the lashing I will get for writing this, but this may be one of those rare examples where the film adaptation is more interesting than source material. I was not particularly entranced by McCullers prose. Themati More...
Aug 05, 2011
Chortle
rated it:
Controversial. Reflections in a Golden Eye was made into a 1967 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando directed by John Huston. I'm glad I knew this before I read the book because while reading the book I was picturing Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in their respective roles. The trailer is viewable on youtube, although the trailer may seem far more melodramatic than the movie. I really expect that the book is far superior to the movie because the book probably has a lighter t
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Nov 27, 2007
Graceann
rated it:
I was not terribly impressed with this one - the characters weren't developed very well, and the story was not terribly interesting. I was glad that it was a short book so that I could complete it and get on to other, more interesting things.
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Jan 15, 2008
W.B.
rated it:
I love dysfunctional people. Especially if they spend a lot of time in bed. You can paint there and enjoy yr delicate sensations of the world. I like Southern writers.
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Jun 22, 2009
Joy
rated it:
This is a really 'dark' story (typical Carson McCullers), but it is
so well written, I had to rate it well.
The story is set on an army base in the 1930s. It's about two officers
and their wives who live in next door housing, another single soldier,
and a Philipino house servant. It's all about loneliness in marriage.
Sigh!!
Quote 1: But in spite of his knowledge of many separate facts, the Captain never in his life had had an idea in his head.
Quote 2: The More...
so well written, I had to rate it well.
The story is set on an army base in the 1930s. It's about two officers
and their wives who live in next door housing, another single soldier,
and a Philipino house servant. It's all about loneliness in marriage.
Sigh!!
Quote 1: But in spite of his knowledge of many separate facts, the Captain never in his life had had an idea in his head.
Quote 2: The More...
Dec 17, 2010
Mel
rated it:
I got this book for .50 cents at the thrift store. The edition I read has a picture of Elizabeth Taylor on the cover since she starred in the motion picture version of this and a horribly written introduction by Tennessee Williams. I enjoyed this book though. It was a fast entertaining read and was campy and trashy and politically incorrect. It was a lot like watching an old movie. An old movie filled with alchoholism, sexual innuedos, weird violence, stalkers, and horse back riding. The kind of
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Sep 27, 2011
Liam
rated it:
This is a very touching and quietly profound novella. The plot involves the relationships of a small central cast, set in a peacetime army post. Two neighbouring senior officers, Captain Penderton and Major Langdon, live affluently, childless, with their wives: Leonara Penderton and Alice Langdon. A quiet private, Elgee Williams, is commissioned by the Captain to clear a space of woodland in front of his house and becomes obsessed with the Captain's free-spirited, child-like and often-nude wife.
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Aug 11, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
Subtle and intricate unrequited ties among characters without going soap-opera-y-dramatic. Each character is wholly integral to the story and is outstandingly conveyed in excerpts that are punctuated by other character illustrations. Yet each character serves as a beacon for another or a few others to elucidate their contrasting natures. How this woman can understand so much of the nuances of human psychology is utterly astounding.
Addresses masculinity and femininity and the blurred More...
Addresses masculinity and femininity and the blurred More...
Jun 21, 2008
Gregory
rated it:
Compelling drama, but oddly cold
With its short page count, "Reflections in a Golden Eye" is more of a novella than a novel. What is disappointing about it is that it takes about fifty pages (the majority of the novella) to get involved in the characters and the plot. It starts intriguingly enough, with the promise of a murder involving the central characters ("two officers, a soldier, two women, a Filipino, and a horse."), but McCullers' prose is so cold and dis More...
With its short page count, "Reflections in a Golden Eye" is more of a novella than a novel. What is disappointing about it is that it takes about fifty pages (the majority of the novella) to get involved in the characters and the plot. It starts intriguingly enough, with the promise of a murder involving the central characters ("two officers, a soldier, two women, a Filipino, and a horse."), but McCullers' prose is so cold and dis More...
Aug 20, 2011
Adam
rated it:
I don't know, I just don't get Carson McCullers. I've now read this and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and I just can't care about the characters. When you have a short novel - more of a novellette - that is about the darkness of these characters, that makes it hard. Even harder: I just don't find them that dark. A little disturbed, but compared to someone like Flannery O'Connor, McCullers is just a pale shadow. I guess I feel like she misses the psychologism somehow; that plus characters I d
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Sep 23, 2010
Becky
rated it:
Carson McCullers was a beautiful writer, but I didn't love this little novella. (I almost feel bad saying that it is no The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.) It's a great exercise in Southern Gothic's portrayal of the dysfunctional and somewhat grotesque, but all of the characters are so unlikeable -- either pathetic, creepy, or downright horrible -- that the reader can't really get emotionally involved. I can't complain too much, though, since it only took me a day to read it.
Jul 13, 2009
F.R.
rated it:
To quote the opening paragraph: "There is a fort in the South where a few years ago a murder was committed, The participants of this tragedy were: two officers, a soldier, two women, a Filipino and a horse."
McCullers tells this story in beautifully direct prose, which really gives insight into the characters. She is strong at portraying the desires and repression of married army life, and this book feels refreshingly modern for a work published in 1941.
McCullers tells this story in beautifully direct prose, which really gives insight into the characters. She is strong at portraying the desires and repression of married army life, and this book feels refreshingly modern for a work published in 1941.
Feb 06, 2011
Margherita Dolcevita
rated it:
L'inizio è folgorante e crea molte aspettative (così come l'altisonante quarta di copertina), nonostante riveli già i protagonisti -due coppie, un soldato, un filippino e un cavallo- e cosa accadrà (un omicidio), anzi forse proprio per questo le crea perchè fino all'ultima pagina non si sa chi è la vittima, per cui uno passa 130 pagine a scervellarsi su chi morirà. E' sicuramente un romanzo disturbante, non c'è uno normale (a parte forse il cavallo, ma non conta, non dice neanche una battuta) e
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Mar 01, 2011
Aquavit
rated it:
There is one scene at the beginning in which the bookish, neurotic Captain is pent-up'ishly raging at his healthy, vibrant cheating wife, and in retaliation, she strips naked, half-ascends the stairs, evenly glares at him and asks calmly if he has ever been collared, drug out to the front lawn and thrashed by a naked woman.
It really only gets more grim and wicked from there.
It really only gets more grim and wicked from there.
Apr 27, 2010
Frank
rated it:
A strange tale, told by a fairytale type of omniscient narrator ('and this is the way it came about'), dealing with strange longings and frustrations. Weird grotesque characters, a strange mix of DH Lawrence (The Prussian Officer comes to mind) and what might have been the author's personal preoccupations. I couldn't warm to it.
Nov 22, 2008
Cecily
rated it:
A novella set in an army camp in the US south in the 50s or 60s. It concerns six characters (two officer couples, a servant and a conscript), each with an obsession with one of the others. Unlike some of her books, race barely comes into it, but rank and sexuality do. It's slow, painful , a little weird and beautiful.
Jun 22, 2010
Michael
rated it:
The book has a much more engaging plot than "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"; however it's still leaves a bit to be desired. Nothing happens in the majority of the book, but I really like McCuller's writing style. And would it kill her to include a cat character named "Glubbers"?
Nov 17, 2010
Elaine
rated it:
What a powerful book, for me it was much better than her first one. The characterisation was superbly done, the story very well written, and the prose sparse and concise. Very very good book. I would now try and find the rest of her written works.
Jun 03, 2011
Charles
rated it:
Beautiful! Tennessee Williams cited this as one of his favorite stories. This was McCuller's second book and she didn't tiptoe around. It received a lot of negative reviews because of that too. She was truly ahead of her time.
Jun 14, 2010
King Dinösaur
rated it:
Weird and emotionally disturbing. This is a story of hatred and hauntings, secrets and sexuality. What's going on? I'm not really sure, but it's intriguing and compelling. McCullers's strangest work, in my opinion.
Dec 13, 2009
Dave
rated it:
Stange, weird story of hetero and homosexual infatuation on a military base. Good enought to be made into the movie starring Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Brian Keith and Julie Harris.
Jul 14, 2010
Apexa
rated it:
Besides Faulkner & To Kill a Mockingbird, I never really delved into the Southern Gothic writing and I bought this book on a whim. Very interestingly written but didn't feel like the characters were dimensional enough so the ending didn't make me feel anything in particular. It seems like this was the lull in her writing since this was between The Heart is a Lonely Hunter & A Member of the Wedding, both books that I'll eventually read.
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Nov 03, 2010
Pedro
rated it:
Es la novela que de alguna manera tiene que ver más con la autora, como confluyen diferentes personas con personalidades e historia completamente diferente.
Oct 04, 2010
Ellen Moers [p 165] calls this second novel - 1941 - her best work.
"the cold intimacy, the fear which suggests the haunted and self-hating self"
"the cold intimacy, the fear which suggests the haunted and self-hating self"
Jun 21, 2010
Anna
rated it:
The writing was simply beautiful! I love how she puts you right in the story! Even though it was a short and sad story it was a wonderful read.
