Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 38,418 ratings · 2,770 reviews

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, and an enduring masterpiece.

At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who beco...more

Paperback, 368 pages

Published September 8th 2000 by Mariner Books (first published 1940)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Books of the 20th Century

183rd out of 4,698 books — 31,968 voters

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Best Southern Literature

12th out of 604 books — 1,429 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 03, 2008 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

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 uniq...more 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.(less)

55 likes · like · see review

Jun 02, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-library-100, southern, time-100, women-voices

“Whoever has an ear to hear, let him hear.” John Singer is a deaf-mute who walks the streets of his city at night. Singer attracts “lonely hunters,” who like Narcissus, see their own image reflected in the kind face of Singer. He has become all things to all people, and, within his silence, people hear only themselves.

Four characters (a teenage girl, a restaurateur, a doctor, and a carnie) bear the burden of being different from others in this Southern mill town in the late 1930’s. Sometimes, t...more “Whoever has an ear to hear, let him hear.” John Singer is a deaf-mute who walks the streets of his city at night. Singer attracts “lonely hunters,” who like Narcissus, see their own image reflected in the kind face of Singer. He has become all things to all people, and, within his silence, people hear only themselves.

Four characters (a teenage girl, a restaurateur, a doctor, and a carnie) bear the burden of being different from others in this Southern mill town in the late 1930’s. Sometimes, the gift of enlightenment does not seem worth the price of loneliness and isolation, so each of the characters confides his or her deepest longings and loneliness to mute John Singer. (Notice the ironic name.) Singer reads their lips and “listens” patiently, giving them an affable look of kindness and sympathy.

“Mick,” a thirteen-year old tom-boy, composes symphonies in her head and dreams of escaping to snowy locales.

Biff sympathetically observes his diner’s customers and quietly dispenses free meals to the disabled and disheartened.

Dr. Copeland, a highly educated African-American, devotes himself and his healing arts to the plight of his people; he convinces himself that Singer is Jewish man opposed to racial injustice.

Jake operates a Ferris wheel and offers torrents of alcohol-fueled praise to the doctrines of Karl Marx; he convinces himself that Singer is a fellow revolutionary.

Each lonely character ignores other lonely hunters rather than uniting with them, and each carries his own loneliness until laying it at the feet of John Singer--who reads lips and maybe hearts. The mystery to me was: What does Singer think of all these lonely characters who talk his deaf ear off? Indeed, Singer eventually reveals what he thinks to an inscrutable Greek mental patient-- Singer’s only confidant, who never returns Singer’s affection.

There is a background of looming menace as the radio crackles with news of fascist war clouds gathering in Europe, and for reasons not explicit, each character awakens daily with vague dread.

“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” ranks number #17 on the Modern Library list of the best English novels of the 20th Century. Carson McCullers wrote this insightful novel when she was only 23. She wrote clearly and without experimentation but explores highly sophisticated themes through characterization. Like Flannery O’Connor, another precocious female writer of Southern Gothic, McCullers suffered from ill-health most of her adult life and died relatively young.

McCullers got me thinking about our universal tendencies: to project our beliefs on to other people; to take from friendship more than we give; and to create God in our own image. The novel warns me not to contribute to an epidemic of misunderstanding by presuming that I accurately understand the perspective of others, and it inspires me to serve a wounded and lonely brother or sister.

May 14, 2013(less)

56 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rating: 4.99* of five

The Publisher Says: 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, and an enduring masterpiece.

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 193...more Rating: 4.99* of five

The Publisher Says: 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, and an enduring masterpiece.

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. 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 (loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Brilliantly attuned 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, to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.

My Review: Oh, how I loved reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Oh how very beautiful the writing in this book is! How much intense and careful observation went into the creation of these characters, each of whom...especially the Kelly family...I felt I could look up in the phone book and call for a chat.

The author was a whopping *twenty-two* when this book was published. TWENTY-TWO!! A person should barely be able to find a rathole and figure out how to pound sand down it at that age! And here McCullers is, creating archetypal characters that define a certain cultural space.

I feel like such a schmuck. Until I contemplate the extremely high cost of her genius...alcoholism, suicide attempts, relationships that ker-flooey-ed in spectacular ways...I am envious of her gift. But I am deeply grateful that she left as much work behind as she did in a short fifty years.

Well, that's all, really. It's amazing and it's beautiful and it's necessary, the way all fine, fine art is.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.(less)

35 likes · like · see review

Jul 02, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the tin man

Recommended to Jenn(ifer) by: thank you, whoever you are

Shelves: own, summer-of-women-2012, read-in-2012, you-should-read-this, the-tops, female-authors, my-reviews-that-dont-suck

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 girl write s...more
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 girl 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 young 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.(less)

68 likes · like · see review

Jun 26, 2008 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

I knew nothing about this book at all. Well, except for the title, I’d definitely heard the title before – 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 – and there are many, many points of comparison betw...more

108 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2012 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Every one should read this book

Recommended to Mike by: O.B. Emerson, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, The University of Alabama

Shelves: favorites, coming-of-age, southern-literature, debut-novels, 20th-century, modern-library-s-100, on-the-southern-literary-trail, 2012, group-read

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCuller's Portrait of the Faces Behind the Masks

Thanks to a good friend, Jeff Keeten, now residing with Dorothy and Toto,too, in Kansas, 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 A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes, my so...more

31 likes · like · see review

Sep 23, 2010 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the red queen

Recommended to Mariel by: I was hoping for the head of the queen

The ending of Carson McCuller's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of the saddest I've ever read. In fact, I'd not hestitate to say it is one of the worst things that could ever happen to me, and I hope like hell it never does. I related too much to situations of concentrating on some small special thing to get through the day. Hearing music and stories in my head. The luxury of energy (and the heart left) to expend on such thoughts should not be taken for granted (even if it is just about some...more The ending of Carson McCuller's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of the saddest I've ever read. In fact, I'd not hestitate to say it is one of the worst things that could ever happen to me, and I hope like hell it never does. I related too much to situations of concentrating on some small special thing to get through the day. Hearing music and stories in my head. The luxury of energy (and the heart left) to expend on such thoughts should not be taken for granted (even if it is just about something good to eat later on in the day. Woody Allen is wrong though, there IS such a thing as bad pizza).
That McCuller's wrote 'Hunter' at the age of twenty-three is a much talked about point. Is it a point? The book jackets (such as the Josh Nichols heroine's book club edition, no doubt) tout this a lot. It's not some Orson Wellesian making their masterpeice and peaking before age twenty-four behind the story to me. As if that could ever be the point. (Well, yeah, maybe. Their lives were frustrating as all heck, and fascinating too. I got too depressed investigating either one, actually... They were both Orson Wellesian on that score.)
Isaac Bashevis singer didn't write a novel until he was forty (in my opinion, he's was as awe-inspiring as any youngster). There are assuredly buttloads of such examples for either direction on the age time line. I don't think it is age, only that some experiences are more shattering than others. Truman Capote wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms before twenty-four. It was autobiographical (Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird shows some of those shared experiences. Must've been some time they had.) Some people stop listening to music when they get out of high school. Is it like that? I don't know. The capacity to be shaped still by experiences (and not every shaping experience is profound).
Do you stop growing at some point?
(Is 'Hunter' autobiographical in a sense? I feel it is. The Member of the Wedding too. The "Take me with you" feelings of that book has to be.)
Did they give up and have nothing else left to bleed? I know that I don't want to think of McCullers ending up without the stories in her head. Not ever. So she's still twenty-three.
I just don't want to think of anyone ending up like Mick.
If it all ends for naught, it is still too painful to live without the love for something better.
For me, one of the most haunting parts of 'Hunter' was the story of Willie Copeland. Fuck, that was hard. It is hard to think beyond that...

(less)

22 likes · like · see review

Jul 10, 2009 Chloe rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone looking for a darker To Kill A Mockingbird

Recommended to Chloe by: Charity

Shelves: classics, fiction, i_am_in_love, the_south_will_rise_again

I find myself consistantly tongue-tied about this book. I've begun nearly four different reviews of this eminantly enjoyable read that have all petered away into nothingness as I try to put into words just what it was that gripped me about McCullers' opus. The first word I can think of is shock. Shock that I had heard next to nothing about this book until pulling it from my shelf. Shock that I have gone so long without it being assigned to me in a class or forced into my hands by a friend. Shock...more I find myself consistantly tongue-tied about this book. I've begun nearly four different reviews of this eminantly enjoyable read that have all petered away into nothingness as I try to put into words just what it was that gripped me about McCullers' opus. The first word I can think of is shock. Shock that I had heard next to nothing about this book until pulling it from my shelf. Shock that I have gone so long without it being assigned to me in a class or forced into my hands by a friend. Shock that this book is not featured on more of those "must-read" or "best writing of the 20th century" lists that get bandied about with the regularity of summer monsoons here on Goodreads. Mostly, though, shock that McCullers turned out such an exquisite and world-weary look at the loneliness that engulfs people and swallows them down when she was only 23. Things like that just make me feel lazy and unaccomplished.

I am the first to admit that I have very little firsthand knowledge of the Southern United States. What I do know is informed through the media I consume and the history we were all taught in school (though, apparently, that history is subjective as well; see "The War of Northern Aggression"). In fact, I could honestly claim that I know more about other continents than I do about the South. As such, I don't feel too comfortable claiming that there is a darkness that seems to live in the land, seeping out to inspire random acts of cruelty or violence and spread waves of intangible dread among its inhabitants (notice that it didn't actually stop me from making said claim). Whether or not this darkness is inherent to the South or McCullers is just tapping into her own personal ennui, reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter often made me feel as though I were journeying upriver to listen to Kurtz exhort me to "exterminate all the brutes."

The book follows four different people and the dreams for a different/better life that they all hold close as a means of escaping the pervasive loneliness which always seems ready to swallow them whole. For Mick Kelly, a precocious young teen cut in the mold of To Kill A Mockingbird's Scout Finch, this dream is of being able to compose and play the music that infects her mind. For the wandering Jake Blount it is of inspiring the downtrodden workers to strike at the mills to improve their conditions. Cafe owner Biff Brannon is ashamed of his creative impulses and the maternal feelings he carries for the children of his patrons and Dr. Copeland is so consumed by his desire to inspire his fellow blacks to greatness that he refuses to take time off to treat the tuberculosis which is slowly killing him.

The lynchpin of all these dreamers is the enigmatic Mr. Singer. A deaf-mute in a city of speakers, Mr. Singer offers himself up as the perfect tabula rasa for the four dreamers. In the small room that he rents from Mick's parents, he sits as calm and quiet as the Buddha as each in their turn visit and pour out their dreams, desires and passions to him- the perfect opinionless tabula rasa. My heart ached for all of these characters as they struggled with realising their dreams and the compromises they all made as they ran into the hard wall of reality. Yet it was Mr. Singer that I cared for above all. Always receptive of others yet unable to share his own thoughts, his only confessor his former roommate who is now interred at an asylum. He is wrapped in a bubble of isolation and it is his loneliness that has stuck with me the hardest since finishing the book.

It's been five days since I finished this book yet I can't bring myself to put it back on my shelf, to really believe that my time with these achingly real people has come to an end. My copy is dog-eared now from me folding down the corners of pages to record a choice description or bit of dialogue and I keep referring back to it in order to make sure that I am not bastardizing McCullers' exquisite prose. It may not have been listed on the 1001 List (but 12 different Ian McEwan novels made the cut?!?) but this is absolutely a book that you must read before you die. Its beauty and its sorrow can't help but touch you.(less)

23 likes · like · see review

May 19, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to K.D. by: Time 100; Modern Library 100; Oprah Book of the Month; E.G.

Shelves: 501, time-100, saddest

A credible friend here in GR told me that this novel is the saddest he had ever read. That’s the main reason why I read this. Well, it is the saddest and most depressing among the fiction ones that I’ve read too. Saddest among the ones I found earlier to be downright depressing: Good Morning, Midnight (1939) by Jean Rhys and The God of Small Things (1997) by Arundhati Roy. Well, I am still to read The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Also, the holocaust-base...more

28 likes · like · see review

May 07, 2013 Kirsty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: purchased-2012, tpobab-reads, read-2013, treasured-characters, treasures

As ever with my group reads, here are the thoughts I jotted down whilst reading.

- The American Deep South is somewhere I'm utterly fascinated by, and I'll basically read anything set there. I'm particularly drawn towards novels of this era too, so I must admit I expected to love this before I even started.
- I really enjoyed how it began, and I was intrigued by Spiros and John from the outset. Their friendship was described wonderfully, and some of its details really made me smile - 'Singer never...more

8 likes · like · see review

Aug 16, 2007 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE IN THE WORLD

Arg. This book is amazing. I could never write this book. Apparently it's heavily autobiographical and the character Mick is based off of McCullers own childhood. She wrote this book when she was twenty-three (not to be self-oriented, but I'm twenty-five). She was very interested in music and studied to be a concert pianist, which is why she composed The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in three parts, like a fuge or something piano-oriented (I forget because I'm not a pianist, either.)
Some how, in thre...more

18 likes · like · see review

Jun 22, 2012 Cecily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites, miscellaneous-fiction, classics, american-canadian

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...more 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 (café 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.

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 still hope.

NB "The Mortgaged Heart" (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...) includes an author’s outline of this book, which sheds extra light on the story, though some of her preliminary ideas were not in the final book.
(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 23, 2012 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites

A novel of misfits and dreamers: the drunk with his impressive rage; a doctor with a strangled voice & failing lungs; a gangly girl chasing a fragment of a song to hunt the full Symphony and the proprietor of The New York Cafe, his compassion for the crippled and his deep desire to understand the heart of his patrons.

At the centre of the tale is the deaf mute John Singer. The four misfits visit Singer and communicate their dreams, desires & woes. They are certain that Singer, in his sile...more A novel of misfits and dreamers: the drunk with his impressive rage; a doctor with a strangled voice & failing lungs; a gangly girl chasing a fragment of a song to hunt the full Symphony and the proprietor of The New York Cafe, his compassion for the crippled and his deep desire to understand the heart of his patrons.

At the centre of the tale is the deaf mute John Singer. The four misfits visit Singer and communicate their dreams, desires & woes. They are certain that Singer, in his silence, understands everything.

Singer has his own revered sounding post, the dreamy & troublesome greek Antonapoulos. When his friend is admitted to an out of town asylum, Singer's life is forever changed. The hands he used so frenetically to communicate his heart to the Greek were rendered useless in his absence. He took long walks at night and all he met mistook his heartache for wisdom. Carson could be pointing out the foolishness of idolatry. Ironically, the people that visit Singer for solace & understanding only confuse him with their need. To Antonapoulos he writes:

"You remember the four people I told you about when I was there... They are all very busy people. In fact they are so busy that it will be hard for you to picture them. I do not mean that they work at their jobs all day and night but that they have much business in their minds always that does not let them rest...the New York Café owner is different. He watches. The others all have something they hate. And they all have something they love more than eating or sleeping or wine or friendly company. That is why they are always so busy."

This is a beautiful and tragic tale. The prose is eloquent and deceptively simple.

I read somewhere that the character (& my favourite) Mick Kelly is semi-autobiographical. My own deep love of music is what draws me to this character, and these lines in particular:

'Then the music started. Mick raised her head and her fist went up to her throat. How did it come? 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. It didn't have anything to do with God. This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the day-time and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the dark with all the plans and feelings. This music was her - the real plain her. She could not listen hard enough to hear it all'.

'But maybe the last part of the symphony was the music she loved best - glad and like the greatest people in the world running and springing up in a hard, free way. 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'. Pg 107.

The difference between my first reading, and this one: a deeper understanding of the characters. There is more pain here then I first registered. It is my favourite of McCullers few novels, not as perfect as the short story The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, but pretty close.
(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Sep 29, 2007 Meika rated it 5 of 5 stars

I picked this book up in an effort to better my mind - not a good reason at all. I remembered that it was heavily referenced in the movie, Love Song for Bobby Long, which I loved because it's gritty and heartbreaking and all that is hopeful about it is hinged on the tenuous beauty of Purslane, a girl who is at the brink of giving in to a lost life. I wanted to know the story that Purslane found so captivating.
True that the story centers on John Singer, who loses his companion and soulmate to men...more I picked this book up in an effort to better my mind - not a good reason at all. I remembered that it was heavily referenced in the movie, Love Song for Bobby Long, which I loved because it's gritty and heartbreaking and all that is hopeful about it is hinged on the tenuous beauty of Purslane, a girl who is at the brink of giving in to a lost life. I wanted to know the story that Purslane found so captivating.
True that the story centers on John Singer, who loses his companion and soulmate to mental illness and then becomes the deaf-mute sounding board for the deepest passions of four other central characters, Mick, Dr. Copeland, Jake Blount, and Biff Brannon. But the story is about the unfolding of human experience, and it is devastating, powerful and tumultuous - it sinks you into the story on a visceral level. You feel Jake Blount's drunken rages about the evils of capitalism, Mick Kelly's blind optimism at becoming the world's premier concert pianist, and in the end, her heartbreaking hopelessness at realizing she will work at Woolworth's at the cost of those hopes. Biff Brannon's strange introspection casts the other characters in stagelighting, and you can practically smell the Aqua Florida that he dabs behind his ears to remind him that memory has its own life.
What McCullers does is present each experience so that the characters fade into their experiences. So, instead of reading that Jake Blount raged, you read that Jake Blount felt the room begin to spin, and the heat became stifling and the vein on his temple began to pulse... so suddenly you find yourself present. Present in the deep south in the depression, with dirt under your nails and cheap gin in your veins. It's uncomfortable and dangerous, not even your own couch cup of coffee and lamp can save you from the story. The only reprieve granted to the reader is the silence of John Singer, his sanity and impeccable calm. And in the end, that is shattered when he learns that his companion has died. In the end the characters must face themselves.
I suspect this is the connection that The Heart is a Lonely Hunter has with Love Song for Bobby Long. Love Song forces the lonely hearts into proximity with each other. They have no John Singer, only each other.
I am still puzzled by what the suitcase means. In Love Song, there is a suitcase full of books left to Purslane by her mother. In Heart, Jake Blount enters with a suitcase and leaves with it, and John Singer stuffs a suitcase full of towels and soap and various things from his hotel room before killing himself... it might be nothing, but the object stands out the way objects in dreams stand out - like it's subconsciously significant....
I'll be processing this story for a long time. (less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 23, 2007 Alexis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: moreimportantthanfood

this book should be required reading for every American. I have no idea how I made it thru the school system never hearing of this book - that is an educational crime. The jacket's got a quote saying it's a book about the "ultimate inconsolability and incurability of the human soul," but I think it's about our country as well. And how, for all it's fancy ideas, it doesn't want to be better. It likes itself just how it is: broken, isolated, mad, faithlessly awaiting its salvation without the cour...more this book should be required reading for every American. I have no idea how I made it thru the school system never hearing of this book - that is an educational crime. The jacket's got a quote saying it's a book about the "ultimate inconsolability and incurability of the human soul," but I think it's about our country as well. And how, for all it's fancy ideas, it doesn't want to be better. It likes itself just how it is: broken, isolated, mad, faithlessly awaiting its salvation without the courage to actually save itself.

Quotes:
"And the way he gravitated around the deaf-mute and picked him out and tried to make him a free present of everything in him./ 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."
"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."
"Even on the coldest nights the Sunny Dixie Show was open. The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander into the darkness beyond tomorrow."
"He had walked in the neighborhood where he might see Mick. And there was something about it that was - not quite right. Yes. Wrong. ...Always he wanted to set her up to something, to give to her. And not only a sundae or some sweet to eat - but something real. That was all he wanted for himself - to give to her. Biff's mouth hardened. He had done nothing wrong but in him he felt a strange guilt. Why? The dark guilt in all men, unreckoned and without a name."
** "He waited for the black, terrible anger as though for some beast out of the night. But it did not come to him. His bowels seemed weighted with lead, and he walked slowly and lingered against fences and the cold, wet walls of buildings by the way. Descent into the depths until at last there was no further chasm below. He touched the solid bottom of despair and there took ease. In this he knew a certain strong and holy gladness."
[anyone who knows me will get a big kick out of this one. so...i guess i didn't invent this theory:] "Harry believed that after you were dead and buried you changed to plants and fire and dirt and clouds and water. It took thousands of years and then finally you were a part of all the world. He said he thought that was better than being one single angel. Anyhow it was better than nothing."
[proof - day jobs kill artists:] "But now no music was in her mind. That was a funny thing. It was like she was shut out from tthe inside room. Sometimes a quick little tune would come and go - but she never went into the inside room with music like she used to do. It was like she was too tense. Or maybe because it was like the store took all her energy and time. Woolworth's wasn't the same as school. When she used to come home from school she felt good and was ready to start working on music. But now whe was always too tired."
"...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 - one word - love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him he felt a warning, a shaft of terror. Between the two worlds he was suspended. He saw that he was looking at his own face in the counter glass before him. Sweat glistened on his temples and his face was contorted. One eye was opened wider than the other. The left eye delved narrowly into the past while the right gazed wide and affrighted into the future of blackness, error, and ruin. And he was suspended between radiance and darkness. Between bitter irony and faith. Sharply he turned away."(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Oct 27, 2012 Alexander Louell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Carson McCullers' was an immaculate rebel who dispelled the idyllic sentiments and the rustic appeals inescapable to a backwater southern town. She might have had consumed an abundance of book-learned fantasies but one dismisses such a trivial likelihood and be rapt in adoration for her astute understanding of the human malaise. To designate her characters as plausible is utter insipidity, burying myself in the pages, a warm sense of abandon permeates, intoxicating me in perpetual whiffs of skew...more

5 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2013 Lucrezia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://www.gisy.it/Alfa/Blog/EdwardHo...

Avete presente il dipinto di Edward Hopper "Nighthawks"?
Non so ancora bene perché, ma ,mi si era fissato in testa leggendo l' ultimo capitolo di questo libro. E ho voltato l' ultima pagina sulla stessa sensazione.

Qualche tempo fa spulciando su vari blog letterari e curiosando su ibs, mi imbattei in questo titolo e ne rimasi affascinata, decisi di indagare e poi successivamente lo presi.

Qualche settimana fa, stravaccata sul divano, una sera, facevo zapping...more

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 04, 2007 Darcy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: twentieth-century-novels

If this were a Debbie Macomber novel, a group of misfits would coalesce around a single galvanizing figure, resulting in a community of like-minded souls who would then knit their way to happiness and inner peace.

This isn't. Yes, there are misfits. Yes, there is a single galvanizing figure. No, there isn't knitting. And (view spoiler)...more If this were a Debbie Macomber novel, a group of misfits would coalesce around a single galvanizing figure, resulting in a community of like-minded souls who would then knit their way to happiness and inner peace.

This isn't. Yes, there are misfits. Yes, there is a single galvanizing figure. No, there isn't knitting. And (view spoiler)[ there won't be much inner peace, either.

This is a very quiet book. There aren't any surprises in this narrative, but oddly that isn't a drawback to it. The characters are set up neatly at the beginning, a few plot elements are put into motion, and then the story proceeds to draw the characters more and more closely together, so that they can't seem to escape from one another. It would seem as though that would be a good thing--this a novel in which the characters are full of potential to reach out to one another, and yet they never manage to do it with any success. McCullers presents a very bleak view of social interaction and community, in which Mick Kelly, Jake Blount, Biff Brannon, and Dr. Benedict Copeland all repeatedly grasp at the central figure of John Singer--a deaf-mute who although able to communicate, presents them with a sort of "blank slate" listener; he always appears to be interested in what they are saying (thus making himself indispensable), and yet his personal letters reveal he understands very little of their concerns or desires.

This would seem to be a novel about the problems of communication--these characters are all talkers, but not listeners. Ironically, the man who does listen--John Singer--doesn't want to understand what is being said, despite his own intense loneliness and longing for human contact. John Singer's deafness, McCullers suggests, doesn't give him any keener insight into the desire to be heard than any of the other characters. Instead, the book presents an infinite retrograde of uncaring listeners. John Singer listens, but does not comprehend, what anyone else says. He himself speaks only to an old friend, Atanapolous, who has been institutionalized due to mental incapacity. Atanapolous understands and cares even less than Singer about what is said to him. With his swollen girth and his intense desire to consume food and drink, Atanapolous is the exaggerated, physical manifestation of the type of person who walks, talks, and thinks only of himself--he is a grotesque caricature of Mick, Jake, and Dr. Copeland.

Of all the characters it seems to be Biff Brannon, more than anyone else, who sees the potential in others to build a community. The book is clearly concerned with this issue; both Jake Blount and Dr. Copeland struggle with the frustration of not being heard. They subscribe to the idealism of Karl Marx, and yet repeatedly find themselves ignored, swept aside, or merely tolerated. But the novel seems to suggest that it is this very desire to speak and be heard that is holding these characters back. In focusing so much on what they have to say, Jake and Dr. Copeland fail to understand others. It is Biff who watches other people carefully, noticing their desires in an attempt to ignore his own. In the end, however, his observations are all to no avail--he does not act on what he observes and so he ends up merely collecting his own thoughts and secreting them away, much as he does the daily newspaper.

This is an incredibly prescient novel, in many ways, particularly in terms of its treatment of racial tension, and the various pressures of stereotyped gender roles. The narrative is extremely adept at weaving together the various frustrations individuals face, even as it ironically points to the similarities in those frustrations. This is not an optimistic novel, but at the very least it points to the potential for hope, a potential located in the almost overwhelming and consuming desire for change. (hide spoiler)](less)

14 likes · like · see review

Oct 16, 2012 Ceecee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who has a heart

Shelves: 5-star, amazing-prose, books-i-own

There is something very gratifying when I finish a book and at first I'm just sitting there, letting it sink in that the book is finished, and taking it in, that it was a good book. There was something very nourishing in this book. And I had so many feels. So how do I write this? Lord knows how much I want to eloquent and articulate.

I'll take a shot.

First off, I want to honor the fact that Ms McCullers was only 22 when she wrote this novel. Nobody misses that. Everybody should know by now how aw...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 15, 2011 Duffy Pratt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic

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 bec...more 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. (less)

24 likes · like · see review

Jul 16, 2007 Ed rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This will spoil it, so only read on if you've read it. In summary, it's a good book, though not among the top books I've ever read.

Well written novel set in the south weaving together the stories of several quite different main characters. At its core, this novel focuses on the need of each of its main characters to find solace in others by pouring out their hearts. Each character views Singer as a confidant who comes to represent the living embodiment of their "inside rooms", their inner life t...more This will spoil it, so only read on if you've read it. In summary, it's a good book, though not among the top books I've ever read.

Well written novel set in the south weaving together the stories of several quite different main characters. At its core, this novel focuses on the need of each of its main characters to find solace in others by pouring out their hearts. Each character views Singer as a confidant who comes to represent the living embodiment of their "inside rooms", their inner life that they can tell to noone else, but that they need to express. Meanwhile, Singer has an identical relationship with his former roommate. Each character seeks to make their confidant an extension of themself, while not seeking to give anything to that person. At the end of the novel, Singer is unable to deal with the loss of his "confidant" and leaves each character with a hole. Like Singer, the characters are unable to move on, and either wander without direction, or sacrafice the inner dialogue that he provided. The comparison of Singer's needs to those of the other characters is one of the most compelling aspects of the book.
Mick emerges as the most compelling character in the novel. She's precocious, but somewhat out of place in her environment. Her coming of age tale resonates - she's excited about the world, dynamic, and free - but ultimately is forced to give most of it up for the rest of the world. Her story is unique, but it parallels the journey of so many of us into the real world post college. It's remarkable that McCullers could write this at 23, and pick up on so much that is true about growing.
Brannon represents a similarly fascinating character. Unlike all the others, his dialogue starts and ends the novel as an internal dialogue within himself, without an effort to pour it onto someone else. He's an observer of people, and he's the only character who tries to figure out the truth about Singer. Similarly, he's the character who handles his death, and makes the arrangements that must be made. Despite the caring he shows for other characters, he's also portrayed as unable to establish real relationships - his relationship with his wife is deeply loving in his mind, but was not in real life. In later parts of the novel, I couldn't help but wonder if George was set up to become another Brannon. (less)

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 21, 2007 Unbridled rated it 4 of 5 stars

I almost fell in love with the sad, mopey faced woman who delivered Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Not so here, there is no compressed time to breeze to an impetuous decision. This is, however, a brilliant novel, quite unexpected from the pen of a 22 year old writer. That in itself is astounding! 22! At times I felt the novel was too long, maybe 50 pages or so, but upon reflection I cannot conceive of what to remove, because the whole of the novel plays as a rich, heavy symphony – though I might not li...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 14, 2008 Tyler rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, read-while-in-hungary

This is an odd little book. For such an established classic, it doesn't seem to have much in the way of grand pronouncements about humanity, technical innovations, an unusually eloquent voice, or even a particularly interesting plot. I was reminded of John Steinbeck, not just because both him and Mrs. McCullers are both middlebrow mid-century American writers who chronicle the common people with an earnestness that sometimes descends into hand-wringing, but also just because of the sound of her...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jul 09, 2007 Gwen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people really into Southern lit

I managed to finish the book, but I can't really say I got anything much out of it. It's the story of a deaf/mute man living in the South and the people that come to be part of his life. Because he is deaf and mute, they all impose their own ideas onto him, making him into what they need to believe he is. His story, and the story of a teenage girl slowly discovering she's no longer a kid, is interesting, but at the end of the book I couldn't quite tell you what the overall point was. Maybe the w...more

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 13, 2007 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-20

This book made me weep when I first read it as a teenager. The sadness of the characters was so overwhelming. But I loved the writing, and the book stayed with me. When I read it again a few years ago, it still packed an emotional punch. And somehow, for all the sadness in the book, I don't find it in the least bit depressing. Maybe it's the ability of McCullers's writing to remind the reader of the redemptive power of storytelling.

15 likes · like · see review

Oct 19, 2012 Clif Hostetler rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

My Summary:
Despair--Dreams of hope--No justice--Things never change.

Explanation of my summary:

The story takes place in the American South among the poor underclass in the late 1930s. The social, economic and racial realities of this setting are oppressive to any human hope for a better life. I summarize this condition as, “Despair.”

Many of the book’s characters have a dream of how life could be improved. The young teenager, Mick, longs to be a musician. The aging black doctor, Dr. Copeland, spea...more My Summary:
Despair--Dreams of hope--No justice--Things never change.

Explanation of my summary:

The story takes place in the American South among the poor underclass in the late 1930s. The social, economic and racial realities of this setting are oppressive to any human hope for a better life. I summarize this condition as, “Despair.”

Many of the book’s characters have a dream of how life could be improved. The young teenager, Mick, longs to be a musician. The aging black doctor, Dr. Copeland, speaks endlessly of ways to improve life of “his people.” The heavy-drinking, Jake, rants about socialism’s promise to correct the injustices of capitalism. Proprietor of a central eating spot and bar in town, named Biff, is a quiet observer of life. All of these characters expound on their dreams of hope by visiting the town’s deaf-mute, Mr. Singer, who is a good listener and won’t interrupt them while they’re talking. In their minds they have made Mr. Singer the ultimate wise listener so their talking to him is a sort of symbolic praying to God. I summarize this aspect of the book as “Dreams of hope.”

Ironically, the deaf-mute to whom they have been speaking doesn’t really understand why they are talking to him. He has his own compulsion to send letters and occasionally visit his deaf-mute friend in an insane asylum. In the end, all the expressions of hope of these characters are in vain. The deaf-mute's friend dies, Mr. Singer commits suicide, and teenager Mick quits school so she can help her poverty stricken family by working. Dr. Copeland is beat-up by police for his protesting the maiming his son by prison guards. Alcoholic Jake leaves town town to avoid possible charges of instigating a riot of which he is innocent. This I call, “No justice.”

By the end of the book it is clear to the reader that nothing will change (i.e. "Things never change"). The only possible ray of hope is Mick because of her youth. Maybe something will change for her in the future. At the end of the book café owner Biff surmises what he has witnessed as follows:

“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—one word—love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him he felt a warning, a shaft of terror... he was suspended between radiance and darkness. Between bitter irony and faith."

Despite the bit of optimism in the above quotation, I was left depressed by the book. I recognize the book as good literature, and given the era in which it was written (published 1940) it was ahead of its time by naming the injustices of economic, cultural and racial inequalities in the American South. This book has captured the essence of being human in a imperfect world while persevering with the task at hand. But I experienced the book much the same as taking bitter medicine. That explains why I gave it two stars.

Below is a review from PageADay Book Lover's Calendar for March 5, 2013:
Maybe you were assigned this magnificent novel in school, so it’s been a long time since you’ve read it—or maybe you never read it at all. In either case, it’s time to (re)embrace its wonders. Set in Depression-era Georgia, the story revolves around two protagonists: John Singer, a deaf mute isolated by his silence, and Mick Kelly, a young girl who searches for beauty through music. The miracle of the novel is its breathtaking insight into the human condition.
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER , by Carson McCullers (1940; Mariner, 2004)
(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 16, 2011 Angus rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-100-novels, modern-library-100, reviewed-and-blogged, 5-stars

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Intro

I gravitate toward some book titles. Such titles are often the ones that could pass off as complete sentences. Type the title of this book on your word processor and I doubt that it would alert a grammatical error.

Book titles that elicit some profound feeling also attract me. Well, this is a subjective experience. I do not know what you feel about Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge and Joyce Carol Oates’s Because It Is Bitter, and Becau...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 30, 2011 Dominic rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-literature

[DEFINITELY holds up to multiple readings. So haunting and unsettling in the best possible way.:]

Have you ever seen that Edward Hopper painting, "Nighthawks," the one with the corner diner and a couple of lonely looking people? I couldn't help but think about "Nighthawks" while I was reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

This is a sometimes tender and sometimes startling book about five people desperate for escape and longing for more out of life. McCullers is a master at creating characters. Te...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Matt by: Tim, Leslie

Shelves: classics

I just finished this and maybe I should wait awhile to write my review of it, because this writing does make you reflect and think over a multitude of ideas.
Basically, the setting is in a town in Georgia of about twenty thousand people. It takes about five characters and with a third person perspective tells what there going through over a coarse of a year. What ties them together is a mute that the other four characters are drawn to, and think they have a real bond with him. The first chapter f...more I just finished this and maybe I should wait awhile to write my review of it, because this writing does make you reflect and think over a multitude of ideas.
Basically, the setting is in a town in Georgia of about twenty thousand people. It takes about five characters and with a third person perspective tells what there going through over a coarse of a year. What ties them together is a mute that the other four characters are drawn to, and think they have a real bond with him. The first chapter focuses on the mute and his mute companion who he adored but treated him unwell and that mute gets sent of to a asylum? Anyway the mute left moves to a boarding house where he meets the young character, Mick. Mick's story is very much a coming of age tail, and she's fond of the new boarder. Through a diner, the characters Jake, a communist drunk, and Biff a the owner of the diner get introduced. Finally a black docter in town, Copeland, who wants equality for his people gets introduced. All of these characters want more out of life and have many questions on their mind. The mute listens to them and eases their pain. They end up visiting him frequently and look forward to that time. All the while the mute yearns for his lost mute friend in the asylum. When the characters mix with the others tensions build and they all want the mute to themselves.
This book is poignant because it takes on poverty in the south during the depression and race inequality and seems very true to describing the human condition. Reading it today makes you think quite a bit. There is Karl Marx theme in this book propelled by two characters in this. Reading 'Native Son' a couple of years ago that has a communist them too. With these two texts you must think to yourself, that ideology was really being circualted during the depression, when everything was bad. This makes me want to research the era that lead up to the McCarthyism and maybe even read the 'Communist Manifesto' myself. Also, this book and the poverty element made me think of 'Grapes of Wrath' too. Whoever says that this country has not improved since that time must be senial.
Anyway, agian this book makes you think, and I recommend that everyone reads this. I'm also thinking in the next year I'm going to try to read more social novels. Some of my favorite novels have a social impact like 'The Jungle' by Sinclair.
If anyone has suggestions let me know.
-Matt (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 01, 2007 Veronica Aranda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I guess my main problem is, every time I read a book I pretty much decide it's the best book I've ever read. Maybe I've just avoided reading any real stinkers, or maybe I just have horrible taste, but THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER was no exception. The characters were rich beyond belief, and given the setting I found them especially fascinating. The complexity of McCullers's prose does not get in the way of enjoyability or understandability in the least, but manages to portray vividly a wide arra...more

4 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Perks of Bein...: 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers (May 2013)	54	50	Jun 09, 2013 01:06pm
What Thematic Statements are There?	2	9	Jun 05, 2013 07:57pm
Singer's relationship to his Greek companion...	8	207	Jun 05, 2013 07:49pm
Books to read again...	11	33	Apr 14, 2013 05:50am
90outloud video for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter	2	21	Mar 12, 2013 09:49am

combine
Other Editions (77)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

627 users

Literature

128 users

Book Club

119 users

American > Southern

94 users

Novels

84 users

Literature > American

68 users

Historical Fiction

54 users

Literary Fiction

44 users

Adult Fiction

39 users

Young Adult > Coming Of Age

34 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American writer. She wrote fiction, often described as Southern Gothic, that explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South.

From 1935 to 1937 she divided her time, as her studies and health dictated, between Columbus and New York and in September 1937 she married an ex-soldier and aspiring writer, Reeves McCul...more Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American writer. She wrote fiction, often described as Southern Gothic, that explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South.

From 1935 to 1937 she divided her time, as her studies and health dictated, between Columbus and New York and in September 1937 she married an ex-soldier and aspiring writer, Reeves McCullers. They began their married life in Charlotte, North Carolina where Reeves had found some work. There, and in Fayetteville, North Carolina, she wrote her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, in the Southern Gothic tradition.

The title, suggested by McCullers's editor, was taken from Fiona MacLeod's poem "The Lonely Hunter." However, many (including Carson McCullers) claim she wrote in the style of Southern Realism, a genre inspired by Russian Realism. The novel itself was interpreted as an anti-fascist book. Altogether she published eight books.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), written at the age of twenty-three, Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), and The Member of the Wedding (1946), are the best-known. The novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1951) also depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love. She was an alumna of Yaddo in Saratoga, New York.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was filmed in 1968 with Alan Arkin in the lead role. Reflections in a Golden Eye was directed by John Huston (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. Some of the film was shot in New York City and on Long Island, where Huston was permitted to use an abandoned Army installation.

Many of the interiors and some of the exteriors were done in Italy. "I first met Carson McCullers during the war when I was visiting Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith in upstate New York," said Huston in An Open Book (1980).

"Carson lived nearby, and one day when Buzz and I were out for a walk she hailed us from her doorway. She was then in her early twenties, and had already suffered the first of a series of strokes. I remember her as a fragile thing with great shining eyes, and a tremor in her hand as she placed it in mine. It wasn't palsy, rather a quiver of animal timidity. But there was nothing timid or frail about the manner in which Carson McCullers faced life. And as her afflictions multiplied, she only grew stronger."

After a lifelong health problems including severe alcoholism, McCullers died of brain hemorrhage.
(less)

More about Carson McCullers...

Books by Carson McCullers

The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Heart is a Lo...

10 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Heart Is a Lonely ...

“Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.” — 213 people liked it

“Next to music beer was best.” — 182 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
avg rating	preview: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Goodreads rating: 3.91 (38418 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37380.The_Heart_is_a_Lonely_Hunter?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1168914678l/37380.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37380.The_Heart_is_a_Lonely_Hunter?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers[/url]

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website