The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories

by Carson McCullers

book data

1,400 ratings, 4.05 average rating, 109 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		36%
4		38%
3		19%
2		4%
1		0%

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published

April 5th 2005 (first published 1951) by Mariner Books

binding

Paperback, 160 pages

isbn

0618565868 (isbn13: 9780618565863)

description

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers's best stories, including her beloved novella "...more

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10/30/08

Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0140282726)

There are seven stories in this volume – of them I would guess that in six month time I will remember only two. Those are the title story and the story called The Sojourner. And to celebrate, those are the only stories I’ll talk about here except to say that one of the problems I found with the other stories was that they lacked a real sense of place.

McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter has been one of the most remarkable books I’ve read all year – perhaps it will becom...more

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05/14/08

Andrew rated it:

Lush and tender. After reading the crappy sentences of "The Pillars of the Earth," sinking into McCullers's sentences was like easing into a hot bath: "In addition to the store she operated a still three miles back in the swamp, and ran out the best liquor in the country." Ahh. So I didn't mind so much the melodrama or the adolescent rhapsody in sentences like "Otherwise the town is lonesome, sad, and like a place that is far off and estranged from all other places in...more

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08/18/08

Christina rated it:

Read in August, 2008

“The Ballad of the Sad Café” has an intensity which I can only liken to a Tennessee Williams play. Fantastic. McCullers mixes odd, complex characters together (like a wandering hunchback, the wealthiest woman of a small town, and the bad apple who is her ex-husband) and manages to make their stories believable. As satisfying as a large novel.

Interesting to note in “Wunderkind” another young woman with an almost painful yearning to play and be one with classical music, simila...more

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04/15/07

Mike rated it:

recommends it for: readers

Carson McCullers is probably the queen of Southern literature, and some would toss in the adjective "Gothic" to that description. She published two powerful, dark, and wonderful books while in her early 20's, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Reflections in a Golden Eye. This book was published a year later and tells a tale of misfits and what some might call freaks and their entertwined lives around the sad cafe.
Somewhere around here I have her book on writing, but can't lo...more

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05/23/07

Wendy rated it:

bookshelves: southernfiction

Read in May, 2007

Spring makes me nostalgic for the fiction of the American South, so when we decided to head down to my old stomping grounds for a week of vacation, I headed out to pick up a couple of volumes of short stories by Southern writers. This was the first one I read and the first time I'd ever read anything by Carson McCullers.

This is a collection of one novella, "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," and 6 short stories. All were good-reads, but I did enjoy "Ballad" the most. ...more

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04/01/09

Bucket rated it:

bookshelves: reviewed

Read in February, 2009

Short stories. The first (The Ballad of the Sad Café) is a novella; the others are much shorter. It told the eventful history of Miss Amelia, a manly stingy intimidating woman who owned a café. A hunchback cousin comes to stay with her and eventually she loses a fight with her ex, the cafe closes. Wunderkind features a child prodigy (piano) who loses her feel for the music. A Domestic Dilemma is about a man whose wife is an alcoholic, his complex feelings for her and his worry and love for...more

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05/22/09

Helynne rated it:

Read in April, 1971

<The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is more of a novella than a story, and takes up about half the pages of this collection. It this story, three people in a small town in Georgia in the early 20th-century --Miss Amelia- who is self-centered, mannish, and homely; Marvin, the man who inexplicably falls in love with Miss Amelia, and somehow persuades her to marry him, althought he marriage will last only a few days during which Amelia ignores and abuses him; and Amelie's cousin Lyman, a hunchba...more

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07/22/08

Meggan rated it:

(review of isbn 2729847561)

Read in July, 2008

It is a quick read—beautiful and bleak.

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11/10/08

Brian rated it:

(review of isbn 0140282726)

bookshelves: read-2008

“Any number of wicked things could be listed against him, but quite apart from these crimes there was about him a secret meaness that clung to him almost like a smell.”

Sometimes I pick up a book, read it, and realize with a kind of fear that there are just too many great writers I’ve never heard of and too many wonderful books I’ve yet to read. The fear stems from the fact that many of these books I’ll never discover; their language will never speak to me.

I pick...more

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04/20/08

Maurean rated it:

(review of isbn 0553272543)

Read in May, 2008

This was my first introduction to this author, and I’m glad I began with this collection. While each of these short stories are enjoyable (I also especially liked “The Sojourner”), it was the novella from which the book takes its title that really touched me with its message of love and all its complexity.
In it, we are introduced to Miss Amelia, an independent, lonely old moonshiner who owns a general store in a small Georgia town. When a small, hunchback man claiming to be Miss Ame...more This was my first introduction to this author, and I’m glad I began with this collection. While each of these short stories are enjoyable (I also especially liked “The Sojourner”), it was the novella from which the book takes its title that really touched me with its message of love and all its complexity.
In it, we are introduced to Miss Amelia, an independent, lonely old moonshiner who owns a general store in a small Georgia town. When a small, hunchback man claiming to be Miss Amelia’s cousin arrives in town, Miss Amelia’s life begins to change; Cousin Lymon, despite his rude mannerisms, becomes her beloved, and whilst he never really returns her affection, he does effect a change in her. She becomes kinder, she converts her store into a café’ for the townspeople to gather in, and the café’ itself becomes a symbol of Miss Amelia’s disposition.
As it turns out Amelia was once married to a man, albeit for 10 days, named Marvin Macy, whom she did not love, but who loved Amelia and that love changed him into a kinder, gentler soul. But, when Amelia does not love him back he goes into a rage and becomes a lazy, angry person. He comes back to town after time in the penitentiary to ruin Amelia’s life just like she ruined his. He steals Cousin Lymon’s devotion – who, sees in Marvin’s demeanor the man he wants desperately to be - and, in turn, takes with him Amelia’s new found ability to love.
While each character seems to experience love of some sort, it remains a tragic tale in that none ever truly succeed at loving, or at being loved in return. McCullers describes in beautiful detail the differences of the lover and the beloved;

…”the value and quality of any love is determined soley by the lover himself. It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, ,in a deep secret way, the state of being loved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain.”

Truly some beautiful writing. McCullers’ characters have depth, and her prose is so descriptive and intense; her sense of place is so detailed and descriptive, I found myself easily transported to her world;

“After the long hot summer the first cool days had a clean, ,bright sweetness. Goldenrod grew along the dusty roads, ,and the sugar cane was ripe and purple…Boys hunted foxes in the pinewoods, winter quilts were aired out on the wash lines, and sweet potatoes bedded in the ground with straw against the colder months to come.”

Thought provoking, heart wrenching, and somewhat enchanting, I enjoyed these stories quite a bit. Certainly worth the reading, as I think these will stay with me for some time.

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01/10/08

Judy rated it:

Read in February, 2008

Just finished the first short story: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. WOW. WOW. WOW. On one page I was laughing out loud and the next page I felt like my heart was ripped from my chest.

McCullers slashes and burns gender and sexual stereotypes, stomps all over them with big swamp boots.

A love triangle exists between an over 6 foot tall woman, a dwarf hunchback half her size and the handsomest man in the county who has been emotionally hurt by an abusive childhood. Unrequited l...more

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3 comments

06/12/09

Suki added it

This book is about a woman called Miss Amelia who intentionally likes her cousin Lymon. Her husband was arrested for violence and when they were apart from each other, her cousin came into the story. Cousin Lymon was fascinated with Marvin Macy who was Miss Amelia's husband and he would follow him everywhere. I didn't like this book because I didn't think there was a problem and it wasn't really clear to me. Although the book was short, it was alright and there were some good quotes in the b...more

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08/19/08

Kate rated it:

bookshelves: 2008

Read in August, 2008

"It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being be loved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if the experience can cause him only pain."

"All useful things have a p...more

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04/11/09

liz rated it:

Four stars for Ballad of the Sad Cafe, five for the other stories collected here, especially the playful "Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland" and the melancholy "The Sojourner". McCullers' characters, filled with quirks and odd desires, are touchingly human and the kind of people I want to know. She presents the beauty and sadness of the seemingly mundane in a way I find captivating.

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10/18/07

Elaine rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183691)

bookshelves: shortstorycollections

Read in November, 2007

I'm glad I read this -- but The Ballad of the Sad Cafe struck me as most potent in its mood and bleakness, and I was frustrated at not being given access to what seemed to me the most mysterious and interesting of this menage a trois -- why, oh, why was she so obsessed with this show-offy, self-centered dwarf? If the point is that love is likely to hit us in the most unlikely places and take the most unlikely form, did he need to be a dwarf? Perhaps in the end, what I didn't get was Miss Amel...more

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01/28/09

Josh rated it:

(review of isbn 1417734086)

Read in May, 2008

Small book meant to be read slowly. Everything about the relationships is somehow communicated directly to your subconscious mind. That's probably why I can't describe what it's about. You have to let it in. Just read it.

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02/21/09

Lisa rated it:

Read in June, 2009

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a truly amazing novella, a haunting and astonishing story. Her characters range from odd to freakish, but the author makes them come alive and their motivations ring true. Loneliness is the main theme here, as it is in much of Carson McCullers' work. So it's sad tale, but well worth reading. Beautiful sentences, a sad and lovely voice.

This book also contains some very fine short stories, including her first, published at age 17, about a young girl in th...more

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02/09/09

Kathy rated it:

Read in February, 2009

recommended to Kathy by: Vicky Berglund

Sad Cafe is a story of oddball characters having strange, tragic confrontations in a small town in the South. Does the South really have characters as odd as these folks?

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02/04/09

Jenny rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I read this collection of 7 stories because it is a book recommended by Shannon Hale on her website. And it did not disappoint. These stories are short but loaded with thematic material that gets you thinking. I especially liked "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," "The Wunderkind," "The Sojourner," and "A Domestic Dilemma." These are the kinds of stories that generate great literary discussion.

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03/02/09

Clint rated it:

I read this book before seeing the movie, and even though the movie was lacking lots, it sure got Cousin Limon down right. Weird, sad book by a weird, sad writer.

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