Set in Georgia on the eve of court-ordered integration, Clock Without Hands contains McCullers's most poignant statement on race, class, and justic...
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Sep 28, 2008
Nathan
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Set in a small, Southern town on the eve of the Court's decision in Brown v. Board, Clock Without Hands explores the lives of several of the town's residents as they deal with the changing racial climate of the civil rights era. A story of fear, intolerance, and violence, the novel features a rich and interesting cast of characters that quickly draws you in and a terrible building tension that keeps the pages turning. One of my favorite characters that I've read in a long time is Judge Clane, a
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Feb 12, 2009
Michael
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Published in 1961, this is McCullers’ final novel. She died aged 50 in 1967, leaving an unfinished autobiography.
Clock without hands is a novel about death. It starts with Malone the chemist being told he is dying. Malone goes to visit his friend the Judge, a comic, corpulent Republican former senator in his eighties who drinks and pontificates on his own greatness, while fearing death and mourning his son, dead of suicide in his twenties. Most of the novel is concerned with the Judg More...
Clock without hands is a novel about death. It starts with Malone the chemist being told he is dying. Malone goes to visit his friend the Judge, a comic, corpulent Republican former senator in his eighties who drinks and pontificates on his own greatness, while fearing death and mourning his son, dead of suicide in his twenties. Most of the novel is concerned with the Judg More...
Jul 29, 2011
Marcos
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I truly think after reading this, its confirmation that she's definitely one of the greatest prose writers I've ever read. This work is slightly more abrupt, terse, and tense than the gentler "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". The interesting thing about this novel are that the main characters: A dying pharmacist, an aging judge, his grandson, and a racially mixed companion are all male. Usually, Ms. McCullers puts a female character that balances
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Oct 06, 2007
Alan
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If not more beautiful than The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, as good and even more brave. Gay miscegenation in the south, in the 40s? No wonder it took 10 years to be published. I'm surprised there wasn't more controversy.
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Mar 02, 2011
Sistermagpie
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Took this from the library on a whim since I've liked the couple other books of Carson McCullers' I've read and I think this was my favorite. The writing was so concise and direct, creating vivid characters with rich inner lives. There were different povs and no matter which one I was in I was involved. Even if I liked some characters more than others they were all equally compelling.
Sherman Pew, in particular, was something special. I felt like if this book had a fandom Sherman would More...
Sherman Pew, in particular, was something special. I felt like if this book had a fandom Sherman would More...
Jan 17, 2011
Elliott
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A thoughtful meditation on dying written as the author, Carson McCullers, was dying. Ravaged by strokes and illness, she starts off this novel with the character J.T. Malone, the pharmacist, finding out he will probably die within the year. From this spring board, McCullers weaves a tale that once again explores the themes of loneliness, isolation, and the search for identity and love. Even the opening line of this book ("Death is always the same, but each man dies in his own way")
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Feb 20, 2011
Paul
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I’m sorry to report that this novel is pretty much a complete disaster. It’s a study of four characters located in Milan, Georgia, at the point in the early 1950s when the civil rights movement was beginning to make itself felt in the American South. We have JT Malone, a pharmacist; Judge Clane, an 85 year old ex-congressman; Jester Clane, his 17 year old orphaned grandson; and Sherman Pew, an 18 year old black guy with blue eyes.
The whole thing is painful. I’m sure there is a grea More...
The whole thing is painful. I’m sure there is a grea More...
Jul 10, 2009
Matt
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During the summer of 2006, I had been assigned to read and then analyze this novel for my freshman Honors English class. Carson McCullers's grueling Americana tale of racial tension and self-identification had almost singlehandedly ruined my summer vacation. Not long ago, a friend of mine assured to me that "Clock Without Hands" is not as awful of a novel once the reader has developed a more mature perspective. Accepting the challenge, I have reread the book three summers after my firs
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Nov 01, 2008
Cecily
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Published in 1961, this story is set in a small town in southern USA. The overt story concerns race, justice and to some extent mortality, though there are plenty of other threads. However, it's the examination of the protagonists' views on race that are most interesting and, to some extent troubling, especially to the modern reader as the N word and variants are used quite often, albeit as a noun/statement, rather than necessarily as an insult.
It plays with one's sympathies very ef More...
It plays with one's sympathies very ef More...
May 06, 2008
John
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This is a sad story of racial injustice in a small Southern town after World War II. The novel by McCullers, more or less revolves around a racially bigoted judge and his circle of friends who decide to execute an African American man because he has moved into a white neighborhood. They have a drawing to determine who will get the duty of this grim deed and the slips of paper are pulled from a hat borrowed from the sheriff, no less, who is present at this community meeting of concerned citizen
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Feb 27, 2009
Sylvie
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This book is not as appreciated as her famous one, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, but in my opinion it is a very beneficial read. It is a bit shorter, beautifully written and touches upon all the traditional McCullers themes such as race issues and death, along with the added bonus of a gay undercurrent. If you have never read anything by Carson McCullers, start with this because it will hep you appreciate The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that much more.
Jul 18, 2011
M and G
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This story is very typical of McCullers and has a sombre resonance. The characters are varied and drawn in a way that pulls one in to the story. She is a craftsman with words, and in a few deft strokes creates people who pull one into the story.
Although the story begins and ends with the fate of J.T. Malone it is his friend the Judge, and the Judge's amanuensis and his grandson who seem to occupy centre stage for much of the story. A masterful novel.
Although the story begins and ends with the fate of J.T. Malone it is his friend the Judge, and the Judge's amanuensis and his grandson who seem to occupy centre stage for much of the story. A masterful novel.
Mar 02, 2009
Clint
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The title of thsi book is the best part, but the book itself is a medicatation on racism in the south, a topic which just bores the hell out of me. It kind of seemed below her. I think she was dying painfully when she wrote this book, and couldn't really concentrate on it. An anti-climatic end to a great career.
Oct 28, 2009
Pam
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I'm ashamed to admit I've not read McCullers until now. A gloomy look at the south, where I happened to live throughout my childhood, and the difficulty Southerners - black and white alike-had in the 50's . The overall climate and attitudes were disturbingly familiar to me.
Dec 14, 2009
Pamela
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In just a couple hundred pages, McCullers brings a small mid-century southern community to life, with characters so vivid I felt I knew them. Suspenseful, studied, written with care and restraint. Looking forward to reading more from her.
Mar 28, 2009
Jenny
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In her final novel, Carson McCullers depicts a small southern town on the brink of change as the Supreme Court considers school desegregation. Through the interrelated lives of four men, she explores death, love, and attitudes toward race and progress.
Sep 29, 2011
Carol
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With Carson McCullers, you just can't miss. Sleepy little town in the South, it touches on white supremacy vs. black "emancipation", daily lives, death, hope. A very thoughtful book.
Aug 03, 2011
This writer is amazing ... if you can get your hands on anything that she has written, then drop everything else you are reading, doing, and spend some time with my new hero !
May 25, 2009
Kim
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put aside the lame cover, this book is very well written and just reiterates how messed up the south was... it will either make you mad at how things were or glad how things are now...
Apr 10, 2011
Lbball27
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Wow, what a writer, so glad I re-discovered her!! She writes with such compassion that you can't help but feel it for even those characters you think you hate.....I wonder why this book wasn't as big as "The Heart is....
Apr 09, 2010
Maureen
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Not really Carson's best. It started off well but I didn't find the characterisation of the two young chaps all that convincing, and all the characters had big old 'THIS IS MY FUNCTION IN THIS ALLEGORICAL TALE OF THE SOUTH' stamps on them.
Apr 22, 2009
Linda
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I liked the way McCullers tackled the issues of the day. It is not as good as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter but I still very much enjoyed it.
Mar 04, 2011
Dave
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Wonderful, memorable characters in the South of the 50'a and 60's when discrimination was dying a slow death.
Jul 29, 2011
A dark book about race relations in the South. Fortunately set many years ago.
Oct 28, 2011
Denise
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I enjoyed reading this book. The racial unequality in a small southern town in the 60s were right on target. Here, times were changing and Malone facing his own mortality. The relationship between Jester and Sherman, two boys growing up in two different worlds and they were able to forge a friendship. I like seeing what happens when there is the fork in the road and explains much as to what happened and why. I also like the fact that Malone did take a stand before his life came to an end.
Nov 10, 2008
A little slow at first- but I was completely engrossed by the end. She's does an incredible of dissecting a character's emotional makeup- peeling back the layers until she reaches the very core of who they are. And as she goes- she carefully holds each layer up to the light where you can examine it- and come to understand why that character is who he is. By doing this- she helps you understand completely- even empathize- with the most despicable character.
