From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Member of the Wedding

Carson McCullers

Start date: June 1, 2023

Finish date: June 30, 2023

Discussion: Lesser Know/Wilderness Classics

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What Members Thought

Mar 11, 2014 Chrissie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kids, southern, audible-us, usa, 2014-read, favorites, hf, classics, life-stages

Yes, a gem! Why I found it amazing and thus worth five stars is explained below in the partial review.

I will only add here a bit about the book's setting: Georgia, 1944-45. You see the world through the eyes of 12 year old Frankie, or F. Jasmine Addams. SHE, not I, will explain to you why she appropriated this name. Not only do you see the emotional turmoil of a preteen but you also get the racial tensions in the South and the tension created by the War. We know it is 1944 from the simple line t Yes, a gem! Why I found it amazing and thus worth five stars is explained below in the partial review.

I will only add here a bit about the book's setting: Georgia, 1944-45. You see the world through the eyes of 12 year old Frankie, or F. Jasmine Addams. SHE, not I, will explain to you why she appropriated this name. Not only do you see the emotional turmoil of a preteen but you also get the racial tensions in the South and the tension created by the War. We know it is 1944 from the simple line that "Patton is driving the Germans out of France". One line and so much is said. No long discourses on history.

Do you remember when you were caught between being a child and an adult and belonging nowhere? Alone....and the world is a scary place.

The narration is fantastic; it is read slowly, with feeling, and it is easy to follow. Wonderful Southern dialect.

***********************************

After part two of three OR after three fourths of a 6 hour audiobook:

Lend me your ear for a moment please. I consider myself pretty hard to please. For this reason I tend to prefer non-fiction because then I tell myself I will at least learn something if the writing disappoints, if the story fails. But the most stupendous books are those of fiction where the writers create a marvelous gem all from NOTHING. They create a tale from assorted words and how they string them together, their imagination and their ability to capture human emotions that we all share. So when I run into astoundingly beautiful writing, and by that I do not mean "pretty" but rather writing that speaks to us all, that has the ability to to pull us out of our own existence and allows us to share common experiences and emotions, now that is something else. THAT is what Carson McCullers does in this book. Fantastic writing.

Do you remember your preteens, when you didn't feel comfortable in your own skin, when the whole world changed over night and all was frightening? Physical changes and emotional changes that throw you off balance. Do you really remember that period in your life? Here it is again captured in writing.

Don't read this. Listen to it narrated by Susan Sarandon. Stunning performance.

Don't miss this book.

Yep, I have read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. This is even better! ...more

38 likes · Like · see review

Feb 24, 2017 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-fiction, read-2017, audio-books, fiction-20th-century, southern-gothic

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Frankie Addams is twelve and five-sixths years old, and desperate to belong.

Carson McCullers 1946 novel adapted for radio by Annie Caulfield.

Stars Eliza Yoder as Frankie Addams, Matthew Givens as John Henry West, Jenny Jules as Berenice Brown, Peter Marinker as Royal Adams, Clive Rowe as Honey Brown / Monkey Man and Isabel Lucas as Big Mama.

Music composed and performed by Martin Winter

Director: Chris Wallace

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996

American novelist, Carson Mc ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2021 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-lit, classics, read-in-2021, coming-of-age, class

Like her book The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter this one explores themes of loneliness, adolescence, class and coming-of-age. McCullers creates child characters who are relatable and real, experiencing all of the agonizing confusion, anxiety and trepidation of youth. Both books describe perfectly the effects of a girls' hormonal changes and her new sexual awareness. Frankie is a confused girl facing all the questions of life without her mother. She is isolated and needy, hopeful and wanting.

The Me ...more

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Dec 05, 2018 Meika rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I LOVED this book. It's a perfect blend of inner experience of Frankie Addams, the perspective of other people through her interactions with them, vignette of small-town Georgia, and coming-of-age story. McCullers' prose is lovely and evocative; somehow when she describes dust swirling, you can see the town build up around your feet.
She handles the issues of race and privilege with tenderness and self-confidence. There's no sugar-coating Frankie's perceptions or ideas about Berenice or Honey or ...more

1 like · Like · see review