The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories in Reading with Style

Mar 03, 2014 Connie G rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-stories, southern-lit, classic, georgia

Note: Spoilers Ahead

The novella "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is a Southern Gothic work with eccentric, lonely characters in a rundown Georgia town. Miss Amelia Evans is a six foot two inch rugged woman. She's the owner of a general store, and does a bit of healing with herbs on the side to help the townspeople. They gossip about her ten day marriage to Marvin Macy which ended after she refused his sexual advances. Marvin left town for a life of crime, and landed in the penitentiary.

A hunchback d Note: Spoilers Ahead

The novella "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is a Southern Gothic work with eccentric, lonely characters in a rundown Georgia town. Miss Amelia Evans is a six foot two inch rugged woman. She's the owner of a general store, and does a bit of healing with herbs on the side to help the townspeople. They gossip about her ten day marriage to Marvin Macy which ended after she refused his sexual advances. Marvin left town for a life of crime, and landed in the penitentiary.

A hunchback dwarf, Lymon Willis, comes to the store professing to be Miss Amelia's cousin. Miss Amelia takes him in, and they turn the store into a bright cafe where the townspeople socialize. Although Lymon seems to be a parasite, Miss Amelia loves him and seems happy living with him. When Marvin gets out of jail, Lymon is fascinated by him and ignores Miss Amelia. A triangular love relationship is formed where the beloved does not love the person who loves them.

Carson McCullers had a troubled marriage with her spouse who had a male lover. She would certainly understand the dynamics of a triangular relationship, and the devastation that could result. There are a wonderful pages in the book, too long to quote here, about the relationship between the beloved and the loved.

The book also contained six short stories about love:

"Wunderkind" is about a promising young pianist who loses her emotional feel for the music. (McCullers had taken piano lessons for years before giving it up when her piano teacher moved when her husband had a job relocation.)

"The Jockey" focuses on the emotions felt by an older jockey when he sees the indifference of a group of businessmen to the news that his friend, a younger jockey, has a permanent injury. The businessmen are only concerned about money and winning, not personal tragedy.

"Madame Zelensky and the King of Poland" is about a musician who tells exaggerated stories. Her real life has no time for anything but the music she loves, so she invents a personal life.

"The Sojourner" tells about a man who sees his ex-wife and her new happy family. He realizes he needs a life with deeper meaning.

"A Domestic Dilemma" involves a husband coming home from work to find his wife drunk again, and the children unattended. How much will his young, beloved children remember about her behavior, and can their marriage last? McCullers writes about the "immense complexity of love" in this story.

"A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud" shows a drunk man telling a paperboy about the science of love. After losing the love of a woman, he decided to start loving again on a small scale, loving a tree, a rock, a cloud. A sad story. ...more

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Apr 01, 2009 Bucket rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary, love, culture, philosophy, reviewed, classic, short-stories

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 his c ...more

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