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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers

Start date: May 1, 2026

Finish date: June 1, 2026

Discussion: Classics Corner

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What Members Thought

Jul 28, 2011 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2011, modern-library-100-best-novels

Lonely... ostracized... marginalized... oppressed... Carson McCullers provides insight to all of these conditions. It must have been remarkable when it was published in the still-very-racially-tense south right before World War II, and it still hits hard now. She was 23, and white, which makes it even more amazing.

Several of the characters are Marxists and attempting to incite revolution, and that was the most severe time traveling that this book does for the reader, in my opinion. Racism, oppr ...more

27 likes · Like · see review

Jul 05, 2007 David rated it it was amazing · 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. ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2007 Myfanwy rated it it was amazing

No words for how much I love this book!

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 02, 2007 lisa_emily rated it liked it · review of another edition

It's hard to have friends. ...more

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Feb 19, 2007 Courtney rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, fiction

The novel centers on a deaf-mute man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in Georgia. The struggles of four of his primary acquaintances make up the majority of the narrative; they are Mick Kelly, a young girl, Jake Blount, a labor agitator, Biff Brannon, a restauranteur, and Dr. Benedict Copeland, an idealistic African-American doctor.

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Jun 26, 2007 Kecia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: oprah, times_100_best, big_read, usa

It was OK. It's a story of lonliness which is OK, but I wanted the characters to move or grow beyond their lonliness. They never did.

And where were Mick's parents??? Letting children roam the city streets, smoke, drink, and play with loaded guns!!! Obvously it was written in another day and age.
...more

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