Book Review
Jan. 22nd, 2020 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers
This 1940 novel is set in a small southern town and centers around John Singer, a kind yet solitary deaf-mute man, and the four people who are drawn to him, each finding in him a s7ympathetic soundboard and source of fascination. Jake Blount is an angry drifter with radical political beliefs and a drinking problem. Biff Brannon is the quiet, generous owner of a the cafe where Singer takes his meals. Benedict Copeland is an African-American doctor worn down and frustrated by the struggles of living in the Jim Crow south and wanting better. Mick Kelly is a young girl growing up with dreams of becoming a musician but too poor to make those dreams come true. Each of these four people struggles against loneliness and different forms of subjugation, seeking the freedom to pursue their dreams and live in a better world.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is beautifully and insightfully written. It's more of a character study than a plot-driven book, but is extremely compelling. Each person is real and vibrant and sympathetic in a different way and their struggles are both painful and beautiful. Carson explores themes of oppression, poverty, struggle, loneliness, and the ways people both understand and misunderstand each other.
by Carson McCullers
This 1940 novel is set in a small southern town and centers around John Singer, a kind yet solitary deaf-mute man, and the four people who are drawn to him, each finding in him a s7ympathetic soundboard and source of fascination. Jake Blount is an angry drifter with radical political beliefs and a drinking problem. Biff Brannon is the quiet, generous owner of a the cafe where Singer takes his meals. Benedict Copeland is an African-American doctor worn down and frustrated by the struggles of living in the Jim Crow south and wanting better. Mick Kelly is a young girl growing up with dreams of becoming a musician but too poor to make those dreams come true. Each of these four people struggles against loneliness and different forms of subjugation, seeking the freedom to pursue their dreams and live in a better world.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is beautifully and insightfully written. It's more of a character study than a plot-driven book, but is extremely compelling. Each person is real and vibrant and sympathetic in a different way and their struggles are both painful and beautiful. Carson explores themes of oppression, poverty, struggle, loneliness, and the ways people both understand and misunderstand each other.
