Country: USA
Genre: Literary
Pages: 359
Order THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER here
She waited for Mister Singer to come out of the bathroom. Her cheeks were very hot and she felt them with her hands. Maybe it was true that she came up on these top steps sometimes so she could see Mister Singer while she was listening to Miss Brown's radio on the floor below. She wondered what kind of music he heard in his mind that his ears couldn't hear. Nobody knew. And what kind of things he would say if he could talk. Nobody knew that either.
People, I'm torn. Have you ever read a book that exposes your shortcomings as a reader? They're not overly complex or anything, but they require something out of you that you're not used giving and it requires it so much, you're down and out by the time the book is over. I don't deny the merits of THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER. Carson McCullers writes fantastic prose and has a tremendous sensibility that only a few writers that I know have shown, notably Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Haruki Murakami. But for the love of God, I can't figure out what she meant to say in her novel. First, I thought I knew, but time and length can play on your perception in a funny way. Was THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER a good idea that dragged way too long, or did I just missed the big picture? I enjoyed it, more than the usual prose I get to read, but what the hell is that about? There are both easy and hard answers to this question.
There are many protagonists in THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER and its story is ultimately of their lives, how they keep drifting closer and farther from each other, like the tide. There are two key characters. Mick Kelly, who is more or less the protagonist of the story and John Singer, an inscrutable deaf-mute man who's everybody's friend. There is also Biff Brannon, a quiet restaurant owner, Dr. Copeland, and John Blount who all suffer quietly in their lives and engage in mildly self-destructive behavior, each in their own way. I have no other way to describe this. There is no real plot, except for a twist that happens mid-way into the novel and changes the game quite a bit, but I won't spoil it for you. There is another twist right at the end that makes it pretty much worthwhile to read through, but in between those key scenes, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER moves at the speed of a cruise liner and will test your stamina.
It's a book about loneliness, duh. Everybody will get that part. Because Carson McCullers is so damn good at isolating these idiosyncratic thoughts and things we do when we feel alone. Both John Singer and Mick Kelly have several moments of this sad, quiet beauty McCullers specializes in. Her observational skills and tone carry the inherent weight of simple things, like Mick getting emotional when she listens to music or whenever characters bizarrely transfer their emotions on Singer, who just sits silent in several scenes. McCullers knows what he strengths are and keep playing on them throughout the novel. She keeps the tone observational, almost documentary and her description very simple, using a few well-chosen, filtered words to paint a scene. No doubt the bulk of her work has been put in this contemplative accuracy. Plot-wise, it reads like a series of small-town portraits, loosely tied by the presence of John Singer, who really is the hard nut to crack in this novel, but fortunately, he keeps being interesting, even throughout the driest, most insignificant chapters.
The fact that Antonopoulos could not read did not prevent Singer from writing to him. He had always known that his friend was unable to make out the meaning of words on paper, but as the months went by he began to imagine that perhaps he had been mistaken, that perhaps Antonopoulos only kept his knowledge of letters a secret from everyone. Also, it was possible there might be a deaf-mute at the asylum who could read his letters and then explain them to his friend.
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER got jarring at times, for me, because it is incredibly crowded. I read books in a earnest and visceral way and therefore I make a constant effort to relate to the protagonists, but when there are several protagonists supposed to have more or less equal importance, of course I'm going to play favorites and everybody not named Mick Kelly and John Singer were the official losers of the battle for my attention. Would have I taken a 350 pages of a story focusing only on Mick and John? Absolutely. But THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER shoots in so many direction all at once, it's difficult to keep up with. I didn't care about Biff Brannon at all and John Blount showed promises but his story is so secondary I lost interest past half point of the novel. Don't get me started about Dr. Copeland. I read the first chapter that involved him and ended up hovering over most of the rest, something I rarely do.
So was THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER a good novel? Absolutely and Carson McCullers was a talented, singular talent. Also, it's a novel that I think is bound to disappear, over a long enough period of time. Newer generations lose more and more touch with this world where everything didn't have to move fast. Hell, I remember the time before the internet and I had difficult time to keep up with the slow length at times. I would've been blown away if it were 200 pages long. Unfortunately, the crowded cast of the novel and their wandering paths did little for me, except jar me out of reading at times. It's unarguably a work of great worth, but you have to weed out some extra fluff. I thought McCullers made a very good portrait of loneliness in small-town people and yet committed overkill. Was there a bigger, metaphorical angle including the complete cast that I would have missed? It's possible and I have my hypotheses about this. But what do you think?
THREE STARS
20th Century Classic