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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780618526413
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0618526412
Label: Mariner
Manufacturer: Mariner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: April 21, 2004
Publisher: Mariner
Release Date: April 21, 2004
Studio: Mariner
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Editorial Review:
With the publication of her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, all of twenty-three, became a literary sensation. With its profound sense of moral isolation and its compassionate glimpses into its characters' inner lives, the novel is considered McCullers' finest work, an enduring masterpiece first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1940. At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book's heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully attuned to the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition, and with a deft sense for racial tensions in the South, McCullers spins a haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the forgotten, and the mistreated -- and, through Mick Kelly, gives voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty. Richard Wright praised Carson McCullers for her ability "to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness." She writes "with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming," said the NEW YORK TIMES. McCullers became an overnight literary sensation, but her novel has endured, just as timely and powerful today as when it was first published. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, endearing best.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - I've never been so glad to finish a book
It took me two months and forty-eight hours of nonstop raining to finish this "classic" set in the Deep South during the 1930s. Key characters in the novel are all struggling with embracing and understanding what makes them different from the status quo. These characters also spend a fair amount of time pondering the human condition during a time when race relations in America appear to mirror ethnic relations in Hitler's Germany. The novel is quite dense and for me probably one of the slowest ... Read More
Rating:  - A Favorite Over 45+ Years
I first read this book as a teenager and have read it again several times over the years. There is something so deeply revealing about the human condition in the book that it is as meaningful to me in my sixties and it was in my teens - I think that something is perhaps a window into the angst of the human condition. I have read all of Carson McCuller's works, including the ones out of print.
Rating:  - Shades of gray
This book deals with life in shades of gray, and my feelings about this book are also in shades of gray. Carson McCullers tackles issues that were prominent in the 1930's, including socialism, poverty, and racism. The writing is excellent, but I found this book dreary. Pretty much, it is about disappointment in life. If a positive message was tucked in, I couldn't glean it. It was hard to read - I would put it down and avoid picking it back up. The author did a good job of drawing her characters ... Read More
Rating: - Left me cold
Maybe I'm just not a fan of the Southern Gothic genre to which this novel belongs, but man oh man, did I not "get" this book. I found it horribly tortuous and plodding in its pace, and felt that it all ultimately amounted to nothing special or remarkable at all. I had to force myself to finish it, and was always loathe to pick it up. I never felt invested in the characters or engaged in any of their stories, and the whole thing just left me feeling hollow inside. At times I would find particular ... Read More
Rating: - Still a great read
This book was on many high school reading lists and I decided to re-read it 40 years after my first time. It's still a great read, evocative of an interesting period, like stepping backwards in time. The message on the other hand is timeless, reminding those who think we live in a difficult period that all times are challenging. Readers sensitive to racial stereotyping would do well to remember that, when this book was written inclusion of African-Americans in a novel, much less one who is a doctor, ... Read More
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