Carson McCullers debut novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was written in 1940 when she was only 23-years old. It was an immediate bestseller and routinely
ranks as one of the top 100 English-language novels of the century.
It is set-in small-town Georgia in the “recovery”
years after the Great Depression. It was explosively controversial when
published and remains so today because of the issues raised in the book: the
spread of communism, rising fascism in Europe, and income inequality and racism
in America.
The main character in the book is a deaf mute named John
Singer. He carries a card he presents to
people when he meets them explaining that he is deaf, but an expert lip reader, he will write out sentences when necessary.
It is to him that the other primary characters reveal themselves,
routinely telling him everything that is on their minds, believing he understands
and agrees with them because he rarely lets them know otherwise. They
are: a girl going through adolescence, he lives at the bordering house run by
her parents; the widowed owner of a café where much of the action takes place; a
labor-organizer/budding communist, who works as a carnival barker and is an alcoholic; and
an African American medical doctor.
Singer’s story is never clear even though his attachment to another deaf mute,
Spiros, who has been forcibly committed to a mental institution by an Uncle, plays a major role in the novel.
Many reviewers of the book have zeroed in on “love” as being
what motivates each of the characters. I don’t, at least not in the sense of a
lonely hearts club romance. Longing is a
factor, but it is not necessarily a physical love. Mick, the young girl, for instance longs for
an escape from the town, a career as a composer – she is devastated when she must
take a job at Woolworth's when she is just 16 to help her family. She realizes the decision will likely end her education,
end her ambitions.
“Mick frowned and rubbed her fist
hard across her forehead. That was the
way things were. It was like she was mad
all the time. Not how a kid gets mad
quick so that soon it is all over – but in another way. Only there was nothing to be mad at. Unless the store. But the store hadn’t asked her to take the
job. So there was nothing to be mad
at. It was like she was cheated. Only nobody had cheated her. So there, just the same she had that feeling. Cheated.”
The doctor, old and in poor health himself, encompasses the
longing in the book most clearly. He has
struggled and longed to see his family, and his people, rise up and prosper,
only to see them beat down by the South, and then beaten down further by their
acceptance of those circumstances. He oddly shares the political philosophy of
the labor organizer (and in fact even named one of his sons after Karl Marx). He puzzles over his friendship with Singer,
the only white man he feels understands him.
Near the end of the book, Singer will commit suicide. He does so when he learns that his friend who
was forcibly institutionalized has died. Spiros, a troubled young man on multiple fronts, as a fellow deaf mute,
was the only one who Singer thought knew him.
He was to Singer, what Singer was to the other characters in the
book. This comes strikingly clear
shortly after Singer learns of Spiros’ death.
He is passing a tavern/restaurant when he realizes there is a table of
three deaf men signing away inside, he stops and joins them briefly, though doesn't feel welcome. He departs to catch his train. Singer’s lonely
heart is the lack of a community that understands his reality.
Recommendation:
Yes, and no. This is not an easy
read, if you are looking for pleasure reading, this is not it. If you are looking for biting, often painful
social criticism, this is a masterpiece.
The 1968 movie of the novel is, in a word, awful.
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