novels

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is one of the best novels I've read in a while. I loved the way Carson McCullers develops the characters in this book. Loneliness and racial injustice are two timeless themes in this novel that McCullers presents so well. McCullers was a white woman writing about how black people were mistreated and felt oppressed in 1940. She was an author truly ahead of her time in that way.

All the characters are so memorable in this book. Biff Brannon is a compassionate cafe owner. He helps anyone in need by giving them either food, money or a job. Brannon becomes a widower when his wife dies suddenly of a tumor. Mick Kelly is a lonely but intelligent 12 year old girl from a poor family with a passion for music. Doctor Copeland is a black physician. He becomes a crusader for racial justice when his son goes to jail. McCullers explains the basic principles of Karl Marx's economic theory in the novel by putting in a lecture by Copeland in the novel to show how society is divided between the rich and poor people. I knew nothing about Karl Marx's ideas, so I thought this part of the novel was very interesting. Another memorable character is John Singer. He is a man who does not have the ability to speak. However, he becomes the person all the characters eventually confide all their problems to. Singer communicates with his long time room mate and only deaf friend by using sign language. The relationship and love between these two deaf friends is one of the best things about this novel.

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is one of the best books Oprah has ever chosen for her book club. The themes of loneliness and racial injustice are timeless and universal. The characters are very memorable too. I loved reading this book.

It's a stunning book that I really thank Oprah for reminding us to revisit. Such books only come along every once in a great while. Carson McCullers captures a beauty in sadness that leaches your soul and won't let go, but at the same time injects in you a spiritual growth. Few authors can capture that. "East of Eden" was a similar book now considered a classic. But what of today's authors? "Middlesex"? "Lovely Bones?" Both good but not quite on that same level. "My Fractured Life" is probably the closest argument, and even that you have to question because it is so contemporary. Truly "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" is a book to be read - definitely for first timers and equally recommended for those revisiting. I don't deter you from reading today's authors. "My Fractured Life", "Secret Life of Bees", "Father Joe", "Middlesex"...there are so many wonderful writers today. BUT I think you will appreciate them even more if you academically injest a classic like "Lonely Hunter".

I was disturbed to read so many negative reviews of Carson McCullers' The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. This book is one of the finest works of literature in the American canon. Oprah's bookclub has lately been doing the admirable work of resurrecting old classics - McCullers WAS, in fact, quite the sensation among her contemporaries. I feel that Heart' is the book around which all of McCuller's other pieces orbit. I'll agree with a few other reviewers in saying that this is not an action book, it is not "funny train station" literature, and the impetus is psychological, and often quite intangible.

As a master's degree student in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, I love this book. As a high school student, I adored it. People picking up something for fluffy entertainment value should probably not read this book. People looking to experience a different kind of life, to read a beautifully written social commentary, to experience psychological empathy pertaining to the human condition...those people should read this book.

It's great writing. Don't bash it because it's not your type of reading material.

To drive my point into the ground, people who enjoy authors in the vein of Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams, Anne Tyler, Annie Proulx, Katherine Dunn, William Faulkner, Harper Lee, possibly Jeanette Winterson...these readers, and readers looking for great literature, should sample Carson McCullers.