john singer the heart is a lonely hunter

The bottoms were pink and near the left heel there was a tiny brown mole. The only thing about her that was clear in his mind was her feet-stumpy, very soft and white and with puffy little toes. “When he tried to remember her face there was a queer blankness in him. “Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.” (P.1, ch.3) On grief: “It was funny, too, how lonesome a person could be in a crowded house.” (P.1, ch.3) “She could be in the middle of a house full of people and still feel like she was locked up by herself.” (P.2, ch.5) This is something everyone can relate to. Her prose is also brilliant, so I’m going to share some quotes to let her speak for herself: The point I’d like to make is that the novel has a range of characters, each chapter focuses on a character’s perspective, and Carson McCullers shows an astonishing understanding of human nature and ability to inhabit very different characters-even more astonishing when she was only 23 when the book was published. John Singer eats every day at Biff’s restaurant and rents a room from the Kellys, where Portia work as a housekeeper Portia is Dr Copeland’s daughter Singer first sees Jack Blount at Biff’s restaurant and takes him in before Biff’s wife, Alice, kicks him out Mick takes care of her younger siblings Bubber and Ralph, and Bubber likes Baby Wilson, who is Biff’s niece (Alice’s sister Lucile’s daughter), and so on.

There are also many other characters, and they’re all interconnected. Each chapter focuses on the perspective of one character: Mick Kelly, a 13-year-old girl in boy’s shorts who loves classical music and dreams of writing music or making inventions Biff Brannon, a restaurant owner who has an unhappy marriage and takes an interest in Mick Jack Blount, an angry, bitter alcoholic who’s always raging against injustice and income inequality Dr Copeland, a frustrated black doctor who takes out his anger at the world on his own family and loses them as a consequence and John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute that everyone gravitates towards and sees as a wise, understanding confidante.

The novel is about people in a small town in Georgia in the 30s. Lately I’ve been reading The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

John singer the heart is a lonely hunter