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 (loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Brilliantly 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, to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the first novel by Carson McCullers, she rose to fame with it at the young age of twenty-three in 1940. It's considered a masterpiece, and her finest work. I didn't get it. Truthfully, I marked it as "did not finish" and went on to other books. I came back to it because of the reviews, thinking maybe the ending was spectacular.
The book depicts small town America in the 1930s. Noone has much money, nothing exciting goes on. Everyone has big dreams that don't come true and they end up bitter and disappointed. The story is dark and depressing, which may have been the author's intent, but it made the book very hard to read.
I give this book 2 Bookworms.
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