The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers, 1940 Date Read: 5/5/2022

The blurb on the back says it is a story of "moral isolation". I don't know what that means. MedicalDictionary.com says: A philosophical view based on the premise that one can understand only the ethics and values of one's own family, clan, culture, or society and not those of others. If this is an accurate definition, I don't think it is a valid description of this novel.

This novel is about people who, for various reasons, can't have what they most want. A young girl wants to be a musician, she thinks in music, it's her only desire - but her family is desperately poor. A deaf man wants his only friend returned to him - but he has died. Another man...I'm not entirely sure what he wants - but he doesn't get it. An elderly black doctor wants justice for his people - but he lives in the South, in the 1930s, and most of "his people" (as he calls them) are too busy trying to stay alive to worry about things like justice and freedom. And another man wants to bring Communism to the United States - but he lives in the South in the 1930s.

The whole novel is basically a bunch of people beating their heads against walls they can't get through.

The novel is very sad, as you'd imagine given what I've just said. It is very well written, and you feel like you're there with the characters throughout their struggles.

My husband and I both had covid while I was reading this one. We and my younger son were supposed to leave for Florida yesterday to see my baby niece and the rest of the family down there, but obviously, our trip had to be postponed. I kinda feel like I've been beating my head against walls like the characters in the novel. No matter how much you want something, you won't always get it.

Length: 356 pages

Rereadability: I found it very sad so probably not

Classic: I can honestly say I didn't enjoy reading this novel - suicide and racism aren't a lot of fun - but it is a classic in how accurately she represented human feelings.