CARSON MCCULLERS
How acquired: From another BookCrossing member.
First line: In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.
(Goodreads synopsis below.)
My thoughts: They say "write what you know", and from what I've read about Carson McCullers, she based this book on her own life and experiences. You may wonder how much life she had experienced at the tender age of twenty-three, but then that may be the best time to write a work filled with hardship and suffering, mixed in with hope, amid some gothic overtones. Isn't that the time in our lives when we are filled with angst? I reread some of the poetry and stories I wrote at that time in my life and laugh at how melodramatic they are. But McCullers had real writing skill and I never laughed at her writing. I absorbed it and at times marveled at it. I love a good character study and this was several rolled into one novel. Is it depressing? Yes. Does it end happily? That may be subjective, depending on your own point of view and how the characters, or which character or characters, connect with you. Or for my short answer, not necessarily. But it is beautifully written, and a great introduction to this author.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Carson McCullers’ prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine.
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