The Heart is a Lonely Hunter [Paperback] McCullers, Carson

Amazingly, Carson McCullers wrote THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER when she was only 23 years old--her first book. It was an immediate success and is widely considered to be her greatest novel. McCullers tells the story of young Mick Kelly, a 12-year-old girl growing up during the Great Depression. Mick is a gifted pianist--as was McCullers--who longs to escape her dreary Georgia town and find a career in music. In her alienation from her surroundings, she finds comfort in befriending a deaf-mute, John Singer, who lives in her family's boarding house. The ironically named Singer is devastated when his only real friend--another deaf-mute--goes mad and is institutionalized. As Mick and several other lonely townspeople tell Singer their troubles, they find in him a refuge from the pain of their isolation, never understanding that Singer himself is slowly giving in to the despair that will kill him. McCullers writes about these lost and melancholy people with deep compassion and a keen awareness of racial and class tensions, but also with appreciation for the universal human need to seek out beauty and decency wherever they can be found.