The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

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Carson McCullers

Literature

Jul 29, 2018

Published when its author was only twenty-three, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter still stands as one of the most acclaimed debuts in the history of American fiction. Set in the 1930s, in a southern town much like the one in which McCullers was raised, it revolves around the enigmatic figure of John Singer, a thirty-two-year-old deaf-mute who finds himself on his own after ten years of sharing a silent routine with his only friend and fellow mute, Spiros Antonapoulos. When Antonapoulos, after a stretch of increasingly erratic behavior, is committed to an asylum, Singer finds himself more isolated than ever, until he comes to board in the house of the Kelly family and becomes the confidant of four of the town’s loneliest souls: the café owner Biff Brannon, the heavy-drinking political radical Jake Blount, the black doctor Benedict Copeland, and the curious twelve-year-old girl with unattainable dreams of a musical future, Mick Kelly. These four uneasy characters, estranged from family, friends, and community by the remoteness of their longings, find consolation in the hushed politeness of Singer’s company.

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Jessica

Dec 12, 2024

classic

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Mar 5

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" hovers between "bitter irony and faith", as Biff Brannon will observe about the lives of the book's five protagonists. It probes the irremediable loneliness of the human heart, the comfort and futility of human connection, and the choice between defeat and courage we must all make at some time in our lives.

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