At its centre 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 (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully 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, gives voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.

RELEASE NOTES:

At BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire's crossing zone.

This is a book I remember being talked about when I was a child, but I have never read it. Thank you for the opportunity.

A remarkable book which deserves its reputation as a modern classic.

The pivotal character, the deaf-mute John Singer, remains an enigma, the recipient of confidences, without being able to express himself easily. The adolescent Mick Kelly, the aspirational negro Doctor Benedict Copeland and aggressive socialist/communist Jake Blount, all use Singer as a sounding post and each receives something different from him. One of the most telling episodes was when all visited Singer at the same time, and felt so uncomfortable that they left without being able to 'socialise' with each other.

The book was published in 1940. Both racial and political tensions of the period are clearly expressed.

RELEASE NOTES:

Caught at the meet-up.

This has been on my reading list for a while and so goes on the frontpage tbr!

I found this a book of two halves. The first half I really enjoyed - as the characters were introduced I fell in love with each of them and truly felt for their differing dreams, as extreme as many were. The themes of sexuality, racism, communism and the isolation of disabled people were lovingly handled and I was excited for the ways that they would come together in the second half. But this was my downfall, as I didn't feel they did. Instead, everyone stayed in their separate boxes until the seemingly 'tragic' end which didn't feel so much tragic as, well, a bit of a cop out.

I should imagine that when McCullers wrote this it was a vitally important social comment, and it really does stand up as a piece of social history. I learned a lot about American society during this time, but as a great piece of story-telling I'm not sure it's quite there. McCullers paints people so wonderfully that I was a little disappointed he didn't use the characters at his disposal in a more interesting way.