Three Novels: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Others Stories, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and The Member of The Wedding

by Carson McCullers

Three Carson McCullers novels in one book.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, Southern

195 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Carson McCullers was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the Southern United States. Her other novels have similar themes. Most are set in the Deep South.
McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stage adaptation of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950–51.

Reviews

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite good, A Member of the Wedding was excellent and captured how serious and stupid and annoying everything in the world is when you are 12 years old.

[Melblue]

Only read the first story but such great writing. Amazing grasp on character, time, language etc. I was so swept in the circles it created. Excited to read the rest

[Margo Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". They are strange stories but offer insight into relationships, love, hero worship and so on. I think these books are worth a reread.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stories. The Member of the Wedding was my favourite.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is something of a masterpiece. Two of the remarkable aspects of this novella are that there is not an extraneous word in it and the syntax is perfect. In this sense alone it is a jewel. Then there is the story itself and the characters populating it. It is rather a simple tale, but a very remarkable simple tale. That being said, it possesses an enormous power for a short work. Once read, I find it impossible to forget. It lingers in the mind like a dream; not a nightmare, but a dream.

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" is a rather enigmatic tale. The story unfolds in layers, as each of the several principal characters gravitate around the central character of Mr. Singer; at the same time they are orbiting one another in a series of weird, strange and unsettling encounters, each except Singer emitting his or her own cry of the heart. It is those various cries and how they are communicated that are at the core of the novel. Since we are dealing here with communication and cries of the heart, the fact that the central character is a deaf mute is what elevates this novel to a special place.

"The Member of the Wedding" is a deeply moving story of the young girl Frankie attempting to understand...what? Herself, her home town, the world, the universe? Frankie and Berenice and John Henry West are unforgettable characters. This novel is one of the most beautifully written works I have read. The author's ability to desribe the changes in a day during the movement of it's hours, and the changes of the seasons and atmospheres in a small Soutern town is astonishing. Her descriptions of the impact of these changes as the characters move through them is technically brilliant and, emotionally moves at various times from humorous to frightening to heartbreaking. I loved this book.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read the heart is a lonely hunter (there wasn't a way to select just that novel for some reason.) Ugh, and I hated it. So repetitive, so sledgehammer with her character descriptions. It's not that the book was depressing, it's that I felt that the same phrases were being used over and over again and she didn't know what to do with her characters once they had been created, so she did nothing at all. Portrait of the american south, sure. But a long slog of a read.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I intended to read The Member of the Wedding when I picked this book up; but whether it was stress at work or my brain being stubborn, I did not get past part one. I did, however, read The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. I loved it; it was such a peculiar tale and so wonderfully told. Reading one out of many great short stories is not a huge feat, but it is a start and it was immensely gratifying. I will definitely revisit Carson McCullers at a later date.

[Dave Gourdoux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant meditations on loneliness and the tragic absurdity of love. Read them in the order I believe she wrote them (Heart first, Wedding second, Cafe third) and you'll see her themes develop and the loves become more and more absurd and even grotesque - it's a testimony to her genius that even in light of this the relationships remain moving and tragic.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The heart is a lonley hunter.....is probally one of my top ten!

[Jrejfek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories collection was fine. I think I really liked The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and The Member of the Wedding the most.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be fair, this just isn't my thing. I'm quite sure it's very well loved, just not by me.

[Pro]

5/10/2007