Clock Without Hands

by Carson McCullers

Blurb:
In the heart of the American South, J.T. Malone discovers he is dying.

Suddenly it seems as thought the whole town is in decline. The aged Judge Clane dreams of ressurecting the Confederacy, while his grandson, Jester, is involuntarily drawn to Sherman, a volatile black orphan who feels the sharp sting of racial injustice, especially when he finds out he truth about his parentage.

Through the eyes of these individuals Carson McCullers explores the roots of racial prejudice, so strong in the fifties, and the dual morality of the town's leading whites - benevolent when imposing standards of virtual slavery, violent and bloodthirsty at the hint of equality or change. In this thoughtful and moving novel four men, young and old, have distinct feelings about death, love and justice, yet their past histories are inextricably bound together.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Southern Gothic, Novels, Southern, Literary Fiction, American

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 1961

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

[Cecily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1961, this story is set in a small town in southern USA. The overt story concerns race, justice and to some extent mortality, though there are plenty of other threads. However, it's the examination of the protagonists' views on race that are most interesting and, to some extent troubling, especially to the modern reader as the N word and variants are used quite often, albeit as a noun/statement, rather than necessarily as an insult.

It plays with one's sympathies very effectively. For instance, the old judge is a very traditional white southern patriarch. He is keen to retain segregation, yet strives to be generous to the black people who work for him. Is he bad, a product of his time, or both?

As with all her writing, this is distinctively McCullers, with a lovely, lyrical feel (she was a trained musician).

I expect there are some that would like such a book to be buried and forgotten, but I think the fact that it would be hard to write it now is all the more reason to keep and read it. McCullers' is clearly on the side of equality for the African-American community, but she makes it plain that it is not a straightforward issue of right and wrong or good and bad - and that message is at least as relevant now as it was when segregation was the norm.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly think after reading this, it’s confirmation that she's definitely one of the greatest prose writers I've ever read.

This work is slightly more abrupt, terse, and tense than the gentler "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter".

The interesting thing about this novel are that the main characters: A dying pharmacist, an aging judge, his grandson, and a racially mixed companion are all male.

Usually, Ms. McCullers puts a female character that balances out all the masculinity of the towns in which her novels are set. But this novel, set on the evening of Brown Vs Board of Education, is one of those haunting and abrupt books that will linger on after you finish it; and perhaps her most dark and violent work as well.

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

خانم کارسن مکالرز در کتاب ساعت بی عقربه ، با استادی و مهارت فضای یک شهر در جنوب آمریکا را به تصویر کشیده ، شهری که در آن همچنان نژادپرستی حضوری به شدت پررنگ دارد .
داستان با فردی به نام مالون شروع شده و با او هم به پایان می رسد ، خواننده از طریق مالون با شخصیت ها و محیط داستان آشنا می شود ، اما شخصیت اصلی داستان قاضی کلین و خانواده کوچک اوست ، رفتار قاضی ایست که در درازای داستان به شخصیتها شکل و هویت داده و داستان را پیش می برد . خود قاضی کلین شخصیت نفرت انگیز اما جالبی ایست ، او که به عنوان یک قاضی دست کم باید بی طرف باشد در عمل یک نژادپرست واقعی و عضوی از کوکلاکس کلان ها بوده و هست .او نماینده بخشی از جامعه آمریکا بوده که امروزه از آن به عنوان طبقه کارگر سفید پوست یاد می کنند ، مردمی محافظه کار ، عمدتا مذهبی ، نژاد پرست ، ضد مهاجرت و محدود کننده حقوق زنان که در انتخابات سال 2016 ، ترامپ را به قدرت رساندند .
نویسنده تمامی شخصیت های کتاب خود را متناقض خلق کرده ، قاضی کلین نژادپرست ، در تمامی داستان به فردی سیاه پوست کمک می کند ، اما مانع سرنوشت تلخ او نمی شود ، نوه او جستر در هویت جنسی خود سرگردان است و مالون هم همواره در اندیشه خطیرترین خطرها ، یعنی از دست دادن خویشتن است و آن قدر آهسته و بی صدا خویشتن خود را در طول زندگی از دست داده که هیچ گاه متوجه فقدان آن نشده .
نژادپرستی موضوع اصلی کتاب است و قاضی کلین نماینده و نماد آن ، او اگرچه شکسپیر را خوانده و می داند اما در باطن هیچ فرقی با اراذل دیگر شهر ندارد ، اوج یکسان بودن آنها را در جلسه سرنوشت ساز مرگ و زندگی کوکلاکس کلان ها می توان دید.
ساعت بی عقربه اگرچه موضوعی بسیار جدی دارد اما نویسنده با لحنی شوخ به آن نزدیک شده است ، از این رو پایان کتاب تلخی نژاد پرستی را به خواننده نشان می دهد ؛ تلخی که با خوش مزگی های قاضی و دیگر شخصیت های داستان از بین نمی رود .
کتاب ساعت بی عقربه در مقاسیه با آثار شاخصی همانند کشتن مرغ مینا و یا خدمتکار اگرچه یک اثرمتوسط ، نسبتا سطحی و نه چندان عمیق است اما خواندن آن و تلاش نویسنده برای بیان موضوعی بسیار مهم از زبان شخصیتهایی ساده ، لوده و البته ترامپ گونه ، کتاب را به اثری متفاوت و خواندنی تبدیل کرده است .

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

McCullers writes about about small town America with such authenticity and really captures people of a certain time and place that is hard to surpass, and this is no exception. Through racial prejudice, family secrets and redemption, the lives of four men bound by histories are interwoven to create a tender and poignant read. As the last of her novels it's arguably the most polished, and this is quite something considering she suffered two severe strokes along with other health problems. What I find striking is her ability to understand the inner workings of man, right down to the core, and it's such a shame that a talent like this was taken too soon. Hats off to you Carson.

[Sana · Rating 4 out of 5]

داستان در شهری کوچک در یکی از ایالتهای جنوبی آمریکا روی می‌دهد. از طرفی با زندگی دکتر داروساز و داروخانه داری همراه هستیم که کاملا ناگهانی متوجه می‌شود دچار یک بیماری لاعلاج است و از طرفی دیگر با زندگی یک قاضی پیر و نوه اش روبرو میشویم که بر سر موضوع برده داری که همچنان در ایالات جنوبی آمریکا منسوخ نشده، باهم اختلاف نظر دارند. بنظر میرسد نویسنده داستان مرگِ داروساز و تبعیضات اجتماعی حاصل از برده داری و رنگین پوست بودن را در یک سطح دنبال کرده و بهم مرتبط میکند...

این‌ سومین کتابیه،که از این نویسنده خوندم و تاحدودی داستان قشنگی داشت.
ساعت بی عقربه، درمورد نژاد پرستی،تبعیض و عدالت که نویسنده خیلی خوب به تصویر کشیده.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe I have rated McCullers' first 3 novels with 5 stars, but, unfortunately I can't get there with this one. It seemed disjointed and unrealistic, and I disliked each of the four main characters equally. They seemed more like caricatures than real people.

THE JUDGE: A gluttonous, bigoted man who lied to himself as to his worth, and at age 85, has come up with a plan for the federal government to make reparations to the South for the financial ruin brought about when slaves were freed.

JESTER: The judge's 17 year old grandson, who was naive and confused about his sexuality.

SHERMAN PEW: An 18 year old negro orphan with a completely unbelievable personality for the place and time, and a liar of some magnitude.

J.T. MALONE: A 40 year old druggist dying of leukemia, who goes to four different doctors trying to find a diagnosis different than death.

The title of this book is appropriate, however, as a clock without hands makes no sense, and neither did this book, for me. It is possible that I have missed something in my reading, but now I know why I never heard of this book before, even though I am a huge fan of McCullers and consider her other books Southern classics. She made some very good observations of racial aspects of the deep South of 1953, but it just never came together for me.

[Roya · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب، موضوع و داستان منسجمی نداره. انگار سوسپانسیونی از دو موضوع متفاوته که در هیچ‌جای کتاب به هم آمیخته نمیشن‌. حتی موازی با هم پیش نمی‌رن. کارسون مک‌کالرز سعی کرده چند موضوع مختلف رو در داستان بگنجونه اما به درستی بهشون نمی‌پردازه و سرسری رد میشه.
موضوع اصلی، نژادپرستی و تبعیضه. یک قاضی نژادپرست که از برده‌داری حمایت میکنه و دیگران رو به پیروی از عقایدش تشویق میکنه و تحمل شنیدن و پذیرش عقاید مخالف رو نداره.
در حالیکه کتاب با موضوع "مرگ" شروع و به پایان میرسه. داروسازی که متوجه میشه سرطان خون داره و نهایتا تا یک سال و نیم دیگه زنده خواهد موند و تازه چشمش به زندگی که گذرونده باز میشه و سعی میکنه به زندگیش ارزش بیشتری بده.
انگار "مرگ" مثل یک وصله به آستر کتِ "نژادپرستی" دوخته شده باشه. زیاد به چشم نمیاد ولی جداناپذیر و نامتجانسه. همین باعث میشه به درستی بهش پرداخته نشه و تبدیل به یه تیکه‌‌ی اضافه در داستان بشه.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The terror concerned some mysterious drama that was going on--although what the drama was about Malone did not know. The terror questioned what would happen in those months--how long?--that glared upon his numbered days. He was a man watching a clock without hands.”

Carson McCullers books are so special. This is my last of her major novels, and I’ve found all of them powerful, unique, and moving.

This one is lesser-known, which is a shame because I found it fascinating. It’s her last novel, and has a different feel. It’s about death--death and racism, which she makes into a very profound combination. It’s a troubling story, befitting of the subject matter.

J.T. Malone, a pharmacist, is diagnosed with a fatal disease. Judge Clane, a town leader and former KKK member, is in denial about his own declining health, and also, you might say, in denial about progress. Sherman Pew, a young mixed-race Black man, longs to know the identity of his parents, and to do something about the crimes against his fellow Black citizens. Meanwhile, the Judge’s grandson Jester is coming of age and forming his own beliefs while observing these four men’s struggles.

McCullers is just telling us a story about these very specific people and the very specific things that happen to them. But her brilliance is revealed in what the story leaves us with, which for me was an awareness of how precarious life is, and how important it is to listen and to hear all the different stories there are out there.

“For in that instant the seed of compassion, forced by sorrow, had begun to bloom.”

[Lawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clock Without Hands: Carson McCullers' Southern Requiem

Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers was chosen by members of On the Southern Literary Trail for November, 2017.

McCullers' final novel was published in 1961. It had been long anticipated. However, reviews were more kind than favorable. The praise lauded on the Wunderkind author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in 1942 did not appear.

But for the admirer of the works of McCullers, Clock Without Hands remains a vital read exploring a fierce and violent South. A South that is unforgiving and unrepentant. The novel is set during the tumultuous days of the Civil Rights Movement. The events are told through the eyes of four central characters.

What does it mean to live when our clock has no hands?

More to follow...

[Negar Afsharmanesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب رو خیلی خیلی دوست داشتم ، بعد یه مدت که کتاب های معمولی خوندم این کتاب شاید یه چیزی، دری رو جلو روتون باز میکنه. چقدر روز هاتون شبیه هم شده؟ چقدر وارد ملال شدین؟ این کتاب داستان مردی رو میگه که تقریبا هر روز به یک شکل زندگی میکرده و یهو یه اتفاقی براش میوفته که از اون نقطه امنش باید خارج بشه، اولش به شدت وحشت میکنه، فلسفه مرگ میاد جلو، بعد میفهمه که باید از اون نقطه امن خارج بشه تا بتونه چیز های جدید رو تجربه کنه.مفهموم مرگ و فلسفه مرگ توی این کتاب خیلی پر رنگ هست، مرگ همه شخصیت های داستان رو به هم مرتبط میکنه.

[Burak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merkezinde ölüm ve ırkçılık olan ama didaktik olmadan birçok konuya değinen, çok güzel yazılmış bir roman Kadransız Saat.

Hikaye 1950'lerde, Amerika'nın güneyindeki hayali Milan kasabasında geçiyor. Dört ana karakterimiz var: daha kitabın ilk cümlelerinde öleceğini öğrendiğimiz 40 yaşındaki eczacı Malone, vaktiyle Amerikan senatosunda yer almış ama artık 85'ine gelmiş Yargıç Clane, yargıcın 17 yaşındaki torunu Jester ve bir de Jester'la yaşıt olan siyahi Sherman. Hepsi de oldukça iyi yazılmış, tam olarak iyi ya da kötü diyemeyeceğimiz, en önemlisi de iç dünyaları bize çok iyi yansıtılan karakterler.

Kitabın temel meselesi ırkçılık olsa da bu zaten çok fazla okuyup izlediğimiz bir mesele olduğu için yazarın ölümle ilgili söyledikleri daha çok ilgimi çekti benim. Karakterlerden biri ölümcül bir hastalığa sahip, biri çok yaşlı, birinin -torun- babası intihar etmiş ve sonuncu ise ten renginden dolayı zaten ölüme çok yakın yaşamış hep. Bütün karakterlerin ölümle böyle içli dışlı olması ve bu konuda yaptıkları muhakemeleri okumak çok etkileyiciydi. Bir de McCullers'ın muhteşem bir kalemi olunca iyice keyif verdi okuması.

Kitabın ilginç bulduğum bir özelliği de bir kadın yazar tarafından yazılmış "erkekler" romanı olması. Bütün ana karakterler erkek, hatta düzenli olarak bahsedilen iki kadın karakter var galiba -Malone'un karısı ve Yargıcın hizmetçisi-. Bu iki karakter de güçlü kadınlar olarak görünse de kitabın ele aldığı meselelerle ilgili düşüncelerini çok fazla duyamamamız üzücü. Ancak bir kadın yazarın farklı yaşlarda erkek karakterleri bu kadar başarılı yazmış olması ise hayranlık uyandırıcı.

Ben Kadransız Saat'i çok, hatta umduğumdan daha fazla sevdim. Carson McCullers'ın kısa hayatında yazdığı son romanmış bu. Bitirince hemen ilk kitabı Yalnız Bir Avcıdır Yürek'i de aldım, kısa sürede okuyacağım tüm eserlerini.

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

به‌راستی چگونه می‌توان گفت مردگان مرده‌اند وقتی در قلب من راه می‌روند و قدم می‌زنند.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it is not unusual to find echoes of William Faulkner in the works of Carson McCullers, this 1961 novel calls him to mind the most vividly of any. Race is a constant lurker in both authors’ oeuvre, but it screams its way to the forefront in this, her last novel.

This social commentary is very difficult to read, not because it does not have flow or content or finesse, but because it addresses her subject so starkly that it feels as if you are almost being assaulted by it. The language often made me cringe, and none of the characters has any quality that could make them likable to the reader.

If you consider the timing of the novel, I am sure it was a courageous attempt to look the foibles of the South directly in the eye. McCullers seems to be holding a mirror up to the South and saying, this reflection is pretty damned ugly, but it is also pretty damned sad.

However, there are many levels on which this novel simply does not work, not the least of which is the unbroken feeling that you are standing outside the story just watching it from afar. It is a very emotional subject–Faulkner always makes me squirm and cry, McCullers just made me tense and left me cold. I could not muster sympathy for any of the characters, including the pharmacist, J. T. Malone, who has been handed a death sentence by his doctor when the story begins.

The wrestle with death is, however, a more gripping subject for me than her cliched handling of the Klu Klux Clan and the half-white Negro, Sherman Pew. Malone’s realization that death is a final act he will be compelled to face alone, and his attempts to come to terms with his own mortality, are sometimes quite poignant.

I could not help wondering how many of these feelings were Carson McCullers’ own reaction to her bad health and sure knowledge that she was on a downward slope toward her own demise. This was her last book, written in 1961, and although she did not die until 1967, she was never well during those six intervening years. She suffered during her lifetime from a chronic heart disease, and she had repeated strokes that weakened her and left her in extreme pain and robbed of dexterity.

I consider McCullers a great writer, but this is not a great book. Had it been all she left, I suspect we would not know her name. Thank goodness she left us The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding, novels of near perfection. Reading this completes my exploration of her works–I continue to believe she is one of the great writers of our time.

[Fionnuala]

While I was reading this, I kept thinking of Beckett's Malone Dies (Malone Meurt), written in 1951, ten years before this book. The main character here is also called Malone and he dies slowly while the rest of the story, some of which is a little absurd, happens around him. But dying itself is kind of absurd when you think about it. In any case, I was able to relate to Malone and his peripheral and long-drawn out dying because Malone, in spite of his condition, has memorable moments: dying had quickened his livingness!
As to the title, I wondered if it meant that when you know you have only a limited amount of time to live, as Malone does, you might prefer clocks without hands. I expect Carson McCullers must have thought more than most about dying having been ill all her life. She died a few years after she finished this novel which was her last.
…………………………………
In The Mortgaged Heart, a collection of McCullers' writings, I came across this poem called 'When we are lost' which mentions clocks:

When we are lost what image tells?
Nothing resembles nothing. Yet nothing
Is not blank. It is configured Hell:
Of noticed clocks on winter afternoons, malignant stars,
Demanding furniture. All unrelated
And with air between.

The terror. Is it of Space, of Time?
Or the joined trickery of both conceptions?
To the lost, transfixed among self-inflicted ruins,
All that is non-air (if this indeed is not deception)
Is agony immobilized. While Time,
The endless idiot, runs screaming across the world.

[Iona Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I thought the book was just about a pharmacist, Malone, dying of leukemia. He didn’t really understand or accept the diagnosis and kept consulting new doctors only to receive the same verdict.

Though the book is indeed about Malone and his situation, it also has an even deeper theme.

Carson lived in the Southern USA in the first half of the 20th Century and she was very aware of the disparity in the treatment and situation of blacks and whites and the injustice of this.

One of the main characters in the story is an elderly judge, or rather Judge, a former Congressman, who has an exceedingly high regard for himself and excessive sense of his own importance. His wife, Miss Missy, has recently died and his son, Johnny, is also dead: his grandson, Jester, lives with him.

The Judge takes on a black houseboy who acts as his “amanuensis” (he writes letters for the Judge); he is an orphan with remarkable blue eyes and is called Sherman Pew.

Sherman is intent on solving the mystery of his parentage; the Judge is involved in it and reveals that he is responsible for the boy being an orphan.

Jester has special feelings for Sherman, but doesn’t dare express them

The Judge believes that civilization was founded on slavery, which offends Sherman’s sensibilities.

The main theme of the book thus turns out to be the relationship between blacks and whites, and their inequality. Though the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution had guaranteed the blacks the right to vote, no black Sherman had known or heard tell of had ever voted. “Yes, the American Constitution itself was a fraud.”

Finally, the truth is revealed about the Judge, Johnny and Sherman. When Sherman betters his situation, matters escalate and a dramatic and tragic incident occurs.

I found the author’s prose magnificent, and the portrayal of both the Judge, Sherman, and Malone in his predicament very convincing and realistic. In fact, Carson brilliantly conveys the whole noxious atmosphere of this Southern town, noxious at least as regards interracial relations.

To my mind, this is one of the author’s best works.

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sorry to report that this novel is pretty much a complete disaster. It’s a study of four characters located in Milan, Georgia, at the point in the early 1950s when the civil rights movement was beginning to make itself felt in the American South. We have JT Malone, a pharmacist; Judge Clane, an 85 year old ex-congressman; Jester Clane, his 17 year old orphaned grandson; and Sherman Pew, an 18 year old black guy with blue eyes.
The whole thing is painful. I’m sure there is a great novel out there with the black struggle in the South as its setting, which I have yet to come across. Clock Without Hands is almost a What Not To Do guide for prospective authors.
Maybe it’s because I’m English and not from that period, but so many incidents and conversations grated. Either they were artificial, or just frankly incredible. The Judge is a racist old windbag, a glutton and a vulgar sentimentalist. A great wedge of this novel is him whinging and whining and pontificating and boring (always boring) on and on about whatever he feels like for a page or so, yakking one of the other three into the ground about plans to revive Confederate money or why his wife was the best of all wives or collard greens or why races should not be educated together – that kind of stuff. Another wedge is our author describing the Judge in all his smug horribleness. So this is just tedious and mildly distressing for the reader but nothing too tough. But then we get to Sherman Pew. He’s a black youth with BLUE EYES – this is mentioned about three times per page – and he comes across like an early version of the butler in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Was there ever such a hoity-toity young black guy from the South in the 1950s as Sherman Pew? I quote:

“The end tables are genuine antique as you can see.”

“I’m just telling you I hear every teeniest vibration in the whole diatonic scale from here.”

“I vibrate with every injustice that is done to my race.”

I would suggest that at the very least this character is unlikely and most of the time I was thinking he was frankly bloody ridiculous. The racist old Judge takes a great liking to Sherman and hires him as an “amanuensis” and sets him to reading Great Poetry and pouring gin and tonics and lunching on caviar. The judge loves him and they have these insane conversations, a lot of which read like maybe Carson thought she was being funny. The pompous old fart and the pompous young fart, how droll. And the old one is a racist but still loves the young one who’s black. Tres amusante. Or not. So I couldn’t believe in Sherman Pew for one tiny second, which kind of blew a hole in all the criss-crossing motivations and back-story and what-all. I couldn’t believe the old Judge would talk to him as if he was an educated equal, and I couldn’t believe the grandson Jester would do likewise and freely associate with him without apparently incurring any social consequences. It was like a make-believe world with jaggy bits of occasional race-hate violent reality thrown randomly around to confuse me.
As for the 4th character, JT Malone – he’s diagnosed with terminal leukemia on page two and spends the novel mooching around in a pit of black gloom, as well he might. He seems to belong to a completely different story. I suspect CM had bits of stories hanging about which she didn’t want to throw away and so stirred them into her novels in the hope they’d make a kind of sense.
Not much of a review, really, which in this case is only appropriate.

[Marisol · Rating 5 out of 5]

T.J. Malone es farmacéutico tiene 40 años, dirige su propio negocio, tiene esposa y dos hijos pequeños; un día cualquiera va al médico y recibe la peor de las noticias, esta muriendo y no hay nada que hacer sin siquiera sospecharlo, esta noticia lo deja más lleno de dudas que de certezas, se pone a repasar su vida, y se da cuenta que no está listo para morir, su esposa Martha; una mujercita sin chiste pero resuelta, ha hecho un negocio vendiendo tartas y hasta ha comprado acciones de Coca Cola, es decir no se quedará desamparada, y eso en lugar de aliviarlo le hace sentirse ofendido.

A la farmacia de Malone llega siempre el juez Fox Clane, una vieja eminencia en el pueblo sureño en el que habitan, aunque con estragos de una embolia que le dejó inutilizada una mano, el juez sigue manteniendo su prestigio así como sus ideas, vive en su casa con unos viejos criados y su nieto Jester, huérfano de padre y madre.

Una historia turbia envuelve la muerte del hijo del juez, una joven promesa de la abogacía, y conforme vamos leyendo se van descubriendo los secretos de esta familia.

El juez toma a su cuidado a un joven negro de ojos azules para que lo inyecte, le lea y le ayude a escribir cartas, llamado Sherman, este acude a la casa del juez diariamente y desprecia comer con los sirvientes negros y la comida regular, su mayor obsesión es conocer a su madre y saber por que lo abandonó en una iglesia cuando era un bebé.

Con todos estos ingredientes, Carson nos sirve un plato que va tomando temperatura conforme lo vamos degustando, ella que siempre uso rodeos, recursos para mostrarnos la otra cara del sur, en esta historia se vuelve frontal y nos confronta con los prejuicios raciales de frente y sin atenuantes, los personajes de ir matizando se van alineando en una u otra línea.

Todo se va polarizando a partir de la locura del juez, quien delira con ideas acerca de devolver el poder adquisitivo a los dólares confederados y devolver a los negros a sus respectivos dueños; aún cuando el juez es una persona amable y sensible, también podemos percibir su ceguera y su cerrazón hacia las personas de color.

Durante todo el libro habla de su cocinera como de un familiar, inclusive dice sentir aprecio por ella, pero se horroriza cuando ella le pide seguridad social y un aumento de sueldo y la corre, aún cuando lleva más de 20 años con el.

Al final nos queda una sensación de que las personas buenas con ideas erróneas e inflexibles, también pueden provocar mucho daño a su alrededor, y esto lo hace Carson de una manera casi sin esfuerzo, aún cuando este libro está un poco alejado de sus personajes marginados, sus escenarios melancólicos, sigue siendo un gran trabajo aunado al echo que lo escribió estando ya muy enferma.

Una historia sencilla, profunda, triste pero al mismo tiempo esperanzadora.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carson McCullers never fails to impress me. In this grim novel of the Southern Gothic tradition, she examines the growing race tensions at the cusp of the civil rights movement, inter-generational gaps and relations, and most importantly the theme of life vs. death. Sheer genius from the first line: "Death is always the same, but each man dies in his own way."

Another aspect of McCullers' writing that I admire is her flawless shifting of points of view between characters. Despite how flawed the characters may be, you cannot help but sympathize with their motives and views through the lenses of their own logic. Besides this, the prose and imagery are incredibly vivid.

I wholeheartedly recommend this one!

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If not more beautiful than The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, as good and even more brave. Gay miscegenation in the south, in the 40s? No wonder it took 10 years to be published. I'm surprised there wasn't more controversy.

[Creolecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Fahime Zarei · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب کند شروع شد و کمی اذیتم کرد تا بعد از رد شدن تقریبا یک سومش میخکوبم کنه و دیگه از دستم نیافته . داستان جذابی که نژادپرستی رقت انگیز
مردمان آمریکای جنوبی رو به زیباترین شکل ممکن نشان می‌داد و منو یاد نژادپرستی ایرانیان می‌انداخت. مردمی که هیچ چیز جز غروری دروغین ندارند. از طرفی تلاشهایی از نشان دادن تنهایی کوییرها و سردرگمی آنها در آن زمان در کتاب دیده می‌شد که خیلی باز نشد و شاید دست سانسورچی کتاب رو ناقص کرده
بود و شاید هم نویسنده فقط اشاراتی کرده بود و نخواسته بود روی موضوع متمرکز بشه. نویسنده با هنرمندی در داستانهای موازی و مرتبط به هم مهمترین
موضوعات زندگی انسان روبدون قضاوتی بررسی کرده بود بدون این که داستان صدمه ای ببینه. واقعا تجربه‌ی زیبایی بودن خوندن این کتاب.
ترجمه هم روان بود و اذیتم نکرد.

[Doug H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still mulling. Review to follow.

[Camie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small Southern town, 1950's, short story of 4 men: The old judge clinging to the past, his orphaned and confused grandson Jester, a flamboyant black servant Sherman, and the town pharmacist Malone who just found out his diagnosis of fatal leukemia has left him "a clock with no hands" or in other words a man who's counting down to the certain but unknown time of his death. Not my favorite
Mc Cullers but worthwhile reading that takes on a lot of tough subjects, especially for that period, racial injustice, sexuality, and last and not least mortality ...
Time stops for no man. 3.5 stars

[Ariela · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not about liking the characters, it's about being on intimate terms with them.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere between 3 - 3.5

Even though this is only my second McCullers book I already consider myself a fan; I just love her style of writing and the compassion she has for her characters. Having loved The Ballad of the Sad Café, I was more lukewarm about Clock Without Hands although I can't quite pinpoint why.

Published some 15 years after her preceding novel (The Member of the Wedding), the story is set in a small town in a southern state and follows four main characters: an 85 year old former judge who has taken umbrage for the financial hit taken after the freeing of slaves; his grandson, Jester, a young man trying to find his sexual identity; JT Malone, a local pharmacist who has been diagnosed with leukaemia aged 40 and refuses to accept his diagnosis, and Sherman, a black orphan who is befriended by the judge after he is said to have saved his life.

The story borders on being preposterous at times, and the pacing in the early stages felt a bit off. However there are moments of brilliance and I was reminded of how wonderful her writing is at a number of points when reading. Maybe one which is more suited for McCullers completists, but it certainly hasn't put me off checking out more of her earlier work.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughts soon.

[Puck · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Death is always the same, but each man dies in his own way."

39-year-old pharmacist J. T. Malone gets diagnosed with leukemia and learns he has only months to live. His friend, the aging Judge Clane, tries to make Malone have faith in his own health and the future; although Clane himself battles with his overweight and disabled body.
In denial of his health, the Judge focuses on his grandson Jester and his own plans to restore the South to its former glory. Jester has other ideals and is drawn to the Judge’s black assistant, the hot-headed Sherman Pew. Sherman is a foundling and is looking for information about his parents, and the Judge might be the key to finding that…

Wow, what an engrossing and rich novel: not as emotional as The Member of the Wedding or The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, but the reflections in this book on illness, race and justice are poignant and moving. When you take into account that the author herself heavily struggled with her own health, Clane and Malone's worries about their failing bodies read even more genuine.

It's also the old Judge that fascinated me the most. He’s a very traditional and bigoted patriarch, a former member of the KKK and firmly opposed desegregation. There have been tragedies in his life – he had a stroke, his wife is dead, his son committed suicide – but he wants to ignore that. Clane tells himself that his grandson loves him, that he’s a generous employer, that he commands great respect in the community.

But McCullers constantly lets us see behind the veil: Jester advocating for racial equality, Sherman brimming with fury as he assists, the Judge’s ‘respected’ mindset reaping dark and violent acts. Look at what happens when you ignore the change of time, the author whispers, look at happens when you stay in denial. It makes the final scene with Malone so liberating, a man who finally understands the clock without hands and accepts reality.

In light of these frail men, Sherman and Jester weren’t nearly as solid, but I have great admiration of McCullers’s (personal) last and final novel. 3,75 stars.

[Franky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see the "clock without hands" metaphor raging through, and see various characters and situations in allegorical terms and the symbolism present, but, to me, the whole novel just wasn't as solid as some of her other works. I thought it was a bit too overdone in many ways (the Judge stands out as an example). It seems at various points that McCullers is trying to underscore a particular theme of human struggle, but the methods by which she attempts to do this don’t work as well as many of her other works. At points, it almost seems like she is trying to hard to push the race, death, isolation and time elements and themes into our face.

I really enjoyed McCullers' short stories immensely, especially ones in The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, much better than this one. "Wunderkind" was quite a story, probably my favorite of the bunch, and to anyone who is reading McCullers for the first time, I would suggest this story or some of her other shorter works. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is also a very solid work from this author, and thought it handled the theme of isolation/death a bit better than she does in Clock Without Hands.

That being said, I see how McCullers tries to tie everything together in some ways in symbolic form at the end. It's much of the way characters and situations are presented that are ineffective.

McCullers has a strong sense of understanding and empathizing with the human condition, which she presents quite often in her writing, and this is also evident in Clock Without Hands. There is something that is very personal in much of her characters, who often struggle against some element of life. It just didn’t work as well here in her final novel, in my opinion.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a Southern town in the United States in the late 1950s. In her final novel, Carson McCullers directly addresses racism, white supremacy and the whole anti-federal govt and states rights thing. In truth, she had been addressing all of this all along, but never so directly.
A man learns he has leukemia and only 15 months to live. A clock without hands is his image for how that feels. McCullers was ill and near death herself when she wrote the book. She knew of what she wrote.
I have now read all her novels. I have loved them all.

[Arezoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

خط سیری داستان رو خیلی دوس داشتم. کتاب با آگاهی از بیماری مالون شروع میشه و با مرگ او هم به پایان می‌رسد. داستانی در جنوب آمریکا که تبعیض نژادی بیداد میکند. شخصیت دیگر داستان قاضی که وزن بیشتری هم به کتاب داده با اینکه از شرمن (نوه نامشروع خودش) خوشش میاد ولی نمی‌تواند تفاوت بین سفیدپوستان و رنگین‌پوستان رو قبول کند در پی احیای پول قدیمی این کشور هست و و و...