Wikipedia wrote:
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the debut 1940 novel by American author Carson McCullers. Written in Charlotte, North Carolina, in houses on Central Avenue and East Boulevard,[1][2] it is about a deaf man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia. It created a literary sensation on publication, enjoying a meteoric rise to the top of the bestseller lists in 1940 and was the first in a string of works by McCullers to give voice to the rejected, forgotten, mistreated and oppressed. The novel was chosen as a selection for Oprah's Book Club in 2004. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter seventeenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[3]
If you are trying to remember, the other book, I read earlier in the year, by Carson McCullers, was Member of the Wedding.
First I would like to say that Carson loves female characters with male sounding names. Carson's own first name is Lula. Yes, if I had been name Lula, I would go by Carson also. I think Carson is a great name.
The main character in Member of the Wedding is known by different names.
SparkNotes wrote: "In each of the three parts of the novella, she goes by three different names: first Frankie, then F. Jasmine, and then Frances."
To be honest, when reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, I kept waiting to find out what Mick's real name was and the book never said. (if you are curious, Mick's siblings are named Hazel, Bill, Etta, George and Ralph. Ironically, I have an uncle named Ralph who goes by Mick.)
The family's last name is Kelly. Her father is Wilber Kelly. I am not sure we ever hear her mom's first name.
So, with the assumption they are English/Irish, this is a list of possible Irish "M" names:
Mekenzie, Mackenze, Macenzie, McKinzie, Mackensi, Mackensie, Makenzie, Makensie, Mackenna, Mackynze, Mackinsey, Mackenzy, M'Kenzie, McKenzie, Mackenzi Mackenzia, Mackenzey, Mykenzie, Mackenzee
I would have guessed a nick name of MACK instead of MICK, but there you are. And maybe Mack is not short for a "M" name at all. If anyone has a better guess or has read an interview by Carson, please share.
Member of the Wedding , that I read previously, is a simple story (I think it is actually a novella) focused on the main Character Frankie.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter has a wide number of characters, with the story focusing on five. There are not so many characters as to make one feel like they have to keep a list. And the story moves between all of them with a steady pace.
"This book is planned according to a definite and balanced design. The form is contrapuntal throughout. Like a voice in a fugue each one of the main characters is an entirety in himself--but his personality takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters in the book."--Carson McCullers
I had seen a note somewhere that this was not a fairy tale kind of book, so I read it with my feelings girded, and my expectations accurate for the characters.
I am not sure I would go so far as to call The Heart is a Lonely Hunter a tragedy. As I read it was just more like the way things were in the Deep South in 1938-1939 if you were the wrong color, lived on the wrong side of the tracks, or had a disability.
SparkNotes said "Southern realism; coming-of-age novel". I would agree with that with an emphasis on REALISM (for the downtrodden).
The Irish side of my family were potato famine immigrants. The Swedish side of my family was sort of an indentured servant and a sailor. My parents both grew up poor. My mother's mother had a 6th grade education. It wasn't until my parents' generation that the kids consistently had a high school diploma and most went to college.
So, I didn't read this book as sad, even though sad things happen, I read it as just the way things were.
In audible format, this book was 11 cd's and 12.5 hours.
This was a very rich book.
I truly loved every word.
