Rating: 
Summary: One star too many....
Review: "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is one of the most over-rated stories I have ever come across. The opinions that had been expressed to me regarding this "work" had me expecting nothing short of the second coming. After reading it, I looked back at the cover of the book to make sure that I was reading the same story that these people had been talking about. I am an avid reader of classics, and this story was so bad that I will never read anything of McCuller's again. This is what happens when someone with no literary talent reads too much Shakespeare and thinks that they can write like him.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the deal?
Review: Another book hyped as a great masterpiece and I have to question "why"?McCullers' prose is nice, economical, and flows easily. The stories themselves struck me as rather unexceptional.
Rating: 
Summary: A Story to Capture Your Heart
Review: Carson McCullers has a fine collection of stories here. The main story about the Cafe' I found to be brilliant, very thought-provoking and somewhat enchanting. The characters are very unusual, but the author makes them believable and makes you become emotionally part of the story. The stories that followed in this collection are all very well written, but a few lacked substance and I found some of them to be dry and disappointing as a reader in comparison to the first one in the book. The final one in the collection was very creative and inspiring, however, and demonstrates the incredible power of this author. A worthwhile read if you are exploring the writing of great American authors. I enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: A Story to Capture Your Heart
Review: Carson McCullers has a fine collection of stories here. The main story about the Cafe' I found to be brilliant, very thought-provoking and somewhat enchanting. The characters are very unusual, but the author makes them believable and makes you become emotionally part of the story. The stories that followed in this collection are all very well written, but a few lacked substance and I found some of them to be dry and disappointing as a reader in comparison to the first one in the book. The final one in the collection was very creative and inspiring, however, and demonstrates the incredible power of this author. A worthwhile read if you are exploring the writing of great American authors. I enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly odd
Review: Carson Mccullers was a writer who had a confused, dramatic personal life, from a psychological as well as physical perspective. The feelings of alienation and suffering were prevalent in her life and had a direct influence on her writing. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is a direct reflection of her personal suffering.
The story could be categorized as simple and to a certain extent grotesque, centred around three main characters: Amelia Evans, her cousing Lymon, and ill-natured Marvin Macy, all of them eccentric individuals. The setting is a small town alienated in time and space. McCullers writings should be interpreted in an allegorical way. In this particular story she deals with her pessimistic outlook on the nature of love, which according to her is bound to bring tragedy (as much as her own love life was involved in failure).
The story abounds on symbolisms and metaphors. Many of her stories are set in the American South and she addresses, in a beautiful allegorical way, the reality of racial bias (in the case of "The Ballad of the Sad Café" she uses the song of the chain-gang men).
Despite this expressionistic stage, the reader cannot help feeling empathy for the characters and their drama, which is exactly what McCulleres is willing to achieve through her writings. Highly criticized as well as praised by her contemporaries, McCullers has been somehow forgotten. Many certainly have watched the film "The Heart is a lonely Hunter" but few remember her as the creator of such a beautiful and touching story.
Rating:
Summary: Ill-fated love
Review: Carson Mccullers was a writer who had a confused, dramatic personal life, from a psychological as well as physical perspective. The feelings of alienation and suffering were prevalent in her life and had a direct influence on her writing. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is a direct reflection of her personal suffering.
The story could be categorized as simple and to a certain extent grotesque, centred around three main characters: Amelia Evans, her cousing Lymon, and ill-natured Marvin Macy, all of them eccentric individuals. The setting is a small town alienated in time and space. McCullers writings should be interpreted in an allegorical way. In this particular story she deals with her pessimistic outlook on the nature of love, which according to her is bound to bring tragedy (as much as her own love life was involved in failure).
The story abounds on symbolisms and metaphors. Many of her stories are set in the American South and she addresses, in a beautiful allegorical way, the reality of racial bias (in the case of "The Ballad of the Sad Café" she uses the song of the chain-gang men).
Despite this expressionistic stage, the reader cannot help feeling empathy for the characters and their drama, which is exactly what McCulleres is willing to achieve through her writings. Highly criticized as well as praised by her contemporaries, McCullers has been somehow forgotten. Many certainly have watched the film "The Heart is a lonely Hunter" but few remember her as the creator of such a beautiful and touching story.
Rating:
Summary: was it a set up?
Review: Carson McCullers, Ballad of the Sad Cafe was an extremely amazing tail. I read this book for an english class and I came to the conclusion that this story was not about love, but deception. Look closely at the way Lymon grew so attached to Marvin so quickly, and how at the end of the fight Lymon ruined the action. All signs point toward a definte duo of trash when it comes to Lymon and Marvin. The biggest kicker of them all is the end of the story with the prison men on the side of the road.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating writing with a bewildering result.
Review: Found the writing to this short story very captivating and it kept me wanting to finish reading it; however, was a bit bewildered when the end was reached. Not quite sure what this story was meant to accomplish? Was disappointed that the author did not reveal certain unknowns to the reader in the end. Would be interested in knowing why this is such a popular story...am I missing something?
Rating:
Summary: mysteries of love and devotion expertly displayed.
Review: Human bondage. Why the hunchback? Why the cafe? How can something so hideous and soul-consuming lead the human heart into strange frontiers? The story is presented gorgeously. It's true appeal happens after you have finished. Your questions seem to reveal your own psyche and mysterious human devotions to those in your present and mostly those of past.
I recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: A Truly Great Book For All....
Review: I first got this book for a book review and since it was really short, I thought, hey, can you do any better then 71 pages? But once I started the book, I found that I couldn't put it down. There is one particular page that describes the feelings of a lover and the beloved, all I can say is that it hit me hard because the author showed me what I was doing to a certain person in particular. But in the end, the book was about love, and how we all want to love someone even if their not willing to love us back. A great book, I recommend it to anyone. =)
|
