Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, deceptively simple writing style, great themes.
Review: Like it did for another reviewer above, this book also recalled To Kill A Mockingbird for me. The deceptively simple writing style, the setting --the South in the '30s -- the involvement and viewpoint of a strong girl character (even more believable than Lee's Scout) and the sympathetic treatment of Blacks, all seem to have influenced Harper Lee. But who knows?The only thing lacking, for better or worse, is a sense of humor. However, it would have been a true challenge to inject humor into such an un-sentimental story. But because the story avoids sentiment, it occasionally takes on an air of a modern magazine feature article. Mockingbird, despite its similarities and overall serious intent, provides plenty of humor. I guess no comic relief is one of the qualities that distinguishes the Southern Gothic, but also it may be behind its short-lived influence. I regard this as McCullers' best, but there is also considerable power in The Member of the Wedding. As for the critics love for The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, I guess I missed the point and it's greatness. McCullers' writing is always so clean, but in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, she combines a great and unique story about universal and personal isolation in people rarely written about to make a true modern classic.
Rating: 
Summary: This book was powerful.
Review: I found "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" a very good book.I think a lot of people can relate to any of the characters in this book.Each person comes across one or more problems that I find a lot of people dealing with in every day life.I think this book would be good for people who are in similar situations.This books tells about what it's like for black people in a town of racist whites,what it's like for a deaf person to live in a world of silence,of a little girl's dream to play and write music.The book tells of many other things also.Most of all I recommend this to anyone who would like to read a great novel.
Rating: 
Summary: It is a slow book but it has a unique style of writing.
Review: I read "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" as a class assignment. At first I didn't like the book at all because it is relatively slow. Then, at the end, the whole book comes together. This ending made me sit back and think about the book and how each event leads to the conclusion. The book is slow but it has great detail. Another good quality that the book offers is its unique style of writing. I have never read a book like this one by Carson McCullers. Although I enjoyed the style of the book, overall I didn't like it. Not that it wasn't a good book, it just didn't suit my tastes. I like fast books, the ones which you cannot put down. This is the only reason that kept me from enjoying "The Heart is a Lonlely Hunter" to its fullest.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it.
Review: This book, which reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird even though the two are completely unrelated, was very good. It's about confused and lonely teenagers, a crazy deaf Greek, and lonely man, and how they meet and react with each other. Tres interessant!
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: Hi, I'm a scholar of Carson McCullers so obviously I reccommend this novel to anyone and everyone who appreciates good literature but does not have the time to read a long thomas wolfe novel, or the brainpower needed to get through a joyce text. And also, I'm always looking to talk to other Carson experts so email if you are. thank
Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking, insightful classic.
Review: It amazes me that Mc Cullers wrote this book at such a young age. Her characters speak of worlds and ideas that most people wouldn't dream of at 23. Her portrait of Mick, a troubled adolescent, is wonderful, touching on the myriad of stormy feelings that a 13 year old goes through. Her depiction of Singer leaves an open interpretation; he becomes what you want him to be. Each character is so alone, so unique, and so human. Her statement on the human condition -- ultimate lonliness -- is strong, yet doesn't leave you as much sad as thoughtful
Rating:
Summary: Oprah should have left this book alone
Review: This is not the kind of book that the average Oprah-watcher likes to read and understand. That's why so many complains. Oprah-readers like fast and shallow books, and she has disappointed them picking profound and complex novels -- like this one and Anna Karenina. I think it is great that this lady want people to read, but she must realize that most of her audience is not able to read complex novels -- let alone classics.
And regarding the 'comunism' in this novel... please, the 50s are over. It is really narrow mind of a person to say such a thing a of book in the XXI century. Whitch hunting is over!
Rating:
Summary: The Heart of the matter
Review: Not many writers are able to at his/her early twenties to have such a exquisite view of the world and complex subjects as Carson McCullers displays in her beautiful "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". Maybe the fact that she was a sort of precocious genius she wrote the book helped her to sharp her senses to create a world apart inhabited by ordinary people, just trying to live their ordinary lives.
Her condition of being young also influenced her in the novel. As most young people, she didn't have many life experiences yet; therefore much of her inspiration comes from her own life and the people she knew. Her father was a jeweler, like Mick's father. She also studied piano -- and this is one of Mick's dreams. Moreover, Mick's coming of age has a lot in common with Carson's. She started working on this book when she was at the university and her idea was to make a novel about five isolated people, in which the narrative's structure would be inspired by a fugue (a musical composition featuring several repeating themes).
In the first part, she introduces the characters, the settings and the main thematic, which deals with of "man's revolt against his own inner isolation and his urge to express himself as fully as possible". Her main man in this case is the deaf-mute John Singer. The second part is the failure of each character, due to his options (and lack of them) and free will. The third part shows the faith of each character, and what they made of their lives after they met Singer.
Unquestionably the main theme is the isolation and the alienation of the human being. Each character -- even the supporting ones -- tries to break out their condition. The isolation is the result of the combination of personal and environmental factors. In this process, Singer -- who has the most difficult to communicate -- plays a key role to help each of the four main characters to find their own voice. He represents the hope throughout the whole narrative.
Carson has a hand to deal with the lost dream. Everyone in this novel cannot fulfill his/her dreams. The girl Mick, for instance, is too smart for her family, for her town; therefore she has to suffocate her talents and become an ordinary person. But, in her mind, she can keep the flame of her dream of becoming a musician alive.
Carson deals beautiful with language and character development. From the beginning one can notice that this is a writers who dominates her tool -- and not the other way round. Every character has his/her own motivations and these people change throughout the narrative. Because of it, "The heart is a lonely hunter" is a complex slice of life. More than a book, this novel X-rays ordinary lives and expose them, bringing us a little bit of hope to diminish our own sadness.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" is simply a compilation of character sketches loosely strung together. If you are a student of literary characterization and the methods authors use to bring a character to life, you might enjoy this book. The charcters are indeed animated. However, if you are searching for a book that combines vivid characters with any sort of plot, this book is not for you. By the time I was half-way through the book I was seriously wondering when a coherant plot would develop. One never materialized. This book does not adhere to the standard beginning-middle-end, protagonist-antagonist-plot-resolution formula by which most novels abide.
As I was reading this book as a book club assignment, I trudged through to its completion. Now all I wish is that I could recapture the hours of life wasted on its pages.
Rating:
Summary: You won't forget it. Beautiful and engaging
Review: All of us have a variety of characters that we meet and encounter throughout our lives. Some of them odd, some of them funny, some of them dull, and I venture to say we have bumped into, on more than one occasion, those whom we might deem as a "social outcast." Never before had I read a novel that attempted to put into words what it might be like to be one of these lonely outcasts. Of course the characters in "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," are not viewed in a way we would think of most outcasts. They are viewed in the story with a sense of realism and awe that most novels can not generate. These characters and their lives and thoughts will become more and more real as the novel unfolds.
The novel is told in brilliant, almost poetic third person. Although I bet if down the road if someone were to ask you about this book, you would swear it was told in first person by each of the characters. The novel is essentially about a year in time of five very different, very vivid characters. The characters are all searching for something they can never seem to find. All of them are as different as night and day, but have so many things in common.
The story switches from one character to another with each passing section. We gain tremendous insight to their personal lives, oddities, and behavior in a writing style like no other. If I had to choose who the main character would be, it would have to be Mr. Singer. Mr. Singer is a mute. He can understand words that are spoken to him by the movements of others lips. The story opens beautifully, describing his friendship with another mute friend, Antropulous. The story describes the poignant feelings Mr. Singer has toward his friend. Soon into the story, Mr. Singer's friend is put a mental institution by his own brother. This turn of events wounds and scars the heart of Mr. Singer. Not soon after, Mr. Singer begins going to a café, which is owned by another one of the stories characters, Biff. Biff is very strange, and has become even stranger since the death of his wife. He has one redeeming quality, in that he takes good care of the customers who some into his café. One of these customers is Jake. Jake is another outcast. He is an alcoholic, with a mean streak in him. He rants and raves about how unequal the country is. Another character we encounter in the café is Mick. Mick might be the most fascinating character in the story. She is kind of a tomboy, who loves music, and exploring the streets at night. The final main character is Mr. Compton, a black doctor, who has hatred in his heart for white men.
McCullers does a superb job of bringing these characters all together. Mr. Singer finds a new place to stay after his best friend goes to the nut house. That new place is Mick's house. One by one, the main characters meet Mr. Singer and become magnetically drawn to them. They tell him of their frustration, their worries, and how they feel about life. Mr. Singer just smiles and listens because he can't speak. Occasionally, he will write down something on a piece of paper if he has something important to say.
Mr. Singer can't figure out why these people are drawn to him. The fascinating thing is that all the main characters know each other, yet none of them like anyone by Mr. Singer, who seems to be the thread holding all their lives together. Mick loves him more than her own father, Mr. Compton feels he is the only white man with any worth, Biff just finds him interesting, and Jake considers him the only one who understands. All along, Mr. Singer has loneliness in his own heart for his friend that has been sent away. Every so often he gets a chance to visit him, but it is not the same. These visits are some of the most breathtaking passages in the novel.
There is not time or room to explain all that happens in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I have just given some of the basics. There is so much more that happens, and so much more that I could say.
I don't know if I have ever enjoyed reading a novel as much as this one. The language was so alive, so fresh, so beautiful, and so heart wrenching. This book might have the most interesting characters I have ever read about. I can't get it out of my head. It is hard to put into words the reasons that make this book a masterpiece. One is that it evokes powerful emotions with you. McCullers is an absolute master at pointing out little observances, oddities, and other things in life that we might just forget about, or not take the time to notice. The book is filled with these precious little gems scattered throughout the masterful plot and style.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is also very entertaining. Yet it goes past the mediocrity of mindless entertainment, and takes us on a deep, emotional, and unsentimental journey through the lives of people that you will come to know so well. You will feel that if you met these characters in real life, you would know everything about them. McCullers puts in the time, and the reader is heavily rewarded. Even if the characters might not be extremely likable, but we care so much to find out what will happen next in their lives.
I loved this book. The story and mood has continued to linger on in my mind, compared to other books that fade so quickly. This story is more felt than read. I love it even more the way McCullers ends this book. The ending takes a turn no one could have expected, and makes the novel even more deep and thoughtful that it would have been otherwise. Why can't every book be this good? Why can't every book shake my soul to the core with such power as this one did? These questions, like many others posed by this masterpiece, are left unanswered.
Grade: A
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