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Summary: captivating novel written by precocious 23 year old
Review: Carson McCullers' book tends to get mired in somewhat repetitive descriptions of desolation and solitude at times. She imbues each of the main characters with a sometimes overwhelming sadness, both from the perspective of their subjective thoughts and the impression made on the reader. That being said, this book was beautiful. In creating these sympathetic, marginalized characters, McCullers displays such a sensitivity for the pain that many people are made to suffer. There is no room for writing rife with gaiety or humor when one can depict with startling clarity the utter anguish endured by people who are attuned to grandiose concepts such as art and social justice. McCullers was fully aware of this. So when people denigrate this book for being "too depressing", I feel as though they've missed a powerful truth McCullers was trying to convey: that unbearable sadness is often times inextricably linked to great beauty.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Worth It
Review: The book asks many questions, answers few and just refuses to reach any kind of conclusion on anything.It's standing at #17 in the Modern Library Top 100 borders on the absurd
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Summary: What exactly is love?
Review: I think that you would be making a grave mistake if you were to read this novel without reading Carson McCuller's "Ballad of the Sad Cafe." For in the "Ballad of the Sad Cafe" she gives a concise defintion of what love is. She sets up the lover/beloved relationship. It is this relationship between lover and beloved that motivates all the characters in "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." Each Character feels another character "gets" him. That they understand. Mick treats the mute, Singer, as her own personal God. Biff secretly loves Mick. All of these relationships can not adequately be understood without reading "Ballad of the Sad Cafe." It might be that Carson McCullers didn't fully understand her view of love when she wrote this novel. She was, after all, only 23. But when you combine "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" with "Ballad" it creates an undeniably accurate portriat of what love really is. McCuller's tell us that love does not always fit within the framework of society. Love does not always come in traditional forms. Her view of love may be pessimistic. She may feel that love always ends in sorrow but, at least I feel, she gets to the essence of what love is. When you walk away from "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" what will most strike you are the characters. Most likely you will see yourself or people in your life portrayed in the novel. That is the novel's strength. The characters may be freaks but they are huantingly similar to yourself. Most criticism you will see levied agaisnt McCullers is that she ends with such a horrible view of the world. But, trust me, if you look hard enough you will find a more optimistic ending. It may take some digging but McCullers does end the "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", not happily but with some optimism. I would tell you how it is optimistic but then I would give away the ending.
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Summary: A Diary of False Hope
Review: Four principal characters pursue their dreams consumed with frustration that they can't achieve them. Mick Kelly is a 12-year-old musician who can't play anything but a radio. Biff Brannon is an impotent romantic. Jake Blount is a revolutionary who can't lead. Mady Copeland is a civil rights leader who can't convince his own people to follow him. All four of them find some comfort in sharing their dreams with John Singer, a deaf-mute, who befriends all of them between summer 1938 and summer 1939. They only imagine that Mr. Singer understands them, of course; although he's a good enough lip reader to pick up some of what they tell him, on the whole all he does is nod and smile. The depressing thought is that maybe that's as good as it gets - for any of us. Anyway, with his death (though not as a direct result), the dreams of his friends all collapse. People have complained that "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" fails to offer any solutions to the problems it portrays, but sometimes a book doesn't need to offer an answer. This work reminded me somewhat of "Grapes of Wrath" in that respect. The characters are beautifully detailed, their problems range from comical to desperate, but there are ultimately no solutions. Both books excel making their world very real, and the problems of the protagonists become your problems too. There are no answers here, as there are none in "Grapes of Wrath," but sometimes it's enough just to outline the problem clearly. And one can take some comfort in the fact that our world is much improved over the one McCullers depicts, so there is hope. On a side note, the modern reader is constantly surprised how little concern for safety they had in the 1930s. Giving the baby a hard candy to quiet him down - or giving him a "good shake." Letting a 7-year-old play with a rifle. Or letting a 12-year-old watch an infant unsupervised. Another surprise is that the injustice of Jim Crow figures so prominently in a pre-World War II book; I had assumed the Civil Rights movement dated from after the war.
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Summary: very real things
Review: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter embodies the many, very humane emotions everyone experiences. The broad title suggests that everyone searches but can find no truly fulfilling thing to live for in life. I think Carson McCullers realized the frivolity of life. I don't see how anyone that has nothing to live for save another person can go on, honestly. People die, and they are gone. They have let you down. God never changes. Man needs God and his existence is the only explanation for the innate sense of value that we all have above the animals.
Rating: 
Summary: feeble
Review: Well, we have a new contender for worst choice for the Modern Library Top 100 of the Century. This dismal book is the story of a flock of Southern losers and misfits in the 1930's. The characters lead uniformly desperate and joyless lives, depicted in a story unleavened by humor. It's the sort of book that contributes to the caricature of Southern authors as suicidal drunks. GRADE: D
Rating:
Summary: Fine wine
Review: This book is so lovely. McCullers has an incredibly unpretentious way of writing that never preens or demands attention, but the cumulative effect of this book is amazing. It is definitely a "Southern" book, and I read it before ever reading Faulkner, Capote, or O'Connor, so its blend of the grotesque and tragic had a tremendous effect on me. This effect might be lost on readers who are already steeped in the Southern style. A lot about the characters is suggested but never said, particularly the cafe owner's dubious sexuality, and this unstated quality adds real texture to the characters. In the hands of a contemporary writer, this story would have devolved into identity politics, but McCullers is a real writer, as interested in the individual heart as well as the social. She earns the added distinction as being the only white writer I've ever read who created complex, sympathetic but multi-dimensional black characters. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Pleasant Surprise!
Review: I only read this book because it was on a "Top 100" list a while back. Much to my surprise, it was one of the best books I have ever read. The characters were very identifiable and refreshing. The writing style was easy to read and non-pretentious. It was a great book on human understanding and emotion. I thoroughly recommend this book!
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Summary: Book judged by its cover
Review: The cover of the book would have been entirely blue except that the title of the book and the name of its author are printed upon it in black. The title of the book and the name of its author, printed in black, would have been entirely alone on the entirely blue book cover except that the picture printed upon the book's cover is in black and white. The black and white picture would have remained entirely frozen -- as frozen as the ice-cream cone reflected in the sky reflected in a blind girl's eyes' unrequited hunger for blue -- unrequited until the book melts into words that freeze in my heart, that freeze my heart, entirely alone except for freezing thoughts of the black and white picture unfreezing, the ice-cream cone unfreezing, the sky unreflecting the girl whose blind eyes no longer hunger for blue but now crave all colors, all scooped together into a cone, to lick or be licked -- in a a black and white picture on a blue book cover with the title and author's name printed upon it in black.
Rating:
Summary: A deep book
Review: The Heart is a lonely Hunter is a very different sort of book. I've read quite a few books, and never one quite like it. One person I know compared it to the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath because of the dark story line. The story is based upon the lives of 5 main characters, the majority of the story telling spent on the mute John Singer and the teenager Mick Kelly. Themes of alienation, isolation, intolerance, loneliness, and the fulfillment of dreams dominate the novel. The opposite of a superficial book, this story is about how people feel at their core and their dreams and aspirations. The writing is good, but just not very happy. The focus is more on how lonely each character feels and for what reasons. After reading it, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter forced me to think deeply. And I believe the title sums up what Carson McCullers was trying to say in her first novel.
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