Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

 Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is the debut novel of Carson McCullers. Carson was only 23 years old when it was published. The story is set in a small town in Georgia during the depression. The story revolves around John Singer. John is a deaf man who works as an engraver at the jewelry store in town. He has a friend of Greek origin, Spiros, who is also deaf. Besides Spiros, John has no one who can understand his sign language. When Spiros has to leave town, John has no one to listen to him unless he writes his thoughts on paper. Yet people come to John and think he is a great and non-judgmental listener. Mick, one of my favorite characters, is a tom boy who lives at the boarding house with John. Surrounded by her parents and five siblings plus all the other boarders in her house, she is lonely and spends time with John Singer in his room or following him around town. Biff is the proprietor of the café when John has his meals. Biff is a great observer of the people in the town and is also drawn to John. Jake Blout is an alcoholic political agitator who shares all of his deepest thoughts with John. None of the people who are drawn to John know or seem to care what John thinks about. I think this was a great novel about regular people and I can see why it is considered to be one of the great American novels.