The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter was written by Carson McCullers when she was only 22 or 23 years old. What a perceptive person she was at such a young age!

The central character has to be John Singer, although he is not a major player in the story. All the other characters revolve around him, however, and without him there would be no coherence in the story. John Singer is deaf, isolated by that fact and by the fact that his only friend--another deaf man--is taken away to an insane asylum. Singer is desperately lonely and while he had his friend, Antonapoulous, with him, he'd sign and sign and sign and tell everything in his soul. It didn't matter that his friend didn't respond in kind.

Once his friend is taken away, Singer can't stand the loneliness of his apartment and so he rents a room in a boardhouse run by the Kelly family. Not long after that, he has four frequent visitors who proceed to talk and talk and talk to him and it doesn't matter that he doesn't respond often. Ironic, eh?

The first visitor is Jake Blount, an alcoholic rabble rouser. Blount tries to stir up the emotions of the people, frequently ranting about their rights and the oppressive nature of the bosses and so on. No one listens to him and many times, people laugh at him. However, he believes Singer understands him and so he visits.

Another visitor is young Mick Kelly, a tomboy sort of girl with music in her head and a desire to compose. She wanders around the town at night, restless, looking for radios playing music she wants to hear.

There is Dr. Copeland, a bitter black physician who is disappointed in his children and in his people.

Finally, there's the owner of the diner/bar that Singer frequents, Biff Brannon, a timid sort of man.

Each person believes that Singer belongs to him or her, their "special" friend. One time when they all show up at the same time, Singer mistakenly believes that they'll all enjoy a good time. Instead, everyone is uncomfortable and Singer doesn't understand it. He's a very kind mind and so if he doesn't always understand what his guest is going on about he keeps it to himself.

Singer has his own secret--a yearning for his old friend. He disappears a couple of times to go and visit his friend and doesn't share where he's gone. He also keeps his hands shoved deeply in his pockets, hiding them. And then he learns that Antonapolous has died of an illness and it sets off a shocking act of violence that stuns the small group of visitors.

The book was made into a movie starring Alan Arkin. I remember going to see it with my parents and some friends of theirs. All the deaf adults hated it. They felt that Antonoupolous portrayed deaf people as fools and Arkin's Singer was the "perfect" deaf person. No deaf person could read lips so well, they declared. No hearing person would hang around the deaf.

In one way, I disagree with that. I think, in Singer, each ot those people found a captive audience...someone who would listen but not have a capability of questioning or criticizing. This was a really good book!