The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers
This books was absolutely fantastic. I've read McCullers's The Member of the Wedding while staying at home in Vermont for a week. I loved the book. I was amazed with how gradual, subtle and endearing it was to like a character, to understand them. For a lesson in "show, don't tell," McCullers is the author to teach it. If I ever teach, these books will come first. It's amazing how well she can define a character, give them soul, without ever outright saying, "This is how it is." I was blown away.The book is set in the 30's in a small southern town separated by racial tensions and poverty. Each character in the book surrounds one main character, John Singer, a deaf-mute who never talks but everyone loves him because he listens. However, I think another major character who gives more insight to people is the little girl, Mick Kelly. I see her with roughed up knees, brilliant eyes, straight and straggly brown hair, thin as a rail, strong as a rock, not to mention very very smart.
There's nothing in the story that makes you wonder, "Who did it?" or "What will happen next?", but I was constantly tugged along by a thread of curiosity, just wondering about these people, what they were thinking, what their deal was. I finished the book on my plane ride home from Florida and I'd love to have the chance to teach it.
