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The Ballad of the Sad Café
Carson McCullers' extraordinary American Gothic tale of love and betrayal in the deep South tells the story of Miss Amelia, a very unconventional woman. A six-foot-two giantess, strong and self-reliant, she married Marvin Macy, the meanest and most handsome man in town, and then threw him out after ten days. Now she runs the local store alone, until Cousin Lymon, a strutting, hunchbacked dwarf, comes to town, steals her heart and transforms the store into a buzzing café. But when her rejected husband returns, a bizarre love triangle ensues and the battle of the sexes begins.
157 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
About the author
Carson McCullers
165 books2,898 followersFiction of American writer Carson Smith McCullers explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South; her novels include
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
(1940) and
The Member of the Wedding
(1946).
She from 1935 to 1937 divided her time, as her studies and health dictated, between Columbus and New York and in September 1937 married Reeves McCullers, an ex-soldier and aspiring writer. Reeves found some work at Charlotte, North Carolina, where they began their married life.
In Fayetteville, North Carolina, she at 23 years of age wrote The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in the southern gothic tradition. Editor of McCullers suggested the title, taken from "The Lonely Hunter," poem of Fiona MacLeod. Carson McCullers and many other persons, however, claim that she wrote in the style of southern realism, a genre that Russian realism inspired. People interpreted the novel as an anti-fascist book. Altogether, she published eight books.
People best know Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941). The novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1951) also depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love. Yaddo in Saratoga, New York, graduated her, an alumna.
People filmed The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in 1968 with Alan Arkin in the lead role.
John Huston directed Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. People shot some of the film in city of New York and on Long Island, where the Army permitted Huston to use an abandoned installation. People filmed many of the interiors and some of the exteriors in Italy. "I first met Carson McCullers during the war when I was visiting Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith in upstate New York," said Huston in An Open Book (1980).
"Carson lived nearby, and one day when Buzz and I were out for a walk she hailed us from her doorway. She was then in her early twenties, and had already suffered the first of a series of strokes. I remember her as a fragile thing with great shining eyes, and a tremor in her hand as she placed it in mine. It wasn't palsy, rather a quiver of animal timidity. But there was nothing timid or frail about the manner in which Carson McCullers faced life. And as her afflictions multiplied, she only grew stronger."
After lifelong health problems, including severe alcoholism, McCullers died of brain hemorrhage.
She from 1935 to 1937 divided her time, as her studies and health dictated, between Columbus and New York and in September 1937 married Reeves McCullers, an ex-soldier and aspiring writer. Reeves found some work at Charlotte, North Carolina, where they began their married life.
In Fayetteville, North Carolina, she at 23 years of age wrote The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in the southern gothic tradition. Editor of McCullers suggested the title, taken from "The Lonely Hunter," poem of Fiona MacLeod. Carson McCullers and many other persons, however, claim that she wrote in the style of southern realism, a genre that Russian realism inspired. People interpreted the novel as an anti-fascist book. Altogether, she published eight books.
People best know Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941). The novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1951) also depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love. Yaddo in Saratoga, New York, graduated her, an alumna.
People filmed The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in 1968 with Alan Arkin in the lead role.
John Huston directed Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. People shot some of the film in city of New York and on Long Island, where the Army permitted Huston to use an abandoned installation. People filmed many of the interiors and some of the exteriors in Italy. "I first met Carson McCullers during the war when I was visiting Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith in upstate New York," said Huston in An Open Book (1980).
"Carson lived nearby, and one day when Buzz and I were out for a walk she hailed us from her doorway. She was then in her early twenties, and had already suffered the first of a series of strokes. I remember her as a fragile thing with great shining eyes, and a tremor in her hand as she placed it in mine. It wasn't palsy, rather a quiver of animal timidity. But there was nothing timid or frail about the manner in which Carson McCullers faced life. And as her afflictions multiplied, she only grew stronger."
After lifelong health problems, including severe alcoholism, McCullers died of brain hemorrhage.
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November 24, 2022
5 melodic but tormenting stars, for the Ballad of Sad Café. A richly composed novella.
A cautionary tale and a compelling human story where loneliness and the search for love, brings about destruction, heartache, and betrayal in this compelling arrangement where the atmosphere once again plays to a symphony of emotions.
“First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons — but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and the beloved”,
.... and never is that more true than in this profoundly atmospheric and intensely observed story of three unique but unappealing characters, who are connected by love but also revenge.
First to the characters and the plot
Amelia, the main character in the book is a an awkward, tall, and socially inept woman. Nevertheless, a woman of means curtesy of her father who left her comfortable but also vulnerable to the immoral advances from unscrupulous men. However, a strong woman in her own right, she casts aside her 10 day marriage to the abusive and evil Macy, forcing him to fend for himself through a life of crime resulting in a 10 year prison sentence.
Casting a lonely and solitary figure, Amelia’s life begins to change in this slow burn story when cousin Lymon, a hunchback dwarf, arrives claiming to be a relative and in need of a place to live. In a bizarre twist the onlookers, believing Amelia to have murdered the new visitor, are invited in for moonshine and crackers when the dwarf appears alive and well and only too willing to entertain the townsfolk. Lymon is instrumental in breathing life into this tired and dreary town, acknowledging that
“…the town is lonesome, sad, and like a place that is far off and estranged from all other places in the world” and in need of a café – ‘Sad Café’.
However, matched by his high spirit are his lowly morals, and in an ugly incident backs Amelia’s former husband against her and once again Amelia’s heart is left broken.
Review and Comments
Dubbed one of the ‘little classics’ (by Penguin classics) this little gem is by no means an inferior relative to its more prominent cousins and relatives, particularly in its portrayals of the good and evil characters, the fragility of human nature in search for love and acceptance, its profound themes and in its vivid depiction of nature, culture and daily living in this rural southern town.
The intensely stilted but amorous atmosphere is a constant in the story resembling and suggestive of the mood of the people and its main characters and is always in tune with its themes. The soft and muted tones, reflective of the happy mood in the town, give way to the heat and looming storms indicative of the tension and anticipation of what is to happen.
I loved the lingering sense of doom, the gradual build, the stripped back nature of the writing and from any side stories so that the reader is compelled to just concentrate on the main act.
A brilliantly written book and a wonderful little story of consequence, exploitation, and immorality that is introspective, moody but unexpectedly touching.
5 stars based on this as a novella, which I feel had more substance than many books.
A cautionary tale and a compelling human story where loneliness and the search for love, brings about destruction, heartache, and betrayal in this compelling arrangement where the atmosphere once again plays to a symphony of emotions.
“First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons — but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and the beloved”,
.... and never is that more true than in this profoundly atmospheric and intensely observed story of three unique but unappealing characters, who are connected by love but also revenge.
First to the characters and the plot
Amelia, the main character in the book is a an awkward, tall, and socially inept woman. Nevertheless, a woman of means curtesy of her father who left her comfortable but also vulnerable to the immoral advances from unscrupulous men. However, a strong woman in her own right, she casts aside her 10 day marriage to the abusive and evil Macy, forcing him to fend for himself through a life of crime resulting in a 10 year prison sentence.
Casting a lonely and solitary figure, Amelia’s life begins to change in this slow burn story when cousin Lymon, a hunchback dwarf, arrives claiming to be a relative and in need of a place to live. In a bizarre twist the onlookers, believing Amelia to have murdered the new visitor, are invited in for moonshine and crackers when the dwarf appears alive and well and only too willing to entertain the townsfolk. Lymon is instrumental in breathing life into this tired and dreary town, acknowledging that
“…the town is lonesome, sad, and like a place that is far off and estranged from all other places in the world” and in need of a café – ‘Sad Café’.
However, matched by his high spirit are his lowly morals, and in an ugly incident backs Amelia’s former husband against her and once again Amelia’s heart is left broken.
Review and Comments
Dubbed one of the ‘little classics’ (by Penguin classics) this little gem is by no means an inferior relative to its more prominent cousins and relatives, particularly in its portrayals of the good and evil characters, the fragility of human nature in search for love and acceptance, its profound themes and in its vivid depiction of nature, culture and daily living in this rural southern town.
The intensely stilted but amorous atmosphere is a constant in the story resembling and suggestive of the mood of the people and its main characters and is always in tune with its themes. The soft and muted tones, reflective of the happy mood in the town, give way to the heat and looming storms indicative of the tension and anticipation of what is to happen.
I loved the lingering sense of doom, the gradual build, the stripped back nature of the writing and from any side stories so that the reader is compelled to just concentrate on the main act.
A brilliantly written book and a wonderful little story of consequence, exploitation, and immorality that is introspective, moody but unexpectedly touching.
5 stars based on this as a novella, which I feel had more substance than many books.
February 21, 2021
Una novela y su lector deberían bastar, no harían falta más explicaciones, y realmente no son necesarias en este relato lo suficientemente bueno como para deslumbrar por sí solo al lector cómplice. Pero este “tratado sobre los placeres y peligros de una pasión no correspondida”, como la define Rodrigo Fresán, se nos revela mucho más dramático cuando sabemos que la propia autora “llegó a yacer ante la puerta de la cabaña de la horrorizada escritora” Katherine Anne Porter, y que repetiría tal cosa en el apartamento de Djuna Barnes.
Todo el relato está plagado de hechos grotescos y hasta inexplicables (incluso infantiles*), algo muy propio del gótico sureño, para mostrarnos mediante la exageración lo poderosa e inexplicable que puede ser la magia del amor.
(*) En principio, me rechinó bastante el diálogo que mantienen Amelia y Marvin Macy, dos duros habitantes de un inhóspito territorio recreando ese infantil e irritante “rebota, rebota, que en tu culo explota”:
“Con mucha frecuencia, el amado no es más que un estímulo para el amor acumulado durante años en el corazón del amante… Las personas más inesperadas pueden ser un estímulo para el amor… El amado podrá ser un traidor, un imbécil o un degenerado; y el amante ve sus defectos como todo el mundo, pero su amor no se altera lo más mínimo por eso. La persona más mediocre puede ser objeto de un amor arrebatado, extravagante y bello como los lirios venenosos de las ciénagas. Un hombre bueno puede despertar una pasión violenta y baja, y en algún corazón puede nacer un cariño tierno y sencillo hacia un loco furioso. Es sólo el amante quien determina la valía y la cualidad de todo amor.”Personalmente soy incapaz de comprender cabalmente como es ser presa de un amor tan visceral e incondicional que no se vea afectado por los defectos del ser amado ni por el trato que de él recibimos por muy humillante que este sea. Pero tengo que rendirme a la evidencia, será verdad lo que nos dice la autora:
“Es preferible caer en manos de nuestro peor enemigo que enfrentarnos con el terror de vivir a solas.”El relato se plantea como si de una leyenda se tratara, algo que se remarca desde el mismo título, en el que se cuentan unos hechos ocurridos mucho tiempo atrás entre tres fascinantes protagonistas, un trío amoroso que marcó la vida de un pueblo y de sus habitantes, siempre predispuestos al rumor maldiciente y meros espectadores de tales hechos. El destino del pueblo se conoce desde el inicio y el infortunio viene precedido de una inusitada nevada a modo de aviso. A los tres personajes solo los conocemos por sus actos, excéntricos entre la mediocridad del resto de los habitantes de este melancólico, solitario y triste pueblo, olvidado de la mano de dios. Uno de los vértices del trío, Lymon, el desencadenante de la tragedia, es un recién llegado, por tanto sospechoso, y con tanto magnetismo como mala fe, enano y afectado por una llamativa chepa dominará a la mujer y será despreciado por el hombre. La mujer y el hombre, Amelia y Marvin Macy son sus nombres, no son menos deformes que él aunque en distinta forma, originarios del pueblo ambos ostentan un carácter fuerte, indómito, hasta salvaje e inmisericorde. Los tres caerán presa de un amor repentino, absoluto y no correspondido.
Todo el relato está plagado de hechos grotescos y hasta inexplicables (incluso infantiles*), algo muy propio del gótico sureño, para mostrarnos mediante la exageración lo poderosa e inexplicable que puede ser la magia del amor.
(*) En principio, me rechinó bastante el diálogo que mantienen Amelia y Marvin Macy, dos duros habitantes de un inhóspito territorio recreando ese infantil e irritante “rebota, rebota, que en tu culo explota”:
“—¡Todo lo que me grites te pasará a ti! ¡Jo, jo!Después pensé que entraba dentro de lo grotesco del relato y era una forma de hacer bien patente el infantilismo egoísta y ciego al que nos puede abocar la pasión y el odio por amor.
Y Miss Amelia se tenía que quedar allí desamparada, ya que nadie ha inventado nunca un remedio contra esta artimaña. No podía gritarle insultos que fueran a recaer luego sobre ella. La tenía cogida, no había nada que hacer.”
August 3, 2024
IL CUORE È UN CACCIATORE SOLITARIO
”The Ballad of the Sad Cafè” diretto da Simon Callow, 1991.
Per la serie “vite che per fortuna non sono la mia”, la biografia di Carson McCullers mi ha spinto ad annotare alcuni accadimenti che fanno della sua una vita curiosa, piena di contrattempi, di colpi bassi, di avventure e di malattie.
Per esempio, Carson McCullers si sposò a venti anni (1937) e nel 1945 lo fece di nuovo: la cosa che mi ha colpito è che anche il secondo matrimonio fu con James Reeves McCullers, del quale lei acquisì il cognome, anticipando di qualche decennio i fasti matrimoniali della scatenata coppia di star del cinema Burton-Taylor. Tra il primo e il secondo matrimonio, un divorzio durato cinque anni.
Vanessa Redgrave è Miss Amelia la proprietaria del Sad Cafè.
Ma le curiosità non sono finite: nel 1948 dopo un ictus che le paralizzò il lato destro del corpo, Carson McCullers tentò il suicidio. Cinque anni dopo, durante un viaggio in Francia, il marito le propose un doppio suicidio, lui e lei, non saprei in quale ordine oppure se in simultanea: lei rifiutò e lo mollò per tornare a casa. Poco dopo le giunse notizia che lui l’aveva fatto, si era suicidato in un albergo di Parigi: e lei allora si rifiutò di riavere il corpo, di pagare le spese funebri e di partecipare al funerale.
Sul versante salute, è da notare che peggiorò sempre più e trascorse gli ultimi cinque anni di vita in sedia a rotelle, alla fine incapace anche di scrivere: morì a cinquant’anni dopo 47 giorni di coma.
Cork Hubbert è il cugino di Miss Amelia.
Mi viene da notare anche la bellezza e la peculiarità dei suoi titoli: oltre questa raccolta di racconti, Ballata del caffè triste, segnerei anche il suo esordio, Il cuore è un cacciatore solitario, e almeno un terzo romanzo, Riflessi in un occhio d’oro. Tutti e tre portati sullo schermo (il terzo interpretato proprio da Elizabeth Taylor, in coppia con Marlon Brando, diretti da John Huston).
I suoi personaggi si distinguono per un’aria e una natura vagamente “freak”: la proprietaria del caffè triste, Amelia, è un donnone di un metro e novanta, avara e burbera, che s’innamora di un cugino nano e gobbo, il quale però le preferisce l’ex marito di Amelia, appena uscito dal locale penitenziario, uomo col quale la corazziera finisce in un corpo a corpo alquanto fisico.
Keith Carradine è l’ex marito ex galeotto che finisce col fare a botte con Miss Amelia.
In tono e tinte tipiche (nero gotico) della letteratura sudista (Stati Uniti del sud, Carson McCullers era nata in Georgia), questi racconti, cominciando da quello più lungo che intitola la raccolta (anche nell’edizione originale in lingua inglese) e occupa da solo metà del libro, il tema principale è l’amore e le sue difficoltà. E la scelta della signora McCuller si direbbe a favore dell’amare piuttosto che dell’essere amati.
Ma forse il vero tema è la solitudine: il Caffè Triste diventa il luogo di ritrovo e incontro di un’umanità marginale (operai e contadini).
Ma forse, anzi senz’altro, i due temi sono intrecciati: perché l’amore in queste pagine è un sentimento solitario, espressione di cuori “cacciatori solitari”, è un sentimento difficile da esprimere e comunicare, da gestire, più che unire, rende soli.
”The Ballad of the Sad Cafè” diretto da Simon Callow, 1991.
Per la serie “vite che per fortuna non sono la mia”, la biografia di Carson McCullers mi ha spinto ad annotare alcuni accadimenti che fanno della sua una vita curiosa, piena di contrattempi, di colpi bassi, di avventure e di malattie.
Per esempio, Carson McCullers si sposò a venti anni (1937) e nel 1945 lo fece di nuovo: la cosa che mi ha colpito è che anche il secondo matrimonio fu con James Reeves McCullers, del quale lei acquisì il cognome, anticipando di qualche decennio i fasti matrimoniali della scatenata coppia di star del cinema Burton-Taylor. Tra il primo e il secondo matrimonio, un divorzio durato cinque anni.
Vanessa Redgrave è Miss Amelia la proprietaria del Sad Cafè.
Ma le curiosità non sono finite: nel 1948 dopo un ictus che le paralizzò il lato destro del corpo, Carson McCullers tentò il suicidio. Cinque anni dopo, durante un viaggio in Francia, il marito le propose un doppio suicidio, lui e lei, non saprei in quale ordine oppure se in simultanea: lei rifiutò e lo mollò per tornare a casa. Poco dopo le giunse notizia che lui l’aveva fatto, si era suicidato in un albergo di Parigi: e lei allora si rifiutò di riavere il corpo, di pagare le spese funebri e di partecipare al funerale.
Sul versante salute, è da notare che peggiorò sempre più e trascorse gli ultimi cinque anni di vita in sedia a rotelle, alla fine incapace anche di scrivere: morì a cinquant’anni dopo 47 giorni di coma.
Cork Hubbert è il cugino di Miss Amelia.
Mi viene da notare anche la bellezza e la peculiarità dei suoi titoli: oltre questa raccolta di racconti, Ballata del caffè triste, segnerei anche il suo esordio, Il cuore è un cacciatore solitario, e almeno un terzo romanzo, Riflessi in un occhio d’oro. Tutti e tre portati sullo schermo (il terzo interpretato proprio da Elizabeth Taylor, in coppia con Marlon Brando, diretti da John Huston).
I suoi personaggi si distinguono per un’aria e una natura vagamente “freak”: la proprietaria del caffè triste, Amelia, è un donnone di un metro e novanta, avara e burbera, che s’innamora di un cugino nano e gobbo, il quale però le preferisce l’ex marito di Amelia, appena uscito dal locale penitenziario, uomo col quale la corazziera finisce in un corpo a corpo alquanto fisico.
Keith Carradine è l’ex marito ex galeotto che finisce col fare a botte con Miss Amelia.
In tono e tinte tipiche (nero gotico) della letteratura sudista (Stati Uniti del sud, Carson McCullers era nata in Georgia), questi racconti, cominciando da quello più lungo che intitola la raccolta (anche nell’edizione originale in lingua inglese) e occupa da solo metà del libro, il tema principale è l’amore e le sue difficoltà. E la scelta della signora McCuller si direbbe a favore dell’amare piuttosto che dell’essere amati.
Ma forse il vero tema è la solitudine: il Caffè Triste diventa il luogo di ritrovo e incontro di un’umanità marginale (operai e contadini).
Ma forse, anzi senz’altro, i due temi sono intrecciati: perché l’amore in queste pagine è un sentimento solitario, espressione di cuori “cacciatori solitari”, è un sentimento difficile da esprimere e comunicare, da gestire, più che unire, rende soli.
April 4, 2021
Aunque el mejor cuento de esta colección, con gran diferencia, es el que da título al volumen, y del que ya escribí
aquí
, el resto de relatos no lo desmerecen.
Todos ellos tratan sobre algunos de sus fantasmas, el fracaso que acaba con las esperanzas y los muchos sacrificios en «Wunderkind», curiosamente su primer éxito; el contraste grotesco entre el físico y el alma de las personas en «El jockey»; la bebida y sus estragos en «Dilema doméstico»; la fragilidad en «Madame Zilensky»; la melancolía por el pasado que no pudo ser en «El transeúnte»; y, claro está, no podía faltar el más importante, el que plasma en «Un árbol, una roca, una nube», el amor con mayúsculas, el amor como enfermedad...
Todos ellos tratan sobre algunos de sus fantasmas, el fracaso que acaba con las esperanzas y los muchos sacrificios en «Wunderkind», curiosamente su primer éxito; el contraste grotesco entre el físico y el alma de las personas en «El jockey»; la bebida y sus estragos en «Dilema doméstico»; la fragilidad en «Madame Zilensky»; la melancolía por el pasado que no pudo ser en «El transeúnte»; y, claro está, no podía faltar el más importante, el que plasma en «Un árbol, una roca, una nube», el amor con mayúsculas, el amor como enfermedad...
“Sólo amándolo todo se puede sobrevivir a haber amado a alguien.”... y como salvación.
“Y esta mujer era para mi alma algo así como una cinta que los ataba. Hacía pasar por ella esos poquitos de mí mismo y salía completo.”No se los pierdan.
January 7, 2017
أول قراءات هذا العام (2017)
هل هي قاعدة؟ أعني أن تكون امرأة ما قويةً مكتفية بذاتها ومستغنية عن الملأ، لا يهمها من هذا العالم سوى مساحتها الصغيرة وتفاصيل يومها الأصغر، ثم تحين لحظة غير متوقعة فينهار هذا العالم كله، الذي لم يكن في حقيقته سوى قناعٍ هش، قشرة رقيقة كانت تخفي خلفها تجويفًا عميقًا، مثل دمية البورسلين-كنت أملك واحدة وصلتني هدية من إيران انكسرت ساقها أثناء رحلة وصولها إليّ فاستخدمت الساق حاملًا للأقلام- تذكرني هذه الرواية برواية معلمة البيانو لألفريدة يلينيك، بكل العالم الساكن للبطلة الذي يغيره دخول الرجل ويهزه، لكنه لا يكتفي بذلك بل يحطمه بفجاجة، تاركًا لها الحطام تكنسه بانكسار وتحاول محو آثار الخذلان المحفورة على جبينها بعمق! أنا على الأقل انتفعت بتلك الساق ووجدت أقلامي حذاء مناسبًا لها، أعني أنها لم تكن حطامًا!
لم تكن الخيبة الكثيفة للآنسة أميليا من النوع الذي يبرأ بس��ولة، ما زالت ملامحها المخذولة ترافقني، وأظنها ستفعل لوقت طويل.
الترجمة بديعة جدًا.
هل هي قاعدة؟ أعني أن تكون امرأة ما قويةً مكتفية بذاتها ومستغنية عن الملأ، لا يهمها من هذا العالم سوى مساحتها الصغيرة وتفاصيل يومها الأصغر، ثم تحين لحظة غير متوقعة فينهار هذا العالم كله، الذي لم يكن في حقيقته سوى قناعٍ هش، قشرة رقيقة كانت تخفي خلفها تجويفًا عميقًا، مثل دمية البورسلين-كنت أملك واحدة وصلتني هدية من إيران انكسرت ساقها أثناء رحلة وصولها إليّ فاستخدمت الساق حاملًا للأقلام- تذكرني هذه الرواية برواية معلمة البيانو لألفريدة يلينيك، بكل العالم الساكن للبطلة الذي يغيره دخول الرجل ويهزه، لكنه لا يكتفي بذلك بل يحطمه بفجاجة، تاركًا لها الحطام تكنسه بانكسار وتحاول محو آثار الخذلان المحفورة على جبينها بعمق! أنا على الأقل انتفعت بتلك الساق ووجدت أقلامي حذاء مناسبًا لها، أعني أنها لم تكن حطامًا!
لم تكن الخيبة الكثيفة للآنسة أميليا من النوع الذي يبرأ بس��ولة، ما زالت ملامحها المخذولة ترافقني، وأظنها ستفعل لوقت طويل.
الترجمة بديعة جدًا.
September 28, 2018
The short stories are very woodcut-like, the plot is too simple and overall the whole story is too parabolic. Maybe this novella is a classic book, but it´s one of those, which you are excited about to read and in the end you are relieved to put it away. I expected a great plot but I waited unavailingly, because the storyline didn´t had any ups and downs and consequently was there no tension at all. If I skipped some pages by mistake, it wouldn´t have mattered, because I wouldn´t have missed anything at all.
November 12, 2015
“The Ballad of the Sad Café”, title of the story that gives name to this collection, includes seven short, in some cases, almost minimalistic tales. Each one of them enhances a different aspect of thematic lines recurrent in McCullers’ works: the isolation and the loneliness juxtaposed to selfless love in implausible triangular relationships.
What distinguishes these stories from others is the musical quality so idiosyncratic of McCullers’ voice along with the silent incursion of her evenly paced words into the minds of her figurative, and often outlandish, characters. The inner lives of these protagonists shape the dismal world they inhabit, breathing life into a reality that seems more feasible than if obtained from direct, plain observation or detailed description. And so the line separating fiction from reality softens, the vision becomes illumination, and maybe through exaggeration, maybe through the projection of a profoundly poetic prose, McCullers creates a universe built on ambiguity where melancholy abounds and an impending sense of loss intoxicates the senses of the reader.
Following the tune of an unhurried narrative; characters are introduced, stripped naked, given distinctive traits that stir the lethargic child still hidden inside us who eagerly awaits to be swept off his feet by the end of a fantastic tale. But McCullers’ ballads turn out to be composed for an adult public, for there is nothing tender or childish in the succession of desperate voices that sing to the stigmatized, the rejected, the abandoned who feed off their past failures and unrequited love.
And so the sound of picks falling on stone marks the rhythm that unfolds the story of Miss Amelia, the androgynous owner of the Café that is built upon her irrational devotion to her cousin Lymon, a destitute hunchback whose eyes bask on Marvin Macy’s handsome features.
Beethoven’s Sonata No. 12 marks the end of Bienchen’s future as a child prodigy with the piano in Wunderkind while Bach’s prelude and fugue plays as a redeeming melody that allows The Sojourner to make peace with a lost love that still burns his soul in silence.
The tapping of raindrops on a forgotten streetcar café sets the pace for the story of a vagrant who has taught himself to love A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud with utter selflessness, a “science” that might alter the course of the life of a newspaper delivery boy for good.
The micro-cosmos of the solitary singer expands and soaks the mood of the casual bystander, who can’t help but remain glued to the desolate voices that interweave in a fugue of mismatched glances that search each other in vain. McCullers’ characters sing in an adult world erected on cheated innocence, a lot of whisky and barren lands where loneliness is the only thing left after the music stopped playing.
Isn’t it incredible, though, that ”the music, catalyst for this tumultuous anarchy, was so serene and clear” and soothed a discomfited reader in spite of the desolate landscape? Not when McCullers is playing.
What distinguishes these stories from others is the musical quality so idiosyncratic of McCullers’ voice along with the silent incursion of her evenly paced words into the minds of her figurative, and often outlandish, characters. The inner lives of these protagonists shape the dismal world they inhabit, breathing life into a reality that seems more feasible than if obtained from direct, plain observation or detailed description. And so the line separating fiction from reality softens, the vision becomes illumination, and maybe through exaggeration, maybe through the projection of a profoundly poetic prose, McCullers creates a universe built on ambiguity where melancholy abounds and an impending sense of loss intoxicates the senses of the reader.
Following the tune of an unhurried narrative; characters are introduced, stripped naked, given distinctive traits that stir the lethargic child still hidden inside us who eagerly awaits to be swept off his feet by the end of a fantastic tale. But McCullers’ ballads turn out to be composed for an adult public, for there is nothing tender or childish in the succession of desperate voices that sing to the stigmatized, the rejected, the abandoned who feed off their past failures and unrequited love.
And so the sound of picks falling on stone marks the rhythm that unfolds the story of Miss Amelia, the androgynous owner of the Café that is built upon her irrational devotion to her cousin Lymon, a destitute hunchback whose eyes bask on Marvin Macy’s handsome features.
Beethoven’s Sonata No. 12 marks the end of Bienchen’s future as a child prodigy with the piano in Wunderkind while Bach’s prelude and fugue plays as a redeeming melody that allows The Sojourner to make peace with a lost love that still burns his soul in silence.
The tapping of raindrops on a forgotten streetcar café sets the pace for the story of a vagrant who has taught himself to love A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud with utter selflessness, a “science” that might alter the course of the life of a newspaper delivery boy for good.
The micro-cosmos of the solitary singer expands and soaks the mood of the casual bystander, who can’t help but remain glued to the desolate voices that interweave in a fugue of mismatched glances that search each other in vain. McCullers’ characters sing in an adult world erected on cheated innocence, a lot of whisky and barren lands where loneliness is the only thing left after the music stopped playing.
Isn’t it incredible, though, that ”the music, catalyst for this tumultuous anarchy, was so serene and clear” and soothed a discomfited reader in spite of the desolate landscape? Not when McCullers is playing.
August 11, 2024
سحر الوصف ودقته ...غموض الشخصيات وغرابتها ... نظامية العمل ومهارته لأعوام وأعوام ينهار مع أول ردة فعل انتقامية ، تفاني إمرأة في تسخير وقتها وجهدها لتطوير حانتها ومصنعها تجابهه فوضى سقطت عليهم من السماء ، تماما كالنيازك ، هكذا من دون مقدمات ، هذه الفوضى كان بطلها شخص أحدب عرف نفسه لسيدة الحانة على أنه ابن خالتها ....
سبق هذا الحدث زواج هذه السيدة من أحد الأشقياء المتسكعين الذين كانت تمتلئ بهم حانات أميركا وسجونها ، بيد أن حظ السيدة سرعان ما أفاق وتسبب في ابتعادها عن هذا الشقي , وحينما عاد مرة أخرى إليها وجد ذلك الأحدب ممسكا بزمام الأمور ، لكن المفاجأة لم تتمثل بعودة زوجها السابق بل تمثلت في أن الأحدب سرعان ما ترك ابنة خالته وذهب مع ذلك الشقي - زوجها السابق -بعد أن فتن به وبقوته فكانت النهاية مصارعة جمعت ابنة خالته مع زوجها السابق ، مصارعة استنفذت آخر قواهم
مصارعة خرت على اثرها ابنة خالته سيدة الحانة والقرية معا بعد أن خسرت كل شئ .. حياتها .. نجاحها .. عنفوانها وجبروتها وكرامتها والأهم من ذلك كله أحدبها الذي اعتنت به كعناية الأم لابنها . الرواية بشكل عام جيدة وأكثر شئ جذبني إليها هو ... سحر الوصف ودقته .
سبق هذا الحدث زواج هذه السيدة من أحد الأشقياء المتسكعين الذين كانت تمتلئ بهم حانات أميركا وسجونها ، بيد أن حظ السيدة سرعان ما أفاق وتسبب في ابتعادها عن هذا الشقي , وحينما عاد مرة أخرى إليها وجد ذلك الأحدب ممسكا بزمام الأمور ، لكن المفاجأة لم تتمثل بعودة زوجها السابق بل تمثلت في أن الأحدب سرعان ما ترك ابنة خالته وذهب مع ذلك الشقي - زوجها السابق -بعد أن فتن به وبقوته فكانت النهاية مصارعة جمعت ابنة خالته مع زوجها السابق ، مصارعة استنفذت آخر قواهم
مصارعة خرت على اثرها ابنة خالته سيدة الحانة والقرية معا بعد أن خسرت كل شئ .. حياتها .. نجاحها .. عنفوانها وجبروتها وكرامتها والأهم من ذلك كله أحدبها الذي اعتنت به كعناية الأم لابنها . الرواية بشكل عام جيدة وأكثر شئ جذبني إليها هو ... سحر الوصف ودقته .
March 18, 2023
Fourth meeting with Carson McCullers, and this time the certainty is anchored: she is a very great author, of those who talk to the masters Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Hemingway, and all those great feathers of the daily life of the soul, of the torments of simple beings and human relationships made of trials and pains.
A skin-deep sensitivity and immense talent shine in each line of these novels. We drag from failure to forgetting our loneliness, thirst for love, and melancholy, where we meet a woman built like a tree to come and cut her down, another beaten down by alcohol. A man was running after his lost past, the resilience of losing the woman's love and recomposing in learning universal love.
The texts that often touch me do so through a meaning; in this case, the perception of a spectrum of very particular lights, from the twilight to the crystalline lens, will have fueled this reading experience.
A skin-deep sensitivity and immense talent shine in each line of these novels. We drag from failure to forgetting our loneliness, thirst for love, and melancholy, where we meet a woman built like a tree to come and cut her down, another beaten down by alcohol. A man was running after his lost past, the resilience of losing the woman's love and recomposing in learning universal love.
The texts that often touch me do so through a meaning; in this case, the perception of a spectrum of very particular lights, from the twilight to the crystalline lens, will have fueled this reading experience.
November 24, 2021
They're all good, I think I liked Wunderkind the best.
November 6, 2021
قبل از خوندن این کتاب، شناختی از نویسندهاش نداشتم، و کتاب رو صرفا بخاطر نوشتهی پشت جلدش خریدم و یجورایی میشه گفت قمار کردم!
حالا اما، با تحقیقی که انجام دادم، متوجه شدم که انتشارات بیدگل، دو کتاب دیگه از این نویسنده ترجمه و چاپ کرده که خب صادقانه بگم، بعید میدونم برم سمتشون!
البته نه برای اینکه کتاب فعلی، کتاب بدی بودهها! نه. اما انقدر هم خوب نبود که بخوام برای یک کتاب بزرگتر از همین نویسنده وقت و پول هزینه کنم!
با پولش میتونم کتاب بهتری بخرم و با وقتش میتونم کتاب بهتری بخونم!
کتاب فعلی، خیلی کوتاهه، انقدر کوتاه که من طی یک شب و یک عصر تمومش کردم!
بخاطر همین کوتاهیاش، اجبارا و البته طبق عادت، بدون لو دادن داستان این ریویو رو مینویسم.
آواز کافه غمبار، کتاب خاصیه!
با اینکه کوتاهه ولی شخصیت داره، طعم داره، امضا داره! شبیه کتاب دیگهای نیست...
فضاسازیهای خوبی داره و طی خوانش، گاهی منو یاد کتاب برادران سیسترز انداخت!
نمیدونم چرا ولی توی ذهن من، کل داستان در دنیای آمریکای کابویها اتفاق افتاد! :))
و نمیدونم چرا همش منتظر یک دوئل بودم! :)) که البته هرگز اتفاق نیافتاد...
راوی داستان، شخص سومه، و داستان کتاب از زمان حال شروع میشه، سپس به زمان گذشته میره، و در طول داستان، تمام اتفاقات و افعال شکل گذشته به خودشون میگیرن، تا اینکه بالاخره در آخر کتاب، دوباره به زمان حال برمیگردیم...
این نکته رو هم بگم که راوی، برعکس خیلی از کتابها، شخصیت اصلی و قرمان داستان نیست!
راوی یک شخص دیگهاس که در گوشه و کنار داستان بوده و از همه چیز خبر داره، و حالا انگار داره برای خوانندگان کتاب، خاطرهای تعریف میکنه!
در مورد داستان کتاب، اصلا توضیحی نمیدم و این ریویو رو همینجا تمومش میکنم! چون کتاب کوتاهه و نمیخوام برای اونایی که قراره بخوننش لذت و هیجانش رو از بین ببرم...
ترجمه خوب بود.
کیفیت چاپ هم خوب بود.
حجم کم کتاب باعث میشه که برای استراحت بین دو کتاب بزرگ، انتخاب خوبی باشه.
با توجه به قیمت و حجم کماش، توصیه میکنم بخونیدش.
حالا اما، با تحقیقی که انجام دادم، متوجه شدم که انتشارات بیدگل، دو کتاب دیگه از این نویسنده ترجمه و چاپ کرده که خب صادقانه بگم، بعید میدونم برم سمتشون!
البته نه برای اینکه کتاب فعلی، کتاب بدی بودهها! نه. اما انقدر هم خوب نبود که بخوام برای یک کتاب بزرگتر از همین نویسنده وقت و پول هزینه کنم!
با پولش میتونم کتاب بهتری بخرم و با وقتش میتونم کتاب بهتری بخونم!
کتاب فعلی، خیلی کوتاهه، انقدر کوتاه که من طی یک شب و یک عصر تمومش کردم!
بخاطر همین کوتاهیاش، اجبارا و البته طبق عادت، بدون لو دادن داستان این ریویو رو مینویسم.
آواز کافه غمبار، کتاب خاصیه!
با اینکه کوتاهه ولی شخصیت داره، طعم داره، امضا داره! شبیه کتاب دیگهای نیست...
فضاسازیهای خوبی داره و طی خوانش، گاهی منو یاد کتاب برادران سیسترز انداخت!
نمیدونم چرا ولی توی ذهن من، کل داستان در دنیای آمریکای کابویها اتفاق افتاد! :))
و نمیدونم چرا همش منتظر یک دوئل بودم! :)) که البته هرگز اتفاق نیافتاد...
راوی داستان، شخص سومه، و داستان کتاب از زمان حال شروع میشه، سپس به زمان گذشته میره، و در طول داستان، تمام اتفاقات و افعال شکل گذشته به خودشون میگیرن، تا اینکه بالاخره در آخر کتاب، دوباره به زمان حال برمیگردیم...
این نکته رو هم بگم که راوی، برعکس خیلی از کتابها، شخصیت اصلی و قرمان داستان نیست!
راوی یک شخص دیگهاس که در گوشه و کنار داستان بوده و از همه چیز خبر داره، و حالا انگار داره برای خوانندگان کتاب، خاطرهای تعریف میکنه!
در مورد داستان کتاب، اصلا توضیحی نمیدم و این ریویو رو همینجا تمومش میکنم! چون کتاب کوتاهه و نمیخوام برای اونایی که قراره بخوننش لذت و هیجانش رو از بین ببرم...
ترجمه خوب بود.
کیفیت چاپ هم خوب بود.
حجم کم کتاب باعث میشه که برای استراحت بین دو کتاب بزرگ، انتخاب خوبی باشه.
با توجه به قیمت و حجم کماش، توصیه میکنم بخونیدش.
June 2, 2022
رواية تجمع بين شخصيات منعزلة في بلدة ريفية صغيرة
وفي المقهى الوحيد في البلدة تدور الأحداث
علاقات البشر ما بين الحب والكراهية والاستغلال
وفي الختام نهاية قاتمة لتكتمل الأنشودة الحزينة
تفاصيل المكان والشخصيات مكتوبة بمهارة
وفي المقهى الوحيد في البلدة تدور الأحداث
علاقات البشر ما بين الحب والكراهية والاستغلال
وفي الختام نهاية قاتمة لتكتمل الأنشودة الحزينة
تفاصيل المكان والشخصيات مكتوبة بمهارة
December 17, 2015
4.5/5
McCullers is one I come to for a reckoning, much as I do with Faulkner and O'Connor. One may bundle them up and slot them neatly under the label of Southern Gothic, but that is not a guaranteed invocation of cathedrals crazed by fecundity of both soil and symptom, an American way of the crooked cross where faith is a matter of lust and amputation. While Faulkner plunges in chiaroscuro and O'Connor sears in holy fire, McCullers sings in the twilight of a human soul, casting back on its years in search and always, always, coming up short. She is calmer than her two compatriots, but peace does not entail redemption.
These stories are short, and I am not surprised that my favorite, Wunderkind, was composed at the age of seventeen. It's a common thing, the vicarious living of the parent through the child, the sapling broken before it even began along lines of another's making, for intelligence and art and college and any number of reasons but the one encompassing what it is the child actually wants, or dreams, or needs. When the body ripens and the mind begins to wander beyond the closed circuit court of parental promises of wealth and fame and glory, it's no wonder that the machine begins to break. But the child does not know that. What a child does know is their failure is made purely out internal system of self, and one way or another, breaking out or breaking down, they will escape. This is a tale that the median of youth and maturity knows, especially when one is Carson McCullers at seventeen.
While that was my favorite, the rest are well worth it. All are a matter of living with those insanities we humans willingly inflict, for living is a must what with self-killing labeled as one of the more wicked sins. In the midst of souls and the relationships they wield as pitchforks, the damnation they deal is matched only by the bounty they reap, much as the sick sloth of Southern swamp and all its dead can only be graced by golden sunsets, etched into art by sprawling trees and more precious to the earth than all of humanity. The world bears us much as we bear our woes, a day by day of nearing and furthering reconciliation with too long a past to hope that sudden extinction would lead to instantaneous peace. Some moments are of utmost beauty, some are fit to kill, and one adapts accordingly.
The world may grant us sanctuary, but it does not understand us, and will not miss us when we are gone. McCullers has no concrete structure for us to dwell in forevermore; what she does for us is feel.
McCullers is one I come to for a reckoning, much as I do with Faulkner and O'Connor. One may bundle them up and slot them neatly under the label of Southern Gothic, but that is not a guaranteed invocation of cathedrals crazed by fecundity of both soil and symptom, an American way of the crooked cross where faith is a matter of lust and amputation. While Faulkner plunges in chiaroscuro and O'Connor sears in holy fire, McCullers sings in the twilight of a human soul, casting back on its years in search and always, always, coming up short. She is calmer than her two compatriots, but peace does not entail redemption.
These stories are short, and I am not surprised that my favorite, Wunderkind, was composed at the age of seventeen. It's a common thing, the vicarious living of the parent through the child, the sapling broken before it even began along lines of another's making, for intelligence and art and college and any number of reasons but the one encompassing what it is the child actually wants, or dreams, or needs. When the body ripens and the mind begins to wander beyond the closed circuit court of parental promises of wealth and fame and glory, it's no wonder that the machine begins to break. But the child does not know that. What a child does know is their failure is made purely out internal system of self, and one way or another, breaking out or breaking down, they will escape. This is a tale that the median of youth and maturity knows, especially when one is Carson McCullers at seventeen.
While that was my favorite, the rest are well worth it. All are a matter of living with those insanities we humans willingly inflict, for living is a must what with self-killing labeled as one of the more wicked sins. In the midst of souls and the relationships they wield as pitchforks, the damnation they deal is matched only by the bounty they reap, much as the sick sloth of Southern swamp and all its dead can only be graced by golden sunsets, etched into art by sprawling trees and more precious to the earth than all of humanity. The world bears us much as we bear our woes, a day by day of nearing and furthering reconciliation with too long a past to hope that sudden extinction would lead to instantaneous peace. Some moments are of utmost beauty, some are fit to kill, and one adapts accordingly.
The world may grant us sanctuary, but it does not understand us, and will not miss us when we are gone. McCullers has no concrete structure for us to dwell in forevermore; what she does for us is feel.
October 23, 2021
”بادئ ذي بدء الحبُّ تجربة مشتركة بين شخصين. لكن حقيقة أنَّها تجربة مشتركة لا تعني أنَّها تجربة متشابهة بالنِّسبة إلى الفردين المعنيين. فهناك المُحبُّ والمَحبوب. ولكن ذينك الاثنين من مقاطعتين مختلفتين.
غالبا ما يكون المحبوب مجرَّد محفِّز لكلِّ المخزون الموجود بهدوء داخل المُحبِّ حتى تلك اللحظة. وبطريقة ما يعرف هذا الأمر كلُّ مُحب، إنَّه يشعر في روحه أنَّ حبَّه شيء فريد. إنَّه يهتدي إلى معرفة وحدة جديدة وغريبة، وهذه المعرفة أصل مكابدته، إذن ليس هناك سوى شيء واحد يفعله المُحبُّ، يتعيّن أن يسكن ��بَّه في جوفه ما استطاع، يتعيَّن أن يخلق لنفسه عالما داخليا جديدا كليا، عالما حادا وغريبا ومكتملا في ذاته، تجدر الإضافة هنا أنَّ هذا المحب الذِّي نتحدّث عنه ليس بالضرورة أن يكون شابا يدَّخر ماله من أجل خاتم زواج. هذا المحبُّ قد يكون رجلا أو امرأة أو طفلا أو أي مخلوق بشري على وجه الأرض، أمَّا المحبوب فقد يكون له أي وصف أيضا.
أغرب الناس قد يكون باعثا على الحبِّ محفِّزا له، قد يكون رجل جَدًّا خرفا ومع ذلك لا يحبُّ إلاَّ فتاة غريبة رآها في شوارع تيساو ذات ظهيرة قبل عقدين من الزمن. قد يحبُّ الواعظ امرأة منحطَّة، قد يكون المحبوب خائنا منحطاًّ أحمق ميالا إلى أردى الطبائع، أجل، وقد يرى المحبُّ هذا الشيء بكلِّ وضوح كما يراه أي شخص آخر، غير أن ذلك لا يؤثِّر مثقال ذرَّة على حبِّه. إنَّ شخصا عاديا جدا قد يكون هدفا لحبٍّ جامح ومتهور وجميل مثل زنابق المستنقع السامة، وقد يكون رجل خير محفِّز�� لحبٍّ عنيف ومهين أو قد يبعث مخبول ثرثار في روح أحدهم أنشودة رقيقة وبريئة، ولهذا فإنَّ قيمة أي حبٍّ وطبيعته يحددهما المحبُّ وحده، لهذا السبب يفضِّل أكثرنا ان يُحبَّ بدل أن يُحبَّ، يرغب كلّ إنسان تقريبا في أن يكون المُحب، والحقيقة الفجَّة أن كثيرين لا يطيقون، بطريقة غامضة وعميقة أن يكونوا محبوبين.
إنَّ المحبوب يخشى المحبَّ ويكرهه، ولأكثر الأسباب وجاهة، لأنَّ المحبَّ على الدوام يحاول أن يجرِّد محبوبه، يتوق المُحبُّ إلى أيِّ علاقةٍ ممكنة مع المحبوب، حتَّى وإن كانت حريًّا ألاَّ تجلب له هذه التَّجربة سوى الألم.“
غالبا ما يكون المحبوب مجرَّد محفِّز لكلِّ المخزون الموجود بهدوء داخل المُحبِّ حتى تلك اللحظة. وبطريقة ما يعرف هذا الأمر كلُّ مُحب، إنَّه يشعر في روحه أنَّ حبَّه شيء فريد. إنَّه يهتدي إلى معرفة وحدة جديدة وغريبة، وهذه المعرفة أصل مكابدته، إذن ليس هناك سوى شيء واحد يفعله المُحبُّ، يتعيّن أن يسكن ��بَّه في جوفه ما استطاع، يتعيَّن أن يخلق لنفسه عالما داخليا جديدا كليا، عالما حادا وغريبا ومكتملا في ذاته، تجدر الإضافة هنا أنَّ هذا المحب الذِّي نتحدّث عنه ليس بالضرورة أن يكون شابا يدَّخر ماله من أجل خاتم زواج. هذا المحبُّ قد يكون رجلا أو امرأة أو طفلا أو أي مخلوق بشري على وجه الأرض، أمَّا المحبوب فقد يكون له أي وصف أيضا.
أغرب الناس قد يكون باعثا على الحبِّ محفِّزا له، قد يكون رجل جَدًّا خرفا ومع ذلك لا يحبُّ إلاَّ فتاة غريبة رآها في شوارع تيساو ذات ظهيرة قبل عقدين من الزمن. قد يحبُّ الواعظ امرأة منحطَّة، قد يكون المحبوب خائنا منحطاًّ أحمق ميالا إلى أردى الطبائع، أجل، وقد يرى المحبُّ هذا الشيء بكلِّ وضوح كما يراه أي شخص آخر، غير أن ذلك لا يؤثِّر مثقال ذرَّة على حبِّه. إنَّ شخصا عاديا جدا قد يكون هدفا لحبٍّ جامح ومتهور وجميل مثل زنابق المستنقع السامة، وقد يكون رجل خير محفِّز�� لحبٍّ عنيف ومهين أو قد يبعث مخبول ثرثار في روح أحدهم أنشودة رقيقة وبريئة، ولهذا فإنَّ قيمة أي حبٍّ وطبيعته يحددهما المحبُّ وحده، لهذا السبب يفضِّل أكثرنا ان يُحبَّ بدل أن يُحبَّ، يرغب كلّ إنسان تقريبا في أن يكون المُحب، والحقيقة الفجَّة أن كثيرين لا يطيقون، بطريقة غامضة وعميقة أن يكونوا محبوبين.
إنَّ المحبوب يخشى المحبَّ ويكرهه، ولأكثر الأسباب وجاهة، لأنَّ المحبَّ على الدوام يحاول أن يجرِّد محبوبه، يتوق المُحبُّ إلى أيِّ علاقةٍ ممكنة مع المحبوب، حتَّى وإن كانت حريًّا ألاَّ تجلب له هذه التَّجربة سوى الألم.“
August 16, 2023
The very big problem with this book is that only the novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe strikes me as being Carson McCullers. The other shorter fiction just seems tossed in at random and could have been written by anyone with some talent. None of the extra stories take place in the South, McCullers territory.
Ballad of the Sad Cafe is brilliant but disturbing. It is populated with small town odd-balls who are very exaggerated but funny and mostly likeable in their own sad ways. Amelia, her ex-husband (10 days married) and a “maybe” cousin are well beyond odd but great characters. Loneliness and not fitting in are themes but definitely it is hilarious at the same time.
5 for “Ballad” 3 for the other stories =4 overall.
Ballad of the Sad Cafe is brilliant but disturbing. It is populated with small town odd-balls who are very exaggerated but funny and mostly likeable in their own sad ways. Amelia, her ex-husband (10 days married) and a “maybe” cousin are well beyond odd but great characters. Loneliness and not fitting in are themes but definitely it is hilarious at the same time.
5 for “Ballad” 3 for the other stories =4 overall.
January 28, 2022
خیلی رمان جذابی بود. کوتاه، خوشفضا، خوشپیرنگ، خوشخون، خوشراوی.
قصهی یه خانمی توی یه آبادی خیلی کوچیکی توی آمریکا که از قضا یه کافه هم میزنه و به یه آدمهایی بر میخوره. شخصیت زن یه شخصیت جالب و غریبه و حتی راوی هم نمیتونه به درونیاتش دست پیدا کنه، راوی دانای کل نیست و خودش هم مثل تماشاگریه که داره مشاهداتشو به ما میگه و گاهی هم قضاوتهاشو.
کتاب در ژانر وسترن نیست، ولی فضا فضای فیلمهای وسترنه. آبادی کوچیکی که فقط یک خیابون داره و چنتا مغازه و یک کارخونه که آدمها اونجا کار میکنن.
کاراکترها جالبن، کلا همه چی اینجا جالبه. مثل قصههای دیگه نیست. ژانر کتاب رو هم بقیه میگن گوتیک و گروتسک و منم قبول میکنم. گوتیک رو خیلی نمیدونم ولی شاید منظورش فضاهای قدیمی و خلوت و خلق و خوهای عجیب این قصه باشه، گروتسک هم میتونه برای خشونت و گاهی سنگدلیای که توی کاراکترها وجود داره.
میشه گفت قصه دربارهی عشقه و آدمهایی که در عشق ناکام میمونن. یا کسایی که نمیتونن به عشقشون برسن و اون رو ابراز کنن. زمان که دایره تشکیل داده و آدمها بعد از مدتها به همدیگه میرسن.
توی آواز کافه غمبار قراره شخصیتهای عجیب ببینید و بهشون فکر کنید و گرمتون بشه و ملال چسبندهی خلوتِ جاده رو بچشید و با شادی ساده و معصومانه شخصیتها شاد بشید.
قصهی یه خانمی توی یه آبادی خیلی کوچیکی توی آمریکا که از قضا یه کافه هم میزنه و به یه آدمهایی بر میخوره. شخصیت زن یه شخصیت جالب و غریبه و حتی راوی هم نمیتونه به درونیاتش دست پیدا کنه، راوی دانای کل نیست و خودش هم مثل تماشاگریه که داره مشاهداتشو به ما میگه و گاهی هم قضاوتهاشو.
کتاب در ژانر وسترن نیست، ولی فضا فضای فیلمهای وسترنه. آبادی کوچیکی که فقط یک خیابون داره و چنتا مغازه و یک کارخونه که آدمها اونجا کار میکنن.
کاراکترها جالبن، کلا همه چی اینجا جالبه. مثل قصههای دیگه نیست. ژانر کتاب رو هم بقیه میگن گوتیک و گروتسک و منم قبول میکنم. گوتیک رو خیلی نمیدونم ولی شاید منظورش فضاهای قدیمی و خلوت و خلق و خوهای عجیب این قصه باشه، گروتسک هم میتونه برای خشونت و گاهی سنگدلیای که توی کاراکترها وجود داره.
میشه گفت قصه دربارهی عشقه و آدمهایی که در عشق ناکام میمونن. یا کسایی که نمیتونن به عشقشون برسن و اون رو ابراز کنن. زمان که دایره تشکیل داده و آدمها بعد از مدتها به همدیگه میرسن.
توی آواز کافه غمبار قراره شخصیتهای عجیب ببینید و بهشون فکر کنید و گرمتون بشه و ملال چسبندهی خلوتِ جاده رو بچشید و با شادی ساده و معصومانه شخصیتها شاد بشید.
November 21, 2016
رواية قاتمة جدًا مزروعة بالخيبات والألم. رغم مرور الفصول وتعاقب الليل والنهار لم أستشعر نورًا ولم ألمس دفئًا. كانت الكلمات على وشك الاشتعال عندما زادت حدّة الغضب، وتسللت الخديعة من بين أحراش الحقد لتلدغ الحب الذي ظلّ يقاوم كل ريحٍ تعصف به إلى أن أردته قتيلًا.
ما يميّز قصة الحب في هذا العمل، أنها لم تكن تجربة سائغة المذاق ولا ترفًا يمنح الحياة معنى آخر وإنما كانت محاولة أخيرة للهرب والنجاة. بعد غلق الأبواب والتزام الصمت والتسلّح بالفظاظة والكبرياء وجعْل المسافة بحرًا ممتدًا بينها وبين الحياة وقعت أميليا في الحب ضاربةً بتوقعات من حولها عرض الحائط. كانت تبحث عن ثغرةٍ تمرّر عبرها بؤسها وحظها العاثر وحزنها المقيم، عن صفعةٍ تطبعها على خد الأقدار التي لم تنصفها يومًا.
كانت منبوذة وأرادت أن تجد في قلب من أحبته وطنًا، يلمّ شتاتها ويهذب شعثها ويزيح الهم عن كاهلها.
ثراءها لم يخفف من وحدتها. افتقارها الشديد إلى شخصٍ يشاركها الحياة جعلها تقع في فخِ أول عابر سبيل. لم يكن الوقوع مؤذيًا بل العكس تنفس المكان وانتعشت الحياة في الجوار.
يمكن تأريخ ذاكرة هذه القصة بالمدة التي استغرقها إنشاء المقهى وازدهاره ثم إغلاقه للأبد. كان مذهلًا كيف أن الروح دبّت في جسد المكان الرثّ والمتهالك. وكيف أن بقعةً نقطنها تسكننا هي أيضًا وينالها من مشاعرنا المتفجرّة على حين غرّة نصيبًا من الرواء. فتنتفض وتهتز الحياة في خشب المقاعد والطاولات وآواني الطبخ، والأسرّة بل وحتى تختلف رائحة الطعام ومذاقه.
أحداث هذه الرواية لا تخلو من غرابة لا يمكن البتّ فيها. حالات الانتشاء التي تُصيب أميليا كلما صنعت دواءً جديدًا وأخضعت نفسها لتجربته تجعلنا نشكك في حقيقة طبعها وما إذا التبس العقل بالجنون في شخصيتها العصية على التوقع والتفسير. وهناك أيضًا ميلها العاطفي اتجاه الرجل البشع محدودب الظهر دون الآخر صحيح البدن الذي يحمل جمال المظهر وبشاعة الجوهر، ويشوهه أكثر من أي شيء مكره ونزوعه إلى الشر.
المفاجآت تتوالى، والأحداث تجري كسيلٍ لا يجرؤ أحد على اعتراضه... إلى أن يقع ما لم يكن في الحسبان.
ما يميّز قصة الحب في هذا العمل، أنها لم تكن تجربة سائغة المذاق ولا ترفًا يمنح الحياة معنى آخر وإنما كانت محاولة أخيرة للهرب والنجاة. بعد غلق الأبواب والتزام الصمت والتسلّح بالفظاظة والكبرياء وجعْل المسافة بحرًا ممتدًا بينها وبين الحياة وقعت أميليا في الحب ضاربةً بتوقعات من حولها عرض الحائط. كانت تبحث عن ثغرةٍ تمرّر عبرها بؤسها وحظها العاثر وحزنها المقيم، عن صفعةٍ تطبعها على خد الأقدار التي لم تنصفها يومًا.
كانت منبوذة وأرادت أن تجد في قلب من أحبته وطنًا، يلمّ شتاتها ويهذب شعثها ويزيح الهم عن كاهلها.
ثراءها لم يخفف من وحدتها. افتقارها الشديد إلى شخصٍ يشاركها الحياة جعلها تقع في فخِ أول عابر سبيل. لم يكن الوقوع مؤذيًا بل العكس تنفس المكان وانتعشت الحياة في الجوار.
يمكن تأريخ ذاكرة هذه القصة بالمدة التي استغرقها إنشاء المقهى وازدهاره ثم إغلاقه للأبد. كان مذهلًا كيف أن الروح دبّت في جسد المكان الرثّ والمتهالك. وكيف أن بقعةً نقطنها تسكننا هي أيضًا وينالها من مشاعرنا المتفجرّة على حين غرّة نصيبًا من الرواء. فتنتفض وتهتز الحياة في خشب المقاعد والطاولات وآواني الطبخ، والأسرّة بل وحتى تختلف رائحة الطعام ومذاقه.
أحداث هذه الرواية لا تخلو من غرابة لا يمكن البتّ فيها. حالات الانتشاء التي تُصيب أميليا كلما صنعت دواءً جديدًا وأخضعت نفسها لتجربته تجعلنا نشكك في حقيقة طبعها وما إذا التبس العقل بالجنون في شخصيتها العصية على التوقع والتفسير. وهناك أيضًا ميلها العاطفي اتجاه الرجل البشع محدودب الظهر دون الآخر صحيح البدن الذي يحمل جمال المظهر وبشاعة الجوهر، ويشوهه أكثر من أي شيء مكره ونزوعه إلى الشر.
المفاجآت تتوالى، والأحداث تجري كسيلٍ لا يجرؤ أحد على اعتراضه... إلى أن يقع ما لم يكن في الحسبان.
August 14, 2020
چند پاراگراف اول کتاب را که خواندم بلافاصله یاد فیلم «ballad of buster scrugges» از برادران coenافتادم. هرچه به خواندن ادامه دادم شباهت تصویرسازیها در «آواز کافه غمبار» به این فیلم برایم بیشتر شد. اصلا انگار این کتاب یکی از داستانهای همین فیلم بود. وقتی خواندن کتاب را تمام کردم در مشخصات کتابشناسی به نام انگلیسیاش دقت کردم؛ «the ballad of the sad cafe»، فکر کنم نیازی نیست بگویم در آن لحظه چه ذوقی وجودم را گرفت!
گویا «ballad»ها اشعار و داستانهایی محلی و کوتاه هستند که راوی آنها شناخته شده نیست، این داستانها دهان به دهان و از نسلی به نسل دیگر منتقل میشوند. همین تعریف یک خطی ما را به جوهره اصلی کتاب مکالرز متصل میکند؛ داستانی که راوی آن یک دانای کل معمولی نیست. راوی اینجا واقعا برایمان قصه میگوید، این را وقتی میفهمیم که در لابه لای قصه؛ راوی بخشی از تجربیات خودش را هم ضمیمه میکند، مثلا وقتی در میانه داستان نظرش را درباره شرابهای میس آملیا و اینکه واقعا چه مزهای دارند میداد.
با خواندن این کتاب برای اولین بار فرم در داستانی بیشتر از محتوای آن جذبم کرد. داستانی که به نظر روایتی بدیهی و ساده و یکدست دارد اما در اصل پیچیدگیهایش زیاد است. در هم تنیده شدن این پیچیدگیها مانند نقوش زیر نقش طرح کلی داستان را پدید آورده است که به نظرم طرح یکدست و دلنشینی است.
این را میدانم الان که خواندن کتاب تمام شده چند یادگاری از آن با خودم خواهم داشت؛ (۱) توصیفی از فضای روستا در شبی که پسرخاله لایمون وارد شد (۲) تصوری از آوازی که دوازده مرد زندانی فانی در جاده فورکس فالز سر میدادند(۳) تصور آواز آهسته مرد سیاهءوستی در دوردست آن سوی مزارع تاریک که میرفت تا به کسی ابراز عشق کند.
گویا «ballad»ها اشعار و داستانهایی محلی و کوتاه هستند که راوی آنها شناخته شده نیست، این داستانها دهان به دهان و از نسلی به نسل دیگر منتقل میشوند. همین تعریف یک خطی ما را به جوهره اصلی کتاب مکالرز متصل میکند؛ داستانی که راوی آن یک دانای کل معمولی نیست. راوی اینجا واقعا برایمان قصه میگوید، این را وقتی میفهمیم که در لابه لای قصه؛ راوی بخشی از تجربیات خودش را هم ضمیمه میکند، مثلا وقتی در میانه داستان نظرش را درباره شرابهای میس آملیا و اینکه واقعا چه مزهای دارند میداد.
با خواندن این کتاب برای اولین بار فرم در داستانی بیشتر از محتوای آن جذبم کرد. داستانی که به نظر روایتی بدیهی و ساده و یکدست دارد اما در اصل پیچیدگیهایش زیاد است. در هم تنیده شدن این پیچیدگیها مانند نقوش زیر نقش طرح کلی داستان را پدید آورده است که به نظرم طرح یکدست و دلنشینی است.
این را میدانم الان که خواندن کتاب تمام شده چند یادگاری از آن با خودم خواهم داشت؛ (۱) توصیفی از فضای روستا در شبی که پسرخاله لایمون وارد شد (۲) تصوری از آوازی که دوازده مرد زندانی فانی در جاده فورکس فالز سر میدادند(۳) تصور آواز آهسته مرد سیاهءوستی در دوردست آن سوی مزارع تاریک که میرفت تا به کسی ابراز عشق کند.
Read
August 31, 2018Note: This review should have been posted under the title The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
I will repost if there - but I'll leave it here too in order to retain the comments. In any case, the two books share themes and the titles could easily be inverted. There is a sad café at the centre of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and the book could easily be described as a ballad. In The Ballad of the Sad Café, the main character, café owner Amelia Evans, is a lonely and alone person whose heart is desperately hunting for someone, anyone, to love.
…………………………………
I've been reading Carson McCullers for the last month. I started with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and then picked up each of the five other books she's written one after the other leaving myself no time in between to think about what I've read or consider writing a review. Today, I'm glad that I didn't attempt a review of this one because I just came across a piece in the sixth book, The Mortgaged Heart: Selected Writings, entitled Author's Outline of 'The Mute' (later published as 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter').
McCullers' own words describe her intentions for this book so clearly that I'm going to use them in lieu of a review:
....The general outline of this work can be expressed very simply. It is the story of five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves. One of these five is a deaf man, John Singer - and it is around him that the whole book pivots. Because of their loneliness these other four people see in the mute a certain mystic superiority and he becomes in a sense their ideal. Because of Singer's infirmity his outward character is vague and unlimited. His friends are able to impute to him all the qualities which they would wish for him to have. Each of the these four people creates his understanding of the mute from his own desires...In his eternal silence there is something compelling. Each one of these persons makes the mute the repository for his most personal feelings and ideas...
This situation between the four people and the mute has an exact parallel in the relation between Singer and his deaf-mute friend, Antonopoulos. Singer is the only person who could attribute to Antonopoulos dignity and a certain wisdom...
About this central idea there is much of the quality of a legend. All the parts dealing directly with Singer are written in the simple style of a parable.
Before the reasons why this situation came about can be fully understood it is necessary to know each of the principal characters in some detail. But the characters cannot be described adequately without the events which happen to them being involved. Nearly all the happenings in the book spring directly from the characters. During the space of this book each person is shown in his strongest and most typical actions.
Of course it must be understood that none of these personal characteristics are told in the didactic manner in which they are set down here. They are implied in one successive scene after another - and it is only at the end, when the sum of of these implications is considered, that the real characters are understood in all of their deeper aspects....
Carson McCullers then goes on to describe her plot and characters in great detail before finishing with some notes about time, place and structure. I was very interested to see that she had a musical structure in mind because I'd experienced the book in musical terms even as I was reading it. This is how she describes the structure: The form is contrapuntal throughout. Like a voice in a fugue each one of the main characters is an entirety in himself - but his personality takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters in the book.
One of the other interesting things that emerged for me is the amount of material she eventually left out of this novel. Because I've read all of her novels and most of her stories at this point, I realise that she recycled some of those deleted scenes. Characters' names and circumstances have also been recycled which makes reading all of her work together extra rewarding. The reader begins to see the entire cast of characters as part of one big family and all of her themes as being connected. She is always writing, in one way or another, about inner isolation and the battle to overcome it.
I will repost if there - but I'll leave it here too in order to retain the comments. In any case, the two books share themes and the titles could easily be inverted. There is a sad café at the centre of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and the book could easily be described as a ballad. In The Ballad of the Sad Café, the main character, café owner Amelia Evans, is a lonely and alone person whose heart is desperately hunting for someone, anyone, to love.
…………………………………
I've been reading Carson McCullers for the last month. I started with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and then picked up each of the five other books she's written one after the other leaving myself no time in between to think about what I've read or consider writing a review. Today, I'm glad that I didn't attempt a review of this one because I just came across a piece in the sixth book, The Mortgaged Heart: Selected Writings, entitled Author's Outline of 'The Mute' (later published as 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter').
McCullers' own words describe her intentions for this book so clearly that I'm going to use them in lieu of a review:
....The general outline of this work can be expressed very simply. It is the story of five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves. One of these five is a deaf man, John Singer - and it is around him that the whole book pivots. Because of their loneliness these other four people see in the mute a certain mystic superiority and he becomes in a sense their ideal. Because of Singer's infirmity his outward character is vague and unlimited. His friends are able to impute to him all the qualities which they would wish for him to have. Each of the these four people creates his understanding of the mute from his own desires...In his eternal silence there is something compelling. Each one of these persons makes the mute the repository for his most personal feelings and ideas...
This situation between the four people and the mute has an exact parallel in the relation between Singer and his deaf-mute friend, Antonopoulos. Singer is the only person who could attribute to Antonopoulos dignity and a certain wisdom...
About this central idea there is much of the quality of a legend. All the parts dealing directly with Singer are written in the simple style of a parable.
Before the reasons why this situation came about can be fully understood it is necessary to know each of the principal characters in some detail. But the characters cannot be described adequately without the events which happen to them being involved. Nearly all the happenings in the book spring directly from the characters. During the space of this book each person is shown in his strongest and most typical actions.
Of course it must be understood that none of these personal characteristics are told in the didactic manner in which they are set down here. They are implied in one successive scene after another - and it is only at the end, when the sum of of these implications is considered, that the real characters are understood in all of their deeper aspects....
Carson McCullers then goes on to describe her plot and characters in great detail before finishing with some notes about time, place and structure. I was very interested to see that she had a musical structure in mind because I'd experienced the book in musical terms even as I was reading it. This is how she describes the structure: The form is contrapuntal throughout. Like a voice in a fugue each one of the main characters is an entirety in himself - but his personality takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters in the book.
One of the other interesting things that emerged for me is the amount of material she eventually left out of this novel. Because I've read all of her novels and most of her stories at this point, I realise that she recycled some of those deleted scenes. Characters' names and circumstances have also been recycled which makes reading all of her work together extra rewarding. The reader begins to see the entire cast of characters as part of one big family and all of her themes as being connected. She is always writing, in one way or another, about inner isolation and the battle to overcome it.
May 9, 2021
Published in 1951, The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories is an interesting collection of seven stories by Carson McCullers (1917 – 1967), an American novelist whose writing style is often described as Southern Gothic.
The stories typically feature a central character who is lonely and eccentric. The loneliness seems to stem from wanting to love and be loved, and more often than not, from being wounded in love. Her stories seem to suggest that love is attended by pain because even though ’love is a joint experience between two persons’, two people in love do not necessarily share a similar experience as they ’come from different countries.’ In these stories, love is not returned; it is spurned; it is betrayed. Marriages fall apart and the characters reel from memories of happier days (e.g., The Sojourner, A Domestic Dilemma).
The Ballad of the Sad Café, a novella, depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love. It tells the unlikely circumstance of how a café came to be. Miss Amelia, a formidable Amazon of a woman, runs a liquor still by herself after her husband whom she abused left her. A hunchback, a total stranger, claims to be a long-lost cousin, shows up one day and to the surprise of the town, is received into Amelia’s house. They set up a café which soon becomes the town’s watering hole. It is somewhat inexplicable who Amelia chooses to love and why. This is what McCullers said when offering an explanation of what love is.
‘Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto….He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. So there is only one thing for the lover to do. He must house his love within himself as best as he can; he must create for himself a whole new inward world - a world intense and strange, complete in himself.’ With this premise therefore, the ballad of the café can only be a sad tale.
Two of the stories feature young protagonists in their teens. Wunderkind, inspired by McCullers’ own life as a talented musician who had to choose a different career path, describes the struggles of a 15-year-old musical prodigy who suspects she may not have the gift after all and feels diminished by the harsh criticism of her disappointed piano teacher. This very short but palpably painful story was written when McCullers was about 17 years old. In A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud, a 12-year-old paper boy meets a transient in an all-night streetcar café who, in Ancient Mariner fashion, insists on telling him the story of his lost love. This is a strange story that seems to capture a spurned lover’s desperate need to be heard and an adolescent’s bewilderment of an experience foreign to himself. I never did figure out the meaning of the story's title.
My favorite story in this collection is Madam Zilensky and the King of Finland. Madam Zilensky, a Finnish musician and pedagogue, is another odd character. She was hired by Mr Brook to teach in Ryder College’s music department. She tells outlandish stories about her travels and encounters that leave Mr Brook with a nagging suspicion that something does not add up. McCullers did a marvelous job taking us through the commotion of feelings that coursed through them, which showed her empathy and understanding. The one story that fell a bit flat for me was The Jockey, about an unhappy jockey who was thought to be crazy. Again, there is a backstory behind this sullen, brooding, and passive-aggressive character.
McCullers wrote a lyrical prose that is lovely to read. These stories have a vivid sense of place, typically of a small town in the Southern part of the US and the buzz of a bar where town folks gather to catch up on the latest gossip. I have to say that her characters are all odd balls; almost all are pitiable but none really likeable. Their eccentricity has an intractable quality, which is hard to pin down. I feel somewhat alienated from them.
I am not a fan of McCuller's writing. Nonetheless, I am glad to have read these unique stories of a different time and culture.
The stories typically feature a central character who is lonely and eccentric. The loneliness seems to stem from wanting to love and be loved, and more often than not, from being wounded in love. Her stories seem to suggest that love is attended by pain because even though ’love is a joint experience between two persons’, two people in love do not necessarily share a similar experience as they ’come from different countries.’ In these stories, love is not returned; it is spurned; it is betrayed. Marriages fall apart and the characters reel from memories of happier days (e.g., The Sojourner, A Domestic Dilemma).
The Ballad of the Sad Café, a novella, depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love. It tells the unlikely circumstance of how a café came to be. Miss Amelia, a formidable Amazon of a woman, runs a liquor still by herself after her husband whom she abused left her. A hunchback, a total stranger, claims to be a long-lost cousin, shows up one day and to the surprise of the town, is received into Amelia’s house. They set up a café which soon becomes the town’s watering hole. It is somewhat inexplicable who Amelia chooses to love and why. This is what McCullers said when offering an explanation of what love is.
‘Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto….He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. So there is only one thing for the lover to do. He must house his love within himself as best as he can; he must create for himself a whole new inward world - a world intense and strange, complete in himself.’ With this premise therefore, the ballad of the café can only be a sad tale.
Two of the stories feature young protagonists in their teens. Wunderkind, inspired by McCullers’ own life as a talented musician who had to choose a different career path, describes the struggles of a 15-year-old musical prodigy who suspects she may not have the gift after all and feels diminished by the harsh criticism of her disappointed piano teacher. This very short but palpably painful story was written when McCullers was about 17 years old. In A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud, a 12-year-old paper boy meets a transient in an all-night streetcar café who, in Ancient Mariner fashion, insists on telling him the story of his lost love. This is a strange story that seems to capture a spurned lover’s desperate need to be heard and an adolescent’s bewilderment of an experience foreign to himself. I never did figure out the meaning of the story's title.
My favorite story in this collection is Madam Zilensky and the King of Finland. Madam Zilensky, a Finnish musician and pedagogue, is another odd character. She was hired by Mr Brook to teach in Ryder College’s music department. She tells outlandish stories about her travels and encounters that leave Mr Brook with a nagging suspicion that something does not add up. McCullers did a marvelous job taking us through the commotion of feelings that coursed through them, which showed her empathy and understanding. The one story that fell a bit flat for me was The Jockey, about an unhappy jockey who was thought to be crazy. Again, there is a backstory behind this sullen, brooding, and passive-aggressive character.
McCullers wrote a lyrical prose that is lovely to read. These stories have a vivid sense of place, typically of a small town in the Southern part of the US and the buzz of a bar where town folks gather to catch up on the latest gossip. I have to say that her characters are all odd balls; almost all are pitiable but none really likeable. Their eccentricity has an intractable quality, which is hard to pin down. I feel somewhat alienated from them.
I am not a fan of McCuller's writing. Nonetheless, I am glad to have read these unique stories of a different time and culture.
June 20, 2018
3.5★
“But the new pride that the café brought to this town had an effect on almost everyone, even the children. For in order to come to the café you did not have to buy the dinner, or a portion of liquor.”
McCullers tells a good story, but some are not quite enough story. I wanted a bit more! The title story is a novella, and I really enjoyed it. Generally, I'm quite happy with a short vignette, but these didn't always give me enough.
This was written in 1951, when a 6’2” (188cm) woman would have been a big girl, indeed. Miss Amelia grew up in this small town, had a home, ran a still and a store, and was a shrewd negotiator as well as a skilled, self-taught doctor. But she kept to herself and didn’t like people much.
One day, a handsome man got under her guard and she married him, but that didn’t last.
“. . . that spring she cut up his Klansman's robe to cover her tobacco plants.”
She seemed incapable of human warmth (my words) until a strange little hunchbacked man turned up claiming to be some sort of cousin. He moved in and became a popular, entertaining fellow.
As people began to hang around the store to visit with him, she decided to open a café to sell drinks and eventually meals. This was a very poor rural town in two ways: little money to spend, and nowhere to spend it if you had it. The café made a huge difference, whether or not you had money.
“But the new pride that the café brought to this town had an effect on almost everyone, even the children. For in order to come to the café you did not have to buy the dinner, or a portion of liquor. Everyone was proud to be going out to dinner or going to the café for a drink because the wife wouldn't allow moonshine in the house.
. . . Miss Amelia had a drink called Cherry Juice which sold for a penny a glass,
. . The people in the town were likewise proud when sitting at the tables in the café
. . . for a few hours at least, the deep bitter knowing that you are not worth much in this world could be laid low."
While business is booming, who should darken her door again? Right. Her Ex. How he ingratiates himself with the cousin while poisoning her relationship until there’s a final showdown is certainly sad indeed.
I expect this novella made more of an impact when it was written than it would today, but the sense of the difference one person or one business can mean to a small community is perfectly described here. Without Miss Amelia, what is anyone to do? Even her excellent moonshine is gone!
The other short stories vary from that of a young girl studying the piano to a jockey dealing with fat-cat owners to a man who figured out how to choose whom or what he would love rather than leave it to nature, as most people do, because that had broken his heart.
I read this because it’s one of the oldest books on my list, and I’m glad I did.
“But the new pride that the café brought to this town had an effect on almost everyone, even the children. For in order to come to the café you did not have to buy the dinner, or a portion of liquor.”
McCullers tells a good story, but some are not quite enough story. I wanted a bit more! The title story is a novella, and I really enjoyed it. Generally, I'm quite happy with a short vignette, but these didn't always give me enough.
This was written in 1951, when a 6’2” (188cm) woman would have been a big girl, indeed. Miss Amelia grew up in this small town, had a home, ran a still and a store, and was a shrewd negotiator as well as a skilled, self-taught doctor. But she kept to herself and didn’t like people much.
One day, a handsome man got under her guard and she married him, but that didn’t last.
“. . . that spring she cut up his Klansman's robe to cover her tobacco plants.”
She seemed incapable of human warmth (my words) until a strange little hunchbacked man turned up claiming to be some sort of cousin. He moved in and became a popular, entertaining fellow.
As people began to hang around the store to visit with him, she decided to open a café to sell drinks and eventually meals. This was a very poor rural town in two ways: little money to spend, and nowhere to spend it if you had it. The café made a huge difference, whether or not you had money.
“But the new pride that the café brought to this town had an effect on almost everyone, even the children. For in order to come to the café you did not have to buy the dinner, or a portion of liquor. Everyone was proud to be going out to dinner or going to the café for a drink because the wife wouldn't allow moonshine in the house.
. . . Miss Amelia had a drink called Cherry Juice which sold for a penny a glass,
. . The people in the town were likewise proud when sitting at the tables in the café
. . . for a few hours at least, the deep bitter knowing that you are not worth much in this world could be laid low."
While business is booming, who should darken her door again? Right. Her Ex. How he ingratiates himself with the cousin while poisoning her relationship until there’s a final showdown is certainly sad indeed.
I expect this novella made more of an impact when it was written than it would today, but the sense of the difference one person or one business can mean to a small community is perfectly described here. Without Miss Amelia, what is anyone to do? Even her excellent moonshine is gone!
The other short stories vary from that of a young girl studying the piano to a jockey dealing with fat-cat owners to a man who figured out how to choose whom or what he would love rather than leave it to nature, as most people do, because that had broken his heart.
I read this because it’s one of the oldest books on my list, and I’m glad I did.
October 18, 2022
آواز کافه غم بار را می توان حکایت تنهایی و انزوا انسان هایی دانست که در شهری نسبتا متروک و دورافتاده ، دلگیر ، کوچک و سرد زندگی می کنند ، آنها در شهر خود به تنهایی و تکرار خو گرفته و عادت کرده اند .
آدم های داستان او چشم به راه هستند تا غریبه ای به شهر غم زده آنان وارد شده و یا ماجرایی رخ دهد که شاید زندگی روزمره آنان اندکی دگرگون شود . لحظات خوش آنان هم به حضور درتنها کافه شهرمحدود شده است .
لحظه ورود غریبه به شهر را می توان نقطه اوج داستان دانست ، ورود او و سپس حضور او گرچه عشقی را سبب می شود که به شهر متروک و مردمان آن رنگی تازه بخشیده اما در پایان سرنوشت کافه و شهر را هم تغییر می دهد .
آدم های داستان او چشم به راه هستند تا غریبه ای به شهر غم زده آنان وارد شده و یا ماجرایی رخ دهد که شاید زندگی روزمره آنان اندکی دگرگون شود . لحظات خوش آنان هم به حضور درتنها کافه شهرمحدود شده است .
لحظه ورود غریبه به شهر را می توان نقطه اوج داستان دانست ، ورود او و سپس حضور او گرچه عشقی را سبب می شود که به شهر متروک و مردمان آن رنگی تازه بخشیده اما در پایان سرنوشت کافه و شهر را هم تغییر می دهد .
November 25, 2022
زیاد لذت نبردم از خوندنش متوسط بود برام.
اما فضاسازی داستان و شخصیت پردازی عالی بودن.
گاهی زندگی تبدیل می شود به تقلایی کشدار و غمبار برای به دست آوردن چیزهایی که زنده نگهمان میدارد. و اما مسئله بغرنج این است: هرچیز به دردبخوری قیمتی دارد و فقط با پول میشود آن را خرید و جهان به این ترتیب اداره میشود.
اما فضاسازی داستان و شخصیت پردازی عالی بودن.
گاهی زندگی تبدیل می شود به تقلایی کشدار و غمبار برای به دست آوردن چیزهایی که زنده نگهمان میدارد. و اما مسئله بغرنج این است: هرچیز به دردبخوری قیمتی دارد و فقط با پول میشود آن را خرید و جهان به این ترتیب اداره میشود.
May 25, 2019
We have to discuss the plot here, so total spoilers are included here.
Forgive the blunt language here, but this seems to be a story about very confused gay people living in a teeny town in the back of beyond. Please note – every other novel is about confused straight people. There is no stigma in being confused. But these Sad Café types are really confused.
We begin with Amelia Evans, 6 feet 2 inches, powerfully built, likes to wear men’s clothing and smokes a pipe, doesn’t like men – I was getting the picture, this woman is a lesbian. Carson McCullers leaves that implied but unsaid, but you couldn’t imply it any harder without breaking your typewriter. That said, she only has relationships with men. But they aren’t what is generally meant by the word. So she has a ten day marriage with a guy named Marvin Macy, a handsome bad ass mean minded varmint of a rattlesnake. He finds out after they get married that she doesn’t take kindly to being touched.
A groom is in a sorry fix when he is unable to bring his well-beloved bride to bed with him, and when the whole town knows it.
It could be that Marvin is a closet case, marrying another closet case. He’s a most handsome guy and he falls for the most mannish woman in the county. Hmmm. Car crash marriages like this pop up in Reflections in a Golden Eye (she had a such a great way with titles) and – indeed – in Carson’s own crazy life.
Anyway, he winds up in prison for ten years, leaving Amelia contentedly alone until a grotesque figure lurches into town, a four foot tall hunchback (her word, her word) called Lymon who claims to be her cousin. What do you know, she likes him – she even loves him, to the amazement of all, and together they transform the general goods store she runs into the café of the title, and everyone has a nice time drinking bootleg and speculating on what goes on upstairs until with the inevitability of High Noon Marvin gets released and comes back to town to haunt everybody with black clouds of barely held back violence.
What happens then is really pretty weird. In order to clear the air, Amelia and Marvin, having circled each other and growled a lot, decide to have a formal boxing match, with the public invited.
Well, that is one way to sort out a simmering dispute. Usually not the way it’s done between married people. The boxing for most couples is confined to the private sphere, and unhappily tends towards the Mike Tyson first round knockout. This boxing match is quite different as the parties are evenly matched.
Eventually Amelia is just about to deliver the final victorious blow to the supine Marvin when
At the instant Miss Amelia grasped the throat of Marvin Macy the hunchback sprang forward and sailed through the air as though he had grown hawk wings. He landed on the broad back of Miss Amelia and clutched at her neck with his clawed little fingers. … Because of the hunchback the fight was won by Marvin Macy and at the end Miss Amelia lay sprawled on the floor, her arms flung outward and motionless.
And then, once the crowd has left the café, Marvin and Lymon proceed to trash the place, and they leave together, never to be seen again. It turns out that the real romance was between the handsome guy and the dwarf (about 20 years later a similar relationship could be seen in the movie Midnight Cowboy).
Maybe this is some kind of religious allegory. Could be Amelia is Jesus, Marvin is the Catholic Church, and Cousin Lymon is the Protestant church. I dunno, that’s just off the top of my head. Probably wrong.
Forgive the blunt language here, but this seems to be a story about very confused gay people living in a teeny town in the back of beyond. Please note – every other novel is about confused straight people. There is no stigma in being confused. But these Sad Café types are really confused.
We begin with Amelia Evans, 6 feet 2 inches, powerfully built, likes to wear men’s clothing and smokes a pipe, doesn’t like men – I was getting the picture, this woman is a lesbian. Carson McCullers leaves that implied but unsaid, but you couldn’t imply it any harder without breaking your typewriter. That said, she only has relationships with men. But they aren’t what is generally meant by the word. So she has a ten day marriage with a guy named Marvin Macy, a handsome bad ass mean minded varmint of a rattlesnake. He finds out after they get married that she doesn’t take kindly to being touched.
A groom is in a sorry fix when he is unable to bring his well-beloved bride to bed with him, and when the whole town knows it.
It could be that Marvin is a closet case, marrying another closet case. He’s a most handsome guy and he falls for the most mannish woman in the county. Hmmm. Car crash marriages like this pop up in Reflections in a Golden Eye (she had a such a great way with titles) and – indeed – in Carson’s own crazy life.
Anyway, he winds up in prison for ten years, leaving Amelia contentedly alone until a grotesque figure lurches into town, a four foot tall hunchback (her word, her word) called Lymon who claims to be her cousin. What do you know, she likes him – she even loves him, to the amazement of all, and together they transform the general goods store she runs into the café of the title, and everyone has a nice time drinking bootleg and speculating on what goes on upstairs until with the inevitability of High Noon Marvin gets released and comes back to town to haunt everybody with black clouds of barely held back violence.
What happens then is really pretty weird. In order to clear the air, Amelia and Marvin, having circled each other and growled a lot, decide to have a formal boxing match, with the public invited.
Well, that is one way to sort out a simmering dispute. Usually not the way it’s done between married people. The boxing for most couples is confined to the private sphere, and unhappily tends towards the Mike Tyson first round knockout. This boxing match is quite different as the parties are evenly matched.
Eventually Amelia is just about to deliver the final victorious blow to the supine Marvin when
At the instant Miss Amelia grasped the throat of Marvin Macy the hunchback sprang forward and sailed through the air as though he had grown hawk wings. He landed on the broad back of Miss Amelia and clutched at her neck with his clawed little fingers. … Because of the hunchback the fight was won by Marvin Macy and at the end Miss Amelia lay sprawled on the floor, her arms flung outward and motionless.
And then, once the crowd has left the café, Marvin and Lymon proceed to trash the place, and they leave together, never to be seen again. It turns out that the real romance was between the handsome guy and the dwarf (about 20 years later a similar relationship could be seen in the movie Midnight Cowboy).
Maybe this is some kind of religious allegory. Could be Amelia is Jesus, Marvin is the Catholic Church, and Cousin Lymon is the Protestant church. I dunno, that’s just off the top of my head. Probably wrong.
May 19, 2017
أي أنشودة؟
وأي مقهى حزين؟
إنّه�� الرواية الأكثر مللًا على الإطلاق رغم صِغر حجمها
إلا إنها استغرقت مني يوم ونصف!
كنتُ في انتظار لأي شئ يُزيد من سرعة الأحداث
أو صفعة قوية تدفعني للاستكمال
لكن ظل الحال على نَفس المِنوال حتى انتهت.
أي حب ذلك يدفع الإنسان إلى الجنون هكذا؟
لم أجد هنا إلا هشاشة وتشبث بأمرٍ بلا قشةٍ.
النجمتان لأنَّ هناك بعض الوصف الذي أعجبني
لكنها من الروايات التي لاهدف لها.
وأي مقهى حزين؟
إنّه�� الرواية الأكثر مللًا على الإطلاق رغم صِغر حجمها
إلا إنها استغرقت مني يوم ونصف!
كنتُ في انتظار لأي شئ يُزيد من سرعة الأحداث
أو صفعة قوية تدفعني للاستكمال
لكن ظل الحال على نَفس المِنوال حتى انتهت.
أي حب ذلك يدفع الإنسان إلى الجنون هكذا؟
لم أجد هنا إلا هشاشة وتشبث بأمرٍ بلا قشةٍ.
النجمتان لأنَّ هناك بعض الوصف الذي أعجبني
لكنها من الروايات التي لاهدف لها.
August 11, 2019
This year has primarily been a nonfiction year for me. I have participated in a group nonfiction reading challenge and as such fiction books do not get my team points. It has been half of a year since I picked up a novel and while I have enjoyed the nonfiction challenge and learned much from, something seems to be missing in my reading. I have decided to start small by reintegrating one or two fiction pieces a month back into my reading lineup, beginning with authors who I have previously read so that there are no surprises to my reading. The first such piece I selected is a novella by an American master writer Carson McCullers. I have savored her classic novels and took this opportunity to read her short piece The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.
Like McCullers’ other pieces Sad Cafe takes place in a small, isolated southern town. Amanda Evans is the proprietor of the town general store, and lives alone in a two room flat upstairs. An independent woman, Miss Evans has no significant other to speak of and chooses to dine alone and not invite guests to her home. It is during prohibition, and Evans realizes that there is money to be made by installing a still in her backyard and offering customers drinks. Gradually, the store turned into a cafe with customers coming from miles around for catfish and barbecue meals. Charging little to nothing for her food so that all diners would have a chance to savor it, Miss Evans’ cafe was an instant success.
That changed one day with the presence of her cousin, a humpback named Lymon. Miss Evans took pity on him and invited him to live in the second of her two rooms upstairs. The townspeople surmised that they were falling in love and recalled her brief, horrendous ten day marriage to Marvin Macy. An orphan raised in a good home and then gone bad, Macy conquered most of the town’s women and had his heart set on Evans for marriage. Eventually, she agreed but had ulterior motives. Like McCullers other novels, she developed a strong female protagonist in Amanda Evans as she used her wits to overcome Macy, obtaining all of his material possessions in the process. Macy’s true character shined through and the town under Evans leadership settled back into a regular routine, until the appearance of Lymon.
As in McCullers other works she writes in a steady prose that has a reader feel as though they are sitting on a front porch. The story of the sad cafe could have been a family tale passed down, with McCullers telling the reader in present tense. Ballad of the Sad Cafe has been a short reintroduction to fiction reading. It is always a treat to read McCullers tales of rural southern communities of years past. Usually there is a twist at the end to keep readers on their toes and it was no different here. I have a goal to read through McCullers works in the next few years as she is a personal favorite.
3.75 stars
Like McCullers’ other pieces Sad Cafe takes place in a small, isolated southern town. Amanda Evans is the proprietor of the town general store, and lives alone in a two room flat upstairs. An independent woman, Miss Evans has no significant other to speak of and chooses to dine alone and not invite guests to her home. It is during prohibition, and Evans realizes that there is money to be made by installing a still in her backyard and offering customers drinks. Gradually, the store turned into a cafe with customers coming from miles around for catfish and barbecue meals. Charging little to nothing for her food so that all diners would have a chance to savor it, Miss Evans’ cafe was an instant success.
That changed one day with the presence of her cousin, a humpback named Lymon. Miss Evans took pity on him and invited him to live in the second of her two rooms upstairs. The townspeople surmised that they were falling in love and recalled her brief, horrendous ten day marriage to Marvin Macy. An orphan raised in a good home and then gone bad, Macy conquered most of the town’s women and had his heart set on Evans for marriage. Eventually, she agreed but had ulterior motives. Like McCullers other novels, she developed a strong female protagonist in Amanda Evans as she used her wits to overcome Macy, obtaining all of his material possessions in the process. Macy’s true character shined through and the town under Evans leadership settled back into a regular routine, until the appearance of Lymon.
As in McCullers other works she writes in a steady prose that has a reader feel as though they are sitting on a front porch. The story of the sad cafe could have been a family tale passed down, with McCullers telling the reader in present tense. Ballad of the Sad Cafe has been a short reintroduction to fiction reading. It is always a treat to read McCullers tales of rural southern communities of years past. Usually there is a twist at the end to keep readers on their toes and it was no different here. I have a goal to read through McCullers works in the next few years as she is a personal favorite.
3.75 stars
June 17, 2019
لا يبق الأمر أبداً علي ما هو عليه
إحساس صعب للغاية أن تتربص بك الأيام وانت لا تدري .. أن يتركك القدر علي سجيتك وغرورك الزائف وقلبك المطمئن .. يتركك هكذا تبتسم في غرور وهو يضحك منك في صبر ودهاء
إحساس مرير للغاية أن تكون البداية شئ، والنهاية شئ آخر .. شئ أصعب وأتعس بكثير
في البداية ستظن أنها رواية ساذجة بسيطة قد لا ترتقي لقراءآتك الأخري .. فأنت قد قرأت أصعب وأطول من هذه الرواية بكثير
فربما تكون حقا رواية قصيرة بسيطة في مجملها محددة في شخصياتها سهلة في أسمائها تقرأها وكأنك تشاهد فيلما أمريكيا قديما في إحدي بلدات رعاة البقر .. وربما لا تكون محباً لهذ النوع من الافلام، ولا هذا النوع من الروايات .. فأنت تقرأها وأنت علي علم مسبق بكونها رواية قصيرة قد لا تستغرق منك الكثير من المجهود
هذا ما ظننته أنا أيضاً ..
وظل معي هذا الظن حتي منتصفها تقريباً ..
ثم لاحظت الاختلاف .. هناك شئ ما يحدث .. أو سيحدث .. لن يبق الأمر طويلاً علي هذا الحال .. هناك شئ ما خطأ
!!
الأديبة تبرع في هذه الخطة .. فلابد وأنها حقا خطة .. فإسلوب الكتابة بهذا الشكل لن يكون مصادفة .. اضف علي هذا إنها لا تسمح لك بالتخمين ولو حاولت لن تفلح فيه .. فبداية من منتصف الرواية تبدأ أنت في الشعور بشئ ما ، وتحس شيئا ما نتيجة لبعض الإشارات البسيطة التي أنت كقارئ لن تتجاهلها ولن تنساها بخبرتك في القراءة .. فأنت ستدخرها في ذهنك وأنت تعرف أنك ستحتاجها بعد قليل ..
الأمر يشبه لرؤيتك لضباب بعيد لا تعلم ما يكمن خلفه .. أو سماعك لموسيقي تصويرية غامضة تعرف بحدسك أنها تمهيد لمشكلة ما
وفي النهاية ..
أتفه المقدمات من الممكن أن تؤدي إلي أخطر النتائج
مصطفي محمود
...
February 8, 2013
She felt that the marrows of her bones were hollow and there was no blood left in her. Her heart that had been springing against her chest all afternoon felt suddenly dead. She saw it gray and limp and shriveled at the edges like an oyster.
His face seemed to throb out in space before her, come closer with the lurching motion in the veins of his temples. In retreat, she looked down at the piano. Her lips shook like jelly and a surge of noiseless tears made the white keys blur in a watery line. 'I can't,' she whispered. 'I don't know why, but I just can't- can't any more.
I felt like telling myself about The Ballad of the Sad Cafe before I had continued it to the end of story life. The kind of telling to yourself to love a little more, get closer, as if it knew you too. I don't know, I really didn't want to move inside myself to get there. What I wanted was for someone to come get me. The telling to yourself is necessary to feel known, I feel, and I'm afraid is true.
Carson McCullers I have known to hold up to me what I am feeling when I feel like there is no hope of anything ever coming to get me. Since I was fourteen and read The Member of the Wedding for the first time. My rawest, at a total loss to myself times I refer to myself as my "The Member of the Wedding times". You can't be pretty, you can't come along, you will be left behind, you can't bring yourself either. No, you don't even remember how to ask anymore. My enduring spiteful ghost is "The Heart is the Lonely Hunter times". No music in my head, and even Aesop Rock couldn't touch my grotesque spiritual flesh. It would be an unsentenced prison. My "The Member of the Wedding times" terrify me because I feel that the worst thing that could ever happen to me is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. It is the next page. There's nothing your head to tell yourself. Ever again. That she wrote these books and understood me helped me because it earwormed me and told me all about them and I didn't have to be me alone. Okay, so favorite books I am afraid to "have" again in case they don't work anymore. Time traveled and someone stopped the butterflies wings in flight. Still, there's something to be said for what has always been there for you. Nothing does it better for me than music I had when I was young. Last summer I read McCuller's Clock Without Hands and I didn't feel it at all. I was worried to turn to her again but it just worked out that way. I found myself reading her short stories with my mouth full of words I wanted her to tell me instead of me telling me.
Life could become one long dim scramble just to get the things needed to keep alive. And the confusing point is this: All useful things have a price, and are bought only with money, as that is the way the world is run. You know without having to reason about it the price of a bale of cotton, or a quart of molasses. But no value has been put on human life; it is given to us free and taken without being paid for. What is it worth? If you look around, at times the value may seem to be little or nothing at all. Often after you have sweated and tried and things are not better for you, there comes a feeling deep down in the soul that you are not worth much.
McCullers writes with a fairytale logic. I love fairy tales when they are over. Not the defeat, though. The fairy dust that hovers over everything else, like a promise of the wolf down the road or the witch in the oven, unsettled. Things will happen. Stories written like fairytales I have a problem with. This is this is this is that. They pretty much bore the crap out of me, not to mention that gilded cage of boredom that I call to myself "Trapped in a fabric store with my mother when I was young and I couldn't leave for HOURS". Someone is in your head telling you THIS will happen. It's not dust it has a whole gingerbread shape with a door and windows and a fence. I didn't get into the idea of the sad cafe at all. There are doors and windows and the premises belong to someone. Come here and don't belong to you. That's why they like this cafe. The outside belongs to someone but she doesn't call it hers. Call it something and call it a fairy tale. No, don't tell it like that! Miss Amelia has a hard stone face. Miss Amelia wins because she has money and she can say no like she means it. Miss Amelia could have won forever if she always said no. Read my lips they are the same page and they go nowhere and tell you nothing ever. Her so-called cousin Lymon the hunchbacked little man comes to town and causes trouble by looking from one towns person to the other. His page says something that causes excitement and unease. I didn't feel his mischief, really. I liked the townspeople that gave the benefit of the doubt. They didn't want to whisper words of something awful that could have happened. They would have helped if they could. These were walls made of moveable dust and I could live there. The Hunchback started to look like a monster in my mind. Like they weren't real people. I had his look in my mind that he could have done a pathetic whine to get under your skin. He is actually envious of Miss Amelia's first ten day wed groom. The kind of guy that inexplicably changes his tiger stripes to love the winner who wins if they always said no. If it was a fairytale without an ending, anyway. Her legs were closed and on them he was walked out the door. So the hunchback was envious because he had been to the prison in Atlanta. It may or may not have been the prison that I got lost and wound up by the front gates. It was in a residential neighborhood (quite a poor one). I couldn't stop thinking about if the inmates could see into the lit up windows of the houses below. The aching envy for those rooms, those lights that could not go away. What kind of a hunchback envies the inmate unless it is a getting the worst of it over with, if your conviction was a humorless gallows. He follows in Miss Amelia's footsteps. Maybe his conviction was a permanent no. I didn't feel him in my steps. I started to feel the story in the spaces of the couple of townsfolk who wanted something better. But the monster whine and shut up doors were louder than the cafe and I wonder why that is the setting when I can't see that as what they wanted. It's the no, right? I start to tell myself about what Miss Amelia could have wanted when her lips said maybe yes, for a time, to the hunchback and Marvin Macy.
My favorite stories were Wunderkind and Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland. I loved this from 'Finland':
Her eyes were wide open, doomed, and proud. And Mr. Brook felt suddenly like a murderer. A great commotion of feelings- understanding, remorse, and unreasonable love- made him cover his facec with his hands. He could not speak until this agitation in his insides quieted down, and then he said very faintly, 'Yes. Of course. The king of Finland. And was he nice?'
Madame Zilensky tells lies. Preposterous lies that have no gain apparent to the naked eye. So he strips her bare. The leftovers are a dying. They weren't lies. (I always favored George Costanza's lying seminar. "It's not a lie- if YOU believe it.") Mr. Brook imagines their music teacher pouring her life into her symphonies, with nothing to spare. She imagined other lives. Two eyes like feet on different sides of true and false. She can live both at the same time. It is almost true. Pushing one back over the line would kill her. An out of soul with nowhere to return. I don't know but I really loved that he saw her dying and tried to pull back. I loved the instant regret even more than I loved those couple of townspeople who couldn't try to imagine Miss Amelia was a murderess.
The man said slowly. 'I love you.'
All along the counter the men laughed. The boy, who had scowled and sidled away, did not know what to do. He looked over the counter at Leo, and Leo watched him with a weary, brittle jeer. The boy tried to laugh also. But the man was serious and sad.
'A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud' is another cafe. The old man has lost his love, a woman he called Dodo. She completed him and every thing anyone ever said about love that you didn't feel because you didn't know them. An abstraction, a tree's shadow on your shade that looks like something else. A cloud as a bunny rabbit, maybe, or a stone's thrown in a blank pool. "I love you," he'd tell you and you would sit in the cafe, maybe, and feel helpless and someone else would tell him to shut up already. He is lost without something. I thought about my brother hating his bar-tending job after the recession started dipping harder and harder. Everyone cries into their drinks and you have to look at them, have to say something. He tells you he loves you and what does he want back? You can't give it to him.
'Wunkderkind' reminded me a little of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. When she cries over her father giving her an egg to eat. The out of life feeling when you don't want to eat anything. She imagines hiding the sounds of the chocolate bar wrapping during the school day. I have forgotten to eat most days of this week myself. I know the feeling. It's a disquieted gut feeling and what you are hungry for isn't food. The unhealthy stomach travels to the other bones in a school sing song ballad. She's a musical prodigy, or at least they always say she is, or she just thinks they said it about her. The echo is around like food you can't eat and you are always hungry. The hunger extends and nothing fills and she runs out into the street in the wrong direction. Home is probably going to be the wrong kind of food too.
Last year I read that McCullers waited on the doorstep of Djuna Barnes (I loved Nightwood too). She did not shout down from her window, the door did not open for her. Take me with you didn't happen, I guess. I know it didn't but I can't hear the words past what I call waiting for hours for something good to happen time moves too damned slowly when it never does happen. I wanted to say something to her in the past. Something like "No, don't do that! Don't wait for her! Get up!" I don't like anyone not reaching out to her. This has stayed in my mind whenever I think of McCullers... I wonder if anyone ever wanted to be Carson McCullers (probably over the literary acclaim and all of the depressing "She wrote that when she was 23!" hand clapping applause that doesn't take you by the hand to lead you anywhere). I have this feeling about these stories of people wanting to be someone else. I wonder if anyone ever wanted to be me. My nemesis the turtle said he wouldn't wish me on his worst enemy because I can't eat anything that tastes good. Turtle is so right. I like the tastes of words on the tongue, telling about stuff. What am I eating, though? I want to talk about love like about what the old man looked like when he was talking about love to that young boy. Wish for something better for Miss Amelia. Say you don't have to be a Wunderkind. It's not going to be "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Times" if you don't feel the music like you really, really mean it as you play. There's something else you can pick up. For her I see her watching her teacher. He spontaneously crouches beside her, outside of the unnatural lights, inside his own space. It's because she doesn't have hers. She's trying to be a Wunderkind, in his. I don't want anyone to want to be someone else and at the same time I feel this ache inside like that's all I really want is to be someone else. These stories make me think of that feeling more than anything else so I'm caught between wanting to talk about them to me and be them and wanting them to talk to me like I'm me. It's an almost. Short stories end and go on without you too soon. Maybe that's it.
May 25, 2015
Farks Falls, um lugar isolado do mundo, de invernos agrestes e verões escaldantes. Pouco mais tem além da fábrica de algodão; as humildes habitações; uma pequena igreja e a mercearia. Ao terminarem o turno da fábrica, os operários nada têm para fazer além de observar as vidas uns dos outros ou, quando muito, podem ir até à estrada ouvir as conversas, os cantares e o som das picaretas dos doze prisioneiros que ali trabalham.
Amélia Evans, uma mulher de forte compleição física, bem sucedida nos negócios, rude, avarenta, belicosa e solitária que, além de gerir a mercearia - mais tarde transformada em café - é a curandeira das mazelas físicas dos habitantes.
Lymon Willis, um anão corcunda, empreendedor e cativante que um dia chega à povoação - não se sabe vindo de onde - e se afirma primo de Miss Amélia. Ao contrário do esperado, Miss Amélia recebe-o em casa e, por amor ao anão, torna-se uma mulher diferente.
Marvin Macy, um homem bonito, conflituoso e sem escrúpulos que se transforma num homem bom ao apaixonar-se por Miss Amélia, com a qual está casado durante dez dias.
Pelos olhos da população, são-nos mostradas as metamorfoses no carácter das três personagens, envolvidas num triângulo de amor, em círculo, no qual ninguém é amado por quem ama.
É extraordinário como Carson McCullers consegue em tão poucas páginas, e de forma tão bela, dizer tanto:
Sobre o poder redentor, e também destruidor, do amor;
Sobre a irracionalidade do amor, que nos leva a amar até quem é improvável amarmos;
Sobre a importância para o ser humano de amar, sendo irrelevante se é amado ou não.
Amélia Evans, uma mulher de forte compleição física, bem sucedida nos negócios, rude, avarenta, belicosa e solitária que, além de gerir a mercearia - mais tarde transformada em café - é a curandeira das mazelas físicas dos habitantes.
Lymon Willis, um anão corcunda, empreendedor e cativante que um dia chega à povoação - não se sabe vindo de onde - e se afirma primo de Miss Amélia. Ao contrário do esperado, Miss Amélia recebe-o em casa e, por amor ao anão, torna-se uma mulher diferente.
Marvin Macy, um homem bonito, conflituoso e sem escrúpulos que se transforma num homem bom ao apaixonar-se por Miss Amélia, com a qual está casado durante dez dias.
Pelos olhos da população, são-nos mostradas as metamorfoses no carácter das três personagens, envolvidas num triângulo de amor, em círculo, no qual ninguém é amado por quem ama.
É extraordinário como Carson McCullers consegue em tão poucas páginas, e de forma tão bela, dizer tanto:
Sobre o poder redentor, e também destruidor, do amor;
Sobre a irracionalidade do amor, que nos leva a amar até quem é improvável amarmos;
Sobre a importância para o ser humano de amar, sendo irrelevante se é amado ou não.
February 16, 2018
يمكن النظر إلى هذه الرواية باعتبارها المعادل الأدبي لما كتبه أفلاطون عن الحب. ولو أني لا أذكر أين كتب أفلاطون ما كتبه عن الحب، إلا أني أذكر مضمونه.
الحب يسلب الإنسان الاتزان والعقل، يفقده صوابه. صحيح أنه يحثه على السعي والبحث عن نصفه الآخر المفقود، إلا أنه، وفي سبيل السعي خلف المفقود، يفقد ما هو بحوزته بالفعل.
جميعنا يسعى أن يكون محبوبًا، لكنه يسعى، وبشكل أساسي، بشكل أعظم، أن يكون محبًا.
أن تكون محبوبَا بهذا أمر معتاد، لكن لا دخل لك به. أي: ليس شيئا تعتد به وتمتاز. أما أن تحب فهذا هو منجزك أنت، بشخصك، بذاتك الفعالة.
ما الذي يحيل شخصًا جادًا وصلبًا مثل الآنسة إميليا إلى شخص بمثل هذا الوهن والتبعية والخفة؟
هو الحب، وإن لم يجل المؤلف حقيقة هذا الحب.
الرواية تحكي عن مقهى صغير منعزل بمقاطعة تشيساو تحكمه امرأك مطلقة قوية الجسم وسليمة العقل، بالقدر الذي يسمح لها أن تعيش منفردة بذاتها ولا تشعر مع ذلك بالأسف لذلك.
يظهر لايمن، ابن الخالة القصير، الذي يحيل حياة إميليا من الكمون إلى الحركة ومن الجمود إلى الانطلاق.
تتسارع الأحداث بشكل كبير لتصل إلى عودة شخص غير منتظر بالمرة، عودة شخص تؤثر لا في شخص إميليا ولكن في حياة كل فرد بل وحتى في القرية ومؤسساتها وبيوتها.
القصة كانت مملة بشكل كبير وإن كنت متلهفًا لمعرفة ما سيجري وما ستؤول إليه الأحداث، وإن كنت تنبأت بنهاية شبيهة بمجرد ملاحظة تصرفات لايمن السادومازوشية تجاه ميسي شيء ما.
الحب يسلب الإنسان الاتزان والعقل، يفقده صوابه. صحيح أنه يحثه على السعي والبحث عن نصفه الآخر المفقود، إلا أنه، وفي سبيل السعي خلف المفقود، يفقد ما هو بحوزته بالفعل.
جميعنا يسعى أن يكون محبوبًا، لكنه يسعى، وبشكل أساسي، بشكل أعظم، أن يكون محبًا.
أن تكون محبوبَا بهذا أمر معتاد، لكن لا دخل لك به. أي: ليس شيئا تعتد به وتمتاز. أما أن تحب فهذا هو منجزك أنت، بشخصك، بذاتك الفعالة.
ما الذي يحيل شخصًا جادًا وصلبًا مثل الآنسة إميليا إلى شخص بمثل هذا الوهن والتبعية والخفة؟
هو الحب، وإن لم يجل المؤلف حقيقة هذا الحب.
الرواية تحكي عن مقهى صغير منعزل بمقاطعة تشيساو تحكمه امرأك مطلقة قوية الجسم وسليمة العقل، بالقدر الذي يسمح لها أن تعيش منفردة بذاتها ولا تشعر مع ذلك بالأسف لذلك.
يظهر لايمن، ابن الخالة القصير، الذي يحيل حياة إميليا من الكمون إلى الحركة ومن الجمود إلى الانطلاق.
تتسارع الأحداث بشكل كبير لتصل إلى عودة شخص غير منتظر بالمرة، عودة شخص تؤثر لا في شخص إميليا ولكن في حياة كل فرد بل وحتى في القرية ومؤسساتها وبيوتها.
القصة كانت مملة بشكل كبير وإن كنت متلهفًا لمعرفة ما سيجري وما ستؤول إليه الأحداث، وإن كنت تنبأت بنهاية شبيهة بمجرد ملاحظة تصرفات لايمن السادومازوشية تجاه ميسي شيء ما.
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