Carson McCullers

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town’s gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes “Wunderkind,” McCullers’s first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Café is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South’s finest writers.

Carson McCullers’ prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine.

Set in Georgia on the eve of court-ordered integration, Clock Without Hands contains McCullers's most poignant statement on race, class, and justice. A small-town druggist dying of leukemia calls himself and his community to account in this tale of change and changelessness, of death and the death-in-life that is hate. It is a tale, as McCullers herself wrote, of "response and responsibility--of man toward his own livingness."

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.

Bajo el título de uno de ellos, La balada del café triste, se agrupan en este libro varios de los relatos más significativos de la singular y sutil narrativa de Carson McCullers, que han accedido ya a la consideración de clásicos de la moderna literatura norteamericana y constituyen incursiones en la silenciosa, secreta y sagrada intimidad del alma de sus personajes. Narrados con un prodigioso sentido de la construcción, los relatos de Carson McCullers alcanzan una resonancia interior que va mucho más allá de su sencilla y directa observación de la realidad. El mundo punzante, desesperanzado y profundamente poético de Carson McCullers constituye, en palabras de Edith Sitwell el legado de «una escritora trascendental».

Romanul Inima-i un vinator singuratic este construit in jurul lui John Singer, un surdomut care devine, paradoxal, confidentul ideal al mai multor personaje neobisnuite: un proprietar de cafenea insingurat, Biff Brannon, un medic de culoare prea cult pentru a izbuti sa se faca inteles de familia sa, Benedict Mady Copeland, un agitator socialist alcoolic si pe jumatate dement, Jake Blount, si o adolescenta saraca, Mick Kelly, care-si afla consolarea in muzica. Fiecare dintre personajele in mintea carora patrunde autoarea este in felul lui un inadaptat, chiar si aparent normala Mick Kelly. Reusind sa surprinda izolarea individului, in jurul careia graviteaza intreaga conditie umana, si dovedind un simt acut pentru tensiunile rasiale din sudul Statelor Unite, Carson McCullers tese o poveste obsedanta, memorabila, facind sa razbata vocile celor respinsi de societate, ale celor uitati, ale celor abuzati. Romanul a fost ecranizat in 1968, filmul avindu-l ca protagonist pe Alan Arkin. „Traiesc inconjurata de oamenii pe care ii creez si asta mi-a facut mereu singuratatea absoluta mai putin apasatoare.” (Carson McCullers) „Cel mai impresionant aspect al romanului Inima-i un vinator singuratic este surprinzatoarea umanitate care ii permite unui scriitor alb, pentru prima data in fictiunea sudista, sa trateze personajele de culoare cu aceeasi usurinta si nepartinire ca pe cele de aceeasi rasa cu ea. Acest lucru nu poate fi pus pe seama stilului sau parerilor politice, ci pare sa provina dintr-o anumita atitudine fata de viata.” (The New Republic) „Inima-i un vinator singuratic are o forta, o impulsivitate si o siguranta remarcabile. Arta lui Carson McCullers seamana cu un tablou de Van Gogh populat cu personaje din scrierile lui Faulkner.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Escrita en 1940 con tan sólo veintitrés años, El corazón es un cazador solitario fue la primera novela de "Carson McCullers" y dio a conocer la magnitud de su talento. Un clásico de la narrativa contemporánea que revolucionó el panorama literario norteamericano y se convirtió inmediatamente en una de las obras capitales de la narrativa.