The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers · first published 1940
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A novel about isolated people in a small Southern town, known for its empathy and its portrayal of invisible, lonely lives. It is frequently ranked among favorite American novels.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Set in 1930s Georgia, the novel centers around a deaf and mute man, John Singer. Singer has been devastated by the loss of his dear friend, Antonapoulos, who was committed to an asylum for bad behavior
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Try somewhat off-beat American novels: 1. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurty 2. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers 3. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole They are great novels, and sadly, are less known than they should be. If you are into movies, there are great ones like "Paris,…
on “Larry McMurtry has died” ↗…by Harper Lee The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918) On the Road by Jack Kerouac The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson Mccullers The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Ulysses by James Joyce
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2013” ↗Carson McCullers? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heart_Is_a_Lonely_Hunter to start
on “On Solitude” ↗…timely question. I can't pick just one at the moment, but I'll split a couple of top choices via genre. (Also worth noting that in the end, my final choice would probably be the Bible.) Fiction: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner Non-fiction: In Good Company - Stanley Hauerwas Into the Silent Land - Martin Laird
on “Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?” ↗“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” is among my all time favorite works. It’s not as simple as stories about lonely people or marginalized people. She writes stories about people with invisible lives. Especially if you’re familiar with…
on “Life at the sad café: Carson McCullers” ↗Various "bests" based purely on feelings - They're Going to Love You - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Roadside Picnic - To Kill a Mockingbird - Catch 22 - Blindness - No Country for Old Men (various McCarthy books could rotate into this slot)
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗…rise of social media—assuming we ever had anything more than isolated pockets of actual communication, which I am not convinced we have. Literature has been exploring this for a good many decades, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a good example and even shows how our relation to it has changed in the 80 odd years since its release; these days when it comes up the interpretation/discussion about it is more often than not, about…
on “How we lost communication to entertainment” ↗…In Hell - Arthur Rimbaud Here Kitty Kitty - Jardine Libaire American Desert - Percival Everett Sex in N.Y. City - Alison Maddex The Paris Review - Let's Put the Future Behind Us - Jack Womack The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers A History of the Middle East - Peter Mansfield Blinded By The Right - David Brock ? - Jack London Oariannus 1983 - ? The Medici Aesop - The New York Public Library Futurist Manifestos…
on “A Look Into Moby’s Manhattan Studio” ↗