The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers — novel #264

  

It was not a common thing to have an unknown hunchback walk to the store at midnight and then sit down and cry.

• Author: Carson McCullers
• Southern Gothic, American Lit, Novella
• First Published: in Harper's Bazaar 1943; in book form in 1951
• My edition: Mariner Books, 1979 (eBook)
• Setting: Small mill town, Southern U.S.A. probably 1930s
• Also by this author (that I’ve read): The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding 

 

You might infer from the title and my opening hook that this novella involves a hunchback, and a café. Indeed, there are really only four characters: Lymon the hunchback; Miss Amelia his second step-cousin or something and owner of the café; Marvin Macy, Miss Amelia’s husband; and the fourth—the café.

 

I think it was the town that was sad, before there was a café. It was previously a store operated by Miss Amelia, selling among other things her own bootleg whiskey. If not a leading citizen of the unnamed town she is its dominant character. She is tall, rich from suing people, cross-eyed, stoic, and fiercely independent. She had a brief disastrous marriage to town troublemaker Marvin Macy, but he left, more precisely was pushed away by Miss Amelia and ended up in prison. It was a sad, sleepy place until Cousin Lymon strolls into town late one night, professes to be a distant relative of Miss Amelia, and sits down and cries. Surprisingly, Miss Amelia takes him into her home, and the two form a bond. In fact, Miss Amelia loves him.

When she watched him her face had a bright, soft look, and when she spoke his name there lingered in her voice the undertone of love.

But, the author offers a memorable discourse on love that leaves the reader apprehensive of the happy ending. I’ll come back to that.

 

Happily, Lymon’s arrival inspires the advent of the Café, which becomes the town’s center point, a place of comfort and contentment. 

For the atmosphere of a proper café implies these qualities: fellowship, the satisfactions of the belly, and a certain gaiety and grace of behavior.

All is good, until Marvin returns. He makes no attempt on his conjugal rights, nor claims on Miss Amelia’s money, but the tension is rising. The town, and the reader sense a showdown coming.

 

Like most of McCullers’ writing, this story is character driven, but there’s still a plot. I believe it has to do with those famous few paragraphs about love, or on the unequal nature of love.

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.

And…

The beloved fears and hates the lover…

There’s much more of course, and I understand that some find it poignant. I can’t say I agree, nor that I like it much.

 

But that didn’t stop me from liking this novella. I disdain cliché or I’d call it “hauntingly beautiful”; fairly certain someone already has. It is southern gothic after all. McCullers’ writing is definitely beautiful and evoking sympathy. I felt for all the characters, even Marvin. There’s no happy ending. In fact it ends with a chain gang on the outskirts of town, singing a melancholy tune—a sad ballad even.

The music will swell until at last it seems that the sound does not come from the twelve men on the gang, but from the earth itself, or the wide sky. It is music that causes the heart to broaden and the listener to grow cold with ecstasy and fright.

My rating 4 out of 5 stars

 

This is title #32 of 50 for The Classics Club Challenge – Round IV

 

This review is only for the novella. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is also the title of a book of collected stories by McCullers: Ballad plus six short stores. I will read and review the short stories separately.

 

 

As an alternative to McCullers’ definition of love, I offer the following. I like this much better.

 

1 Corinthians 13:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. ⁵ It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, ⁶ it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (NASB)

 

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The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (novel #220)

This was the summer when Frankie was twelve years old. This was the summer when for a long time she had not been a member. She belonged to no club and was a member of nothing in the world. ~ opening lines

 

The author lets you know what this novel is about right away. Because that’s it; that’s the story. Like the only other novel by McCullers I’ve read, this novel is character-driven, with very little plot. It’s a Southern Gothic, coming-of-age tale.

 

This was the summer when Frankie was sick of being Frankie.

 

What adolescent hasn’t experienced that? Frankie spends most days of the long, hot summer in the kitchen with the African-American housekeeper Berenice and Frankie’s six-year-old cousin John Henry. The three spend hours talking about random things or playing cards. They are halfway through the summer before realizing they are not playing with a full deck…and that’s the depressing feeling the novel has.

 

Frankie’s father is a decent parent and does pretty well for a widower, but he hasn’t a clue about what is going on in Frankie’s mind.

 

And though she tries to explain her “unjoined” condition, Berenice and John Henry can’t really understand; no one can, so Frankie is not a member of anything.

 

Until her brother’s wedding, a day trip away, Frankie determines to join the couple on their honeymoon and life after that, never to return to her hometown. She even adopts a new name to be more alliterative with the happy couple. She is now F. Jasmine. For a day or so, the certainty of this plan makes her content and happy. The reader worries how hard she will take the blow when the impossible plan unravels.

 

The Member of the Wedding feels like The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, my only other experience with McCullers. Both novels strike a nearly universal chord: the feeling that no one understands or the desperate need to make someone understand. The Member of the Wedding is a beautiful and poignant rendering of that sentiment.

 

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

 

 

This novel satisfies the category “title about a celebration” in the What’s in a Name 2023 Challenge.

 

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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (34 down 66 to go)

...in his face there was still the look of peace that is seen most often in those who are very wise or very sorrowful.

This is the first time I’ve read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, or Carson McCullers. The book is a modernist, existential, southern gothic novel. The third-person narrative is the story of John Singer, a deaf mute, living in Georgia in the late 1930s.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

This was my first time reading this novel, so I had no idea of the plot. Little did I know…it doesn’t have one. (bit of an exaggeration, but not much) That may sound like criticism, but it isn’t. The novel is decidedly character driven. The characters are hopelessly flawed, completely believable and utterly empathizeable. (I know…it’s not a word, but it’s the non-word I need.) For it is the characters that make this story enjoyable.

The story begins with John Singer and his roommate and friend Spiros Antonapoulos who is also deaf and mute. They have separate jobs, walk to and from work together, and have no other friends. Antonapoulos says very little, that is signs very little, but Singer “talks” quite a bit when they are home together. The reader, and Singer, are not certain how much Antonapoulos discerns. The two get along quite well, until Antonapoulos is institutionalized after several run-ins with the law. He shows no emotion when boarding the bus and leaving Singer. I was actually glad for this development, as I felt Antonapoulos was not a very good friend. He was a glutton, rather simple, and offered very little to Singer.

This leaves Singer to cope alone, which he manages quite well. He begins more interaction with people of the town, four of whom develop a friendship with him. Their admiration grows to a near obsession. There is Mick Kelly, a thirteen-year-old tomboy of a poor family, Jake Blount a drifter and communist, Biff Brannon a recent widower and owner of the local café, and Dr. Copeland an African-American physician.

Each pour out their hearts to Singer. He is fairly adept at reading lips, and his peaceful demeanor and intent smile lead each to believe he understands and sympathizes. In fact, they all believe Singer to be profoundly wise and good, proving what it says in the old book:  "….even a fool, when he holdeth his peace is counted wise."

Singer is no fool mind you, but neither is he the enlightened sage his friends imagine him to be. Mick dreams of being a musician but senses she is trapped in her life with no hope for her dreams. Jack, the communist agitator disdainfully categorizes people as those who know, and those who don’t. Dr. Copeland longs to fight for what he calls the strong, true purpose, but mostly he just broods on the plight of his people. Brannon doesn’t speak much, but he seems to be seeking something. All four hold Singer in confidence and seem to find comfort and hope in his presence. Unfortunately, the realization that he is as lost and confused as themselves, does not come gradually. It comes in a single, violent moment.

Singer is described often with his hands in his pockets. I thought it odd that McCullers kept mentioning this, until I realized…he speaks with his hands. Once Antonapoulos left, there was no one for Singer to speak to – hence he kept his hands thrust into his pockets.

Actually quite brilliant. Why McCullers is a published author and I am not.

There is a touching scene when Singer travels to visit Antonapoulos, and chances upon three deaf mutes that he can communicate with. They immediately welcome him into their group and for the first time in the story, I was happy for Singer because he had someone to listen to him. But sadly, he grows taciturn and the moment passes.

I enjoyed this story, even for the lack of a plot. The characters were compelling, especially Singer. Like the four lonely hunters, I too believed Singer had something special to offer. And in a sense, he did; he listened. That alone is something. But McCullers allowed me to gradually realize what the hunters did not. Their hearts were deluded…they thought…they believed…they perceived…that Singer understood. That’s the chord this story touches: the need to feel that someone understands.

A word about the author: Carson McCullers is a woman. To the very literary, this is not news, but to me it was. I probably should have guessed based on the title…I don’t think a dude would have come up with the title, though it is perfect. So for the record…Evelyn Waugh is a man, Carson McCullers is a woman. Mick is at least partially based on McCullers who was a promising musician, accepted to the Julliard School of Music, but unable to attend for lack of tuition. 

Fortunately, she studied creative writing at Columbia…and that worked out pretty well.

Narrative regarding Singer: 

All kinds of people became acquainted with him. If the person who spoke to him was a stranger, Singer presented his card so that his silence would be understood. He came to be known through all the town. He walked with his shoulders very straight and kept his hands in his pockets. His gray eyes seemed to take in everything around him, and in his face there was still the look of peace that is seen most often in those who are very wise or very sorrowful.

Film Rendition: There is a 1968 film version with Alan Arkin as Singer, and Sondra Locke as Mick. It was well cast, and fairly faithful, but it didn't quite capture the feeling of the book.

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