The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
An excellent book written with real pathos and empathy with the main characters. These characters are well built up and we see their strengths and weaknesses. The strengths are a sense of commitment to their beliefs those being ones that we can identify with. The weaknesses are an otherworldliness that distances them from those around them and in some sense from us as readers. The main protagonists, ironically given the way that Carson writes, don't seem to have empathy for others or understand how they cause distress for their loved ones and try to force their views on others. The hub of attention is a deaf mute who is used by others as someone to pour their hearts and dreams out to but turns out to be someone who truly doesn't understand them and is simply a person for them to use as therapy. I think the point Carson makes is that everyone needs a shoulder to lean on and not necessarily one that tries to help resolve your problems.
The stories weaved into the characters reminds me of Steinbeck's Cannery Row which is one of my favourite novels which I can go back to time and again. This book isn't as riotous and laugh out loud in it's anecdotes but has the same sensitivity to descriptions of outsiders with their flawed characters (aren't we all?) There is at times an uncomfortable undercurrent of underage sex which is realised in a gentle and romantic way.
Overall a novel I really enjoyed, as did Debbie, leaving me wanting to read more by this young author (was at the time of writing) who had a troubled life. This was her first novel published 5 years before Cannery Row. Recommended.
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