The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Having loved The Heart is a Lonely Hunter I was really looking forward to reading this. It didn't disappoint. Seems a bit harsher and harder on the characters than The Heart but the main ones are very well developed and believable. Descriptions of people place and weather are brilliant making you feel you know the folk and where they live. The people have the same sort of flaws as Steinbeck describes both naive and chancers picking up what they can out of life. And with a healthy dose of violent undertones. I'm not sure it's quite as good as Cannery Row but it comes close. It's great that the main character is a strong woman although that strength seems to flow from an odd male character who you feel is an analogy. I'm sure someone's written a thesis on it but I like to think that the guy did exist and isn't simply a literary tool to make a point. Anyways it's a great story and the fact that sometimes you have to suspend your belief in the story whilst still empathising with the various characters is testament to how strong and captivating a story teller that Carson is. After all did we believe everything that befell Don Quixote? It's a strange old ending that you sort of know was coming although there's a definite twist in the tail that I won't spoil. Fantastic. There are the added bonus of a number of other short stories in this edition all very much concentrating on a couple of characters building their back stories up letting us know why they're behaving as they are. Great character building that makes you want to read their whole story. The chronology of Carson's life at the back is more than enough material for a story too. Must read more!
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