danielgm

This unusual little book caught me completely by surprise - if I'd known how good McCullers was, I'd have picked her up a long time ago! In a nameless American town, deep in the empoverished South, four lives become intertwined thanks to a solitary mute, Mr Singer. There's little Mick, a tomboy about to enter puberty and abandon tree climbing for dresses, who enjoys visiting Mr Singer's room to play chess or just talk (he's a boarder in her home.) There's also Dr Copeland, the town's black doctor, who dreams of bringing revolution to America's race divisions and is uncomfortable with every white person apart from Mr Singer. The group is completed by Jake, an angry drunk also frustrated with the state of America, and Biff, the recently widowned owner of a local bar. These four characters are seduced by Mr Singer's silence - they believe he understands/cares for everything they tell him. They can be themselves because he doesn't judge. They project onto him the image of a person that doesn't exist. But who exactly is Mr Singer? From what I could read between the lines, he's a "queer" man that's had his heart broken by the sectioning of his friend Spiros. There's the Nazi's rise to power in the background as well as the struggles of American workers (whites and blacks brought together in their efforts to keep afloat, though it's clear who has the worse end of the stick). But it's also a coming-of-age story, a call to arms for bringing change to America and a portrait that captures the South's mood at the time. I suppose it's the kind of book read widely in American high schools because of its themes. It's one novel that everyone should read: in this period of economic crisis, it's more timely than ever.

2023-01-02 03:19