[.ca] The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories (ISBN 0618565868)

Ill-fated love:
Carson Mccullers was a writer who had a confused, dramatic personal life, from a psychological as well as physical perspective. The feelings of alienation and suffering were prevalent in her life and had a direct influence on her writing. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is a direct reflection of her personal suffering. The story could be categorized as simple and to a certain extent grotesque, centred around three main characters: Amelia Evans, her cousing Lymon, and ill-natured Marvin Macy, all of them eccentric individuals. The setting is a small town alienated in time and space. McCullers writings should be interpreted in an allegorical way. In this particular story she deals with her pessimistic outlook on the nature of love, which according to her is bound to bring tragedy (as much as her own love life was involved in failure). The story abounds on symbolisms and metaphors. Many of her stories are set in the American South and she addresses, in a beautiful allegorical way, the reality of racial bias (in the case of "The Ballad of the Sad Café" she uses the song of the chain-gang men). Despite this expressionistic stage, the reader cannot help feeling empathy for the characters and their drama, which is exactly what McCulleres is willing to achieve through her writings. Highly criticized as well as praised by her contemporaries, McCullers has been somehow forgotten. Many certainly have watched the film "The Heart is a lonely Hunter" but few remember her as the creator of such a beautiful and touching story.

immortal words:
I first read this novella in college. Those immortal words about love haunt me still..."Now comes the time to speak about love, for Miss Amelia loved Cousin Lyman, that much was clear to everyone.", but "'Tis better to be the lover than the beloved." Those passages set out the whole premise for the book about love that proves love can be found where you least expect it. Carson McCullers told my favorite tale about the quirky Miss Amelia and Cousin Lyman. Great read.

Truly odd:
I realize that saying "Truly odd" about a McCullers book is like saying, "There's a tall building in New York," but this is by far her most unusual work. It felt more like an experimentation piece to me than a finished work, but even with that I thought it was brilliant. Her best work is THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, and nothing she ever did after that could compare, but BALLAD should be read, along with REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, and Faulkner's AS I LAY DYING.

Questions not answers:
The "lover and the beloved" are described quite well in "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe". I enjoyed reading the story because the concept of the "lover and the beloved" is written in a way that I can understand and relate to. The rest of the story was not understandable to me. Why did Miss Amelia marry her husband? Why did she hate him? What's with the hunchback? Chain gang? What chain gang? Anyway-read this for the definition of love. For the meaning of love try "The Little Prince".

In the Company of Greatness:
This is a limpid, beautiful story, wonderfully told. The whole setting exemplifies Southern Gothic from the word go: "The town itself is dreary; not much is there except the cotton-mill, the two-room houses where the workers live, a few peach trees, a church with two coloured windows, and a miserable main street only a hundred yards long." I was hooked by the beginning, evoking dilapidation, isolation, heat, distress and latent fear/weirdness. Much has been written on McCullough's "lover and beloved" theme, well explored here. The characters are an unforgettable collection of weirdos, still, somehow, typically American; the descriptions are poetic. In general the writing rings true, is economic yet lyrical - nothing is wasted. Great as "The Great Gatsby", in its way. Much better than "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". It lives up to its title, truly a "ballad" - a songlike story. And the ballad of the mixed-race chain gang that ends it ties the story to the South. I was sorry to finish it! Utterly compelling.