2019 - read the novella "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and the short stories: Wunderkind.-The jockey.-Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland.-The sojourner.-A domestic dilemma.-A tree, a rock, a cloud.

I would rate the title novella 4* and the rest of the stories between 2.5 and 3.5* The 2 stories that I liked best were "Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland" and "A Domestic Dilemma". I was a bit surprised by the fact that many of the stories were not set in the South.

I am giving the book a rating of 4* because of the novels "The Member of the Wedding" (4*) and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (5*), both of which I have reviewed separately. ( )

2019 - read the novella "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and the short stories: Wunderkind.-The jockey.-Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland.-The sojourner.-A domestic dilemma.-A tree, a rock, a cloud.

I would rate the title novella 4* and the rest of the stories between 2.5 and 3.5* The 2 stories that I liked best were "Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland" and "A Domestic Dilemma". I was a bit surprised by the fact that many of the stories were not set in the South.

I am giving the book a rating of 4* because of the novels "The Member of the Wedding" (4*) and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (5*), both of which I have reviewed separately. ( )

From: Georgia: An Echo of Sounds of the Chain Gang
http://wp.me/p14mpp-dZ

Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of a Sad Café, is a novella of greed, love, deceit, and revenge, which is set in a remote town in rural Georgia where "The largest building, in the very center of town, is boarded up completely and leans so far to the right that it seems bound to collapse at any minute.”

The building appears deserted, but “on the second floor there is one window which is not boarded; sometimes in the late afternoon when the heat is at its worst a hand will slowly open the shutter and a face will look down on the town. It is a face like the terrible dim faces known in dreams—sexless and white, with two gray crossed eyes which are turned inward so sharply that they seem to be exchanging with each other one long secret gaze of grief.”

Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of a Sad Café is not a happy story and the principal characters do not arouse our sympathy as they suffer. Amelia, the woman peering out of the second story window had her moments of glory in the little town, but she lost everything and ended up isolated and alone.

Fortunately for readers, the The Ballad of the Sad Cafe has been republished and is available as an eBook on Kindle and Kobo. Take advantage of the opportunity to read stories of Georgia and the South in the 50s as told by a skilled and provocative story teller.

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