Clock Without Hands (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Jester is a late-blossoming homosexual; Sherman is a pathological liar and the illegitimate son of a Negro the judge sent to the gallows for the “rape” of a white woman. She is the woman whom V.S. Pritchett called “the most remarkable novelist … to come out of America for a generation.” During and somewhat before this nine-year interval McCullers suffered a succession of personal catastrophes — the death of her husband and a series of strokes, the last of which partially incapacitated her at the age of twenty-nine. For nine years Carson McCullershas been silent. She is the author of some of the most piercing fiction published in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. In addition to The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter [mentioned at top], there were also A Member of the Wedding, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Ballad of the Sad Café. We learn most of what we need to know about Malone’s life: his fading hope as he goes from doctor to doctor, his changing relationship with his sexually vacant wife after he tells her he is going to die, his loss of interest in his business, his involvement with an old friend and drinking buddy, Fox Clane, an aged former congressman and judge.

A Southern Drama - The Atlantic A Southern Drama - The Atlantic

I believe I have rated McCullers' first 3 novels with 5 stars, but, unfortunately I can't get there with this one. It seemed disjointed and unrealistic, and I disliked each of the four main characters equally. They seemed more like caricatures than real people.When her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published in 1940 she became the toast of the literary scene. The novel was wildly successful, more so than her next three works, which were all published before her thirtieth birthday. Jester is Judge Clane's grandson and is learning to fly and studying law. Jester is strangely drawn to Sherman but is growing to despise his grandfather's beliefs. T.J. Malone es farmacéutico tiene 40 años, dirige su propio negocio, tiene esposa y dos hijos pequeños; un día cualquiera va al médico y recibe la peor de las noticias, esta muriendo y no hay nada que hacer sin siquiera sospecharlo, esta noticia lo deja más lleno de dudas que de certezas, se pone a repasar su vida, y se da cuenta que no está listo para morir, su esposa Martha; una mujercita sin chiste pero resuelta, ha hecho un negocio vendiendo tartas y hasta ha comprado acciones de Coca Cola, es decir no se quedará desamparada, y eso en lugar de aliviarlo le hace sentirse ofendido. I found the author’s prose magnificent, and the portrayal of both the Judge, Sherman, and Malone in his predicament very convincing and realistic. In fact, Carson brilliantly conveys the whole noxious atmosphere of this Southern town, noxious at least as regards interracial relations. The third thread of the story winds around the relationship of Judge Clane’s grandson, Jester, and the blue-eyed Negro youth, Sherman Pew, whom the judge engages as his secretary.

Clocks Without Hands - Etsy UK Clocks Without Hands - Etsy UK

From the original review in The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri), September, 1961, by Webster Schott: The book differs appreciably from McCullers' earlier novels. It contains, to be sure, the theme which has always been at the center of her work—man's loneliness and the eternal flaw in the machinery of love. The judge's son, we learn, turned against him; Jester's admiring devotion toward Sherman is received with chilling condescension or rudeness; Malone suffers from his complete spirtual isolation; and Sherman tries to cover up his by boasting of mythical travels, sexual conquests, and experineces of high living. But another and more helpful theme is dramatized; the novel, as Miss McCullers points out, "is about response and responsibility—of man toward his own livingness." The judge and Sherman, bemused by their obsessions, destroy themselves. But the wretched Malone, when chance singles him out to execute the verdict of the mob against Sherman, finds, for the first time, the courage to act in accordance with his conscience. And Jester emerges from his daydreams and uncertainties with the conviction that he wants to carry on his father's work as a lawyer: to fight on the side of justice against passion. At first, I thought the book was just about a pharmacist, Malone, dying of leukemia. He didn’t really understand or accept the diagnosis and kept consulting new doctors only to receive the same verdict. While it is not unusual to find echoes of William Faulkner in the works of Carson McCullers, this 1961 novel calls him to mind the most vividly of any. Race is a constant lurker in both authors’ oeuvre, but it screams its way to the forefront in this, her last novel.

There are several story lines to the novel, all eventually woven into one. The first follows the last year in the life of J.T. Malone, proprietor of an old-fashioned drugstore in a small town in (perhaps) Georgia. As the book opens Malone is informed that he is fatally ill with leukemia. I could not help wondering how many of these feelings were Carson McCullers’ own reaction to her bad health and sure knowledge that she was on a downward slope toward her own demise. This was her last book, written in 1961, and although she did not die until 1967, she was never well during those six intervening years. She suffered during her lifetime from a chronic heart disease, and she had repeated strokes that weakened her and left her in extreme pain and robbed of dexterity.

Clock Without Hands (novel) - Wikipedia

Carson McCullers στήνει τον δικό της μυθιστορηματικό μικρόκοσμο, μέσα στον οποίο δρουν οι τέσσερις βασικοί μυθιστορηματικοί της χαρακτήρες. Με απαράμιλλη τρυφερότητα η McCullers σκύβει πάνω από τους ήρωες της και αντιμετωπίζει ισότιμα και με σεβασμό κάθε τους σκέψη, κάθε τους συναίσθημα, κάθε τους πράξη. Durante todo el libro habla de su cocinera como de un familiar, inclusive dice sentir aprecio por ella, pero se horroriza cuando ella le pide seguridad social y un aumento de sueldo y la corre, aún cuando lleva más de 20 años con el. According to a recent poll, 6 a.m is the most common alarm call, with 8% of all Americans waking up at that time. To help wage this campaign, Judge Clane engages as "amanuensis" a clever blue-eyed young Negro, Sherman Pew, an orphan whose past is a mystery to which the judge alone knows the answer. Sherman becomes the joy of his life; he takes letters, reads aloud "the immortal" Longfellow, makes the judge's toddies, and drinks with him. What the judge does not realize is that he is anathema to Sherman, a proud champion of "the Nigerian race" and wild hater of "Caucasians." Sherman's longing to make a crazy gesture of defiance against segregation precipitates the story's crisis, in which two of the characters find themselves and two are destroyed. Kitabın temel meselesi ırkçılık olsa da bu zaten çok fazla okuyup izlediğimiz bir mesele olduğu için yazarın ölümle ilgili söyledikleri daha çok ilgimi çekti benim. Karakterlerden biri ölümcül bir hastalığa sahip, biri çok yaşlı, birinin -torun- babası intihar etmiş ve sonuncu ise ten renginden dolayı zaten ölüme çok yakın yaşamış hep. Bütün karakterlerin ölümle böyle içli dışlı olması ve bu konuda yaptıkları muhakemeleri okumak çok etkileyiciydi. Bir de McCullers'ın muhteşem bir kalemi olunca iyice keyif verdi okuması.

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Merkezinde ölüm ve ırkçılık olan ama didaktik olmadan birçok konuya değinen, çok güzel yazılmış bir roman Kadransız Saat.