The Ballad of the Sad Café: And Other Stories

The Ballad of the Sad Café broke my heart. Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon, the Macy brothers, and a cast of other sad characters live in a dreary town. "Not much is there except the cotton mill, the two-room houses where the workers live, a few peach trees, a church with two colored windows, and a miserable main street only a hundred years long....The winters here are short and raw, the summer s white with glare and fiery hot." It doesn't sound like a place I want to visit, let alone live. And yet, even in a dreary little town like this one, there is drama and love and raw human emotion.What is this thing called love? Who is this hunchback who came into town and bewitched Miss Amelia and awakened the bleak little town? We quickly learn that his name is Cousin Lymon and that he has the ability to make a connection with everyone with whom he comes in contact, including Miss Amelia. Within a short period of time, Miss Amelia's store is transformed into a café where the townspeople come together to eat, drink, and be merry. It remains the gathering place until the night that Cousin Lymon shows his true colors.In her uniquely skillful way, McCullers tells a story of love and the different and surprising twists it can take. Marvin Macy loves Miss Amelia, but she doesn't love him. She, however, comes to love Cousin Lymon who appears to care for her until Marvin Macy comes back into this desolate little town after a stint in the penitentiary. Cousin Lymon then falls for Macy who doesn't give him the proverbial time of day. The plot thickens.This is not a happily ever after book, but it's one well worth reading, especially if you want to see writing at its best. The descriptions of the people and their environment and emotions are superb. For example, after reading this description of Miss Amelia, I think I'd recognize her anywhere: "a dark, tall woman with bones and muscles like a man. Her hair was cut short and brushed back from the forehead and there was about her sunburned face a tense, haggard quality. She might have been a handsome woman, if, even then, she was not slightly cross-eyed."Unrequited love, the need for human contact, revenge, and betrayal are some of the themes that run throughout the book. Reading it reminded me that love can take us to the heights and depths of emotion and that we are just as likely to fall in love with those who are bad for us as with those who are our perfect matches.

I started reading Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories for two reasons. 1. Carson McCullers had authored them and she had written two of my all time favorite books, The Member of the Wedding (read recently) and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (read in high school). 2. Though I prefer novels to short stories, I couldn't pass up a book with the title, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.These stories were definitely more revealing of the author's quirkiness than were my two much loved novels. Quirkiness aside, I could read Carson McCullers for her language alone. From the story from which the book gets its name - "It was toward midnight on the soft quiet evening in April. The sky was the color of blue swamp Iris, the moon clear and bright"."Down by the creek the square brick factory was yellow with light". "His face was both soft and sassy". "It was not a common thing to have an unknown hunchback walk to the store at midnight and then sit down and cry". --why, I'd sleep like I was drowned in warm axle grease". "Stumpy MacPhail". These were just some of the characters in Miss Amelia's liquor filled Sad Cafe. There were only "3 good people" and "The room was still as death". This story and most of the others put me in mind of O Henry's stories in their artful turn of phrases, unique language and quirkiness of characters and circumstances.There is humor, drama, ridiculousness, an "interior life that is insufficient without the artifice of alcohol" and an absurd little tale about a callous cafe owner, a man who may or may not be crazy who tells a young boy wearing an aviator type helmet that he loves him.Like most of McCullers stories, they are about loneliness and love and love loss. However, none of the stories hold a candle to the novels, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or my favorite, The Member of the Wedding, but they are written by Carson McCullers, reason enough to read them.

These sparely constructed stories of unsatisfied yearning, unrealized hopes, are magnificently— even magisterially done. There are single sentences, even single phrases, that shine forth, demanding not only attention but also placement in the reader’s mind forever. Her early death was a terrific loss for the literary world and readers like us.

I began reading Carson McCullers with her incredible novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I later moved on to her short stories, which had incredible depth, sadness, and soul despite their short length. Miss Amelia in the title story is one of the most remarkable female characters I've ever read about and identified with. If you like Southern gothic with heart, or enjoy Flannery O'Connor, you will love McCullers.

All things considered, probably the nearest to perfection you can get in the art of storytelling. "TheBallad of the Sad Cafe" initself, is a story so remarkable it defies thecommon senses that we employ even to acknowkedge its awesomehumanness. McCullers ismy favorite because I canFEEL her, continually manifested in my daily life.

McCullers writes about the existential problem of evil and goodness that lie at he heart of every man. What's faith? How does trust operate? What is love that enkindles the good that men do. The Café is a microcosm of the real world, where all these questions are answered. The interplay of men and women, wracked first by doubt, then wounded by sinfulness, is enunciated by the author. The resolution towards the end of the novel points to charity as the compensatory gift for men to venture into the fullness of relationships in spite of all existential issues that beset them.

This is a classic for a reason -- still great and transportive. IF you haven't already read it - you're in for a treat. Timeless and meaningful and well, wow. Always. Sheds such light on the human condition.

It's a classic novel.

McCullers written style is sublime. Her emphasis in these works focusses on the human side of ourselves we shove away. She crosses boundaries with the characters in the sense that everyone has a story to tell. The story, Ballad of the Sad Cafe is precise and vivid. The details of the town, the surrounding landscape, the movement of time through the scene draw the reader into that world, and you can feel the sun or hear the stomping of feet or smell the peculiarities of herbs. Her other stories are as relevant today as they were then and as beautifully considered as The Ballad of a Sad Cafe. Well worth the read.

Easy to read style . The short stories were difficult to engage with and therefore not to my liking. I didn't relate to any of the characters in the Ballad of the Sad Cafe as I was reading it, but felt a profound sense of sadness and regret for the main character at the end. McCuller's notion of being unloved and lonely creeps up on you unawares which is quite clever on her part. Worth reading to the end to appreciate the human dilemma. She must have endured a great deal of sadness and emotional hurt in her relationships to be able to write this. Worth reading from a psychological perspective but give the other stories a miss as they are deeply dissatisfying after the emotional engagement with the Sad Cafe.

This is one of those books that everyone should, at some time read, very beautifully written and sad but amusing ..a story of feelings and ordinary people .... I have read this book endless times over the years..this was purchased for my 15 year old Grandson as my contribution to his Library.... many thanks...well packed and good value.

Gorgeously written with as Keats said, 'no designs upon us.' I found the title story somewhat baffiling becauseof the little piece that comes at the end. But each one of them, from the semi-autobiographical "Wunderkind", tothe poignant "The Sojourner", every story is a joy to read. On finishing a single story, one has to sit back, takea deep breath and continue to enjoy the fragrance that is wafting around us.McCullers' training in music always comes across, whether in her figures of speech or the rhythm of her language,and the imagery in inimitable! They leave an indelible imprint.These stories could well be minute meditations on life, with incredible interest in character and setting, and littleor no commitment to a didactic end. They all have a delicate sense of funereal humour. A reminder of what tinylittle beings we are in this infinite and invincible universe, and yet how incredibly fascinating!"Mrs. McCullers and perhaps Mr. Faulkner are the only writers since the death of D. H. Lawrence with an original poetic sensibility. I prefer Mrs. McCullers to Mr. Faulkner because she writes more clearly; I prefer her to D. H. Lawrence because she has no message." – Graham Greene (WIkipedia)Now buy it already! You'll be the richer for it.

The main piece here (The Ballad of the Sad Cafe) is a rather strange but fascinating story about life in a small US town. Very readable and very well written. The small clutch of (bonus) short stories at the end are nowhere near as good in my opinion. But still very glad I bought the book.