The book was published in June It was an immediate success. When one reads that Carson McCullers is a girl of 22 it becomes more than that. Maturity does not cover the quality of her work. It is something beyond that, something more akin to the vocation of pain to which a great poet is born. Reflections in a Golden Eye received a mixed critical reception, and its author faced ridicule from the people of her hometown who saw negative reflections of themselves in the maladjusted characters of the novel.
During the years to McCullers published what many consider her finest creative work. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe , set in a small southern town, is the lyrical story of jealousy and obsession in a triangular love relationship involving an amazon-like Miss Amelia, a hunchbacked dwarf, Cousin Lymon, and an ex-convict, Marvin Macy. This adaptation proved to be her most commercially successful work. It was critically successful as well, winning the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best American play of the season and the Donaldson Award for best play and best first play by an author.
During the final fifteen years of her life, McCullers experienced a marked decline in health and creative abilities.
Bedridden by paralysis from a series of debilitating strokes, she was devastated by the failure of her second play, The Square Root of Wonderful , which closed after only forty-five performances on Broadway in , and the mixed reception of her final novel, Clock Without Hands On August 15, , she suffered her final cerebral stroke.
Yet they tend to rank McCullers above her female contemporaries as a novelist. McCullers herself had a keen appreciation of her own work without regard to the sex of those with whom she was compared.
Her second novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye, shattered expectations, mostly because of its unconventional subject matter.
The homosexual nature of the relationship between the two deaf-mutes in her first novel was only implied. In Golden Eye the characters' non-standard sexual behavior was obvious. Set on an army base in the South in the s, the novel is about the relationships among Captain Penderton, a bisexual, sadomasochistic, impotent man; Major Langdon, who is having an affair with Penderton's wife; the two wives; a homosexual houseboy, Anacleto; and Private Williams, who has relations with a horse.
The novel is full of perverse scenes and ends with a murder. Most critics found the characters grotesque and unsympathetic. McCullers's second novel was written as her marriage fell apart.
She had taken a female lover, and her husband had taken a male lover. In , McCullers was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. She was awarded another in She also got a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant in That same year, she completed her long novella, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.
Cast in terms of a folk tale with a nameless narrator, it is the story of a female giant, Amelia Evans, who is in love with Lymon, a hunchback. Evans runs a cafe in a small Southern town. Her husband, Marvin Macy, returns from prison and starts a relationship with Lymon. The story ends in a brawl between the married couple and the destruction of the cafe. Many critics considered the story McCullers's finest work, approaching the level of myth.
Tennessee Williams said it was "among the masterpieces of the language. In , the novel The Member of the Wedding was published. McCullers had been working on the story off and on since Again set in a small Southern town, it concerns an awkward, lonely adolescent girl, Frankie Adams. She tries to become a member of her brother's wedding party to overcome her isolation, but her father prevents her from riding in the newlyweds' car.
More realistic than her previous two works, The Member of the Wedding is a sympathetic portrayal of adolescent misery. It won a great reception from critics and the public. Field s of Contribution Author Poet Theater. Resources Related Images. Related Resources. Authorship Original Biography Author. Biography Edited By. Resources Coordination. She died at the age of 50, on September 29, This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.
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