The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

If you pay attention, and succumb to your surroundings, everything that we come into contact with, if we allow them, can be strangely related to each other.



My favorite book of all time is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. McCullers skillfully intertwines 5 characters wherein which she creates a story which explores the struggle with isolation and loneliness. Recently, I started reading The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, an equally satisfying read, which focuses on the same themes as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
In my research on McCullers, I stumbled across a poem by Charles Bukowski, who happens to be another favorite author of mine.


Carson McCullers


she died of alcoholism
wrapped in a blanket
on a deck chair
on an ocean
steamer.

all her books of
terrified loneliness

all her books about
the cruelty
of loveless love

were all that was left
of her

as the strolling vacationer
discovered her body

notified the captain

and she was quickly dispatched
to somewhere else
on the ship

as everything
continued just
as
she had written it

Charles Bukowski


It's not necessarily surprising that Bukowski would write of McCullers and her lost battle with alcoholism being that he was an infamous alcoholic himself.





While on the subject of depressed alcoholic artists, here's Modest Mouse at Albert Hall doing Bukowski. One of my favorites!


Bukowski
by Modest Mouse

"Woke up this morning and it seemed to me, that every night turns out to be a little bit more like Bukowski. And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read. But God who'd wanna be? God who'd wanna be such an asshole? God who'd wanna be? God who'd wanna be such an asshole?"