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As booksellers, we often overhear customers lamenting that they've always meant to read “that other Jane Austen novel,” or Graham Greene, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but just never found the time. We've tried to remedy that with our Classics I Forgot to Read Book Club by providing motivation and a welcoming space to share your thoughts.

In choosing our ‘classics’ over the past few years, we've tried to select titles that had some visibility among readers, but were not necessarily included in the standard high school English class. We've also sampled a range of genres, from mystery (The Long Goodbye) to comedy (Cold Comfort Farm) to stream-of-consciousness (To the Lighthouse). So, whether our picks are already gathering dust on your bookshelves or this is your first encounter with the literary canon, we encourage you to join us on the last Wednesday evening of every month for conversation about the classics.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

July 2008--The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers

A bleak, understated study of loneliness, racism, and family dysfunction in a small Southern town. Using the viewpoints of five isolated, painfully sensitive characters--a deaf mute, a would-be labor organizer, a restaurant owner, a black doctor, and a young girl with dreams of music and love--McCullers brilliantly unites the personal with the political. There is very little plot per se, but the delicate interplay between the characters, each with his or her own strengths and fatal flaws, and the gradually rising conflict between their hopes and their realities, make this an intriguing read.

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