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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Great great book. Loved the character of the Judge, despite all his flaws.
I love McCullers as a writer, and this book is no exception. It is a bit more a reflection on death than her other writings. But I still enjoyed it.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has made me incredibly sad. Sad over how our world was and how it still is. A heaviness has come over me.
I love McCullers depiction of small town southern US. Taking place in the 1950s, racial equality continues to rise despite the white power structure and its intimidation, violence and superior attitudes. This is the story of an old judge and former congressman, his grandson and the people in their lives. The grandson can't swallow the old judge's attitudes, the blue-eyed black kid with an attitude and a past known only to the judge, the pharmacist dying of cancer The story is sad and the end is violent. Another tragedy for the old south.
mysterious
slow-paced
Set in a small, Southern town on the eve of the Court's decision in Brown v. Board, Clock Without Hands explores the lives of several of the town's residents as they deal with the changing racial climate of the civil rights era. A story of fear, intolerance, and violence, the novel features a rich and interesting cast of characters that quickly draws you in and a terrible building tension that keeps the pages turning. One of my favorite characters that I've read in a long time is Judge Clane, a "great Southern statesman" who feverishly collects Confederate dollars in the blind hope that the currency will one day become valuable again. I found it really interesting how the story dealt with the law in the town through the character of the Judge, portraying it as sort of a guiltless, inflexible mechanism for resisting change.
My favorite thing about the novel was the depth and richness of its characters. McCullers writes with an unsparing tenderness, laying bare characters who are either unable or unwilling to see their own personal failures. Faced with the possibility of change and equality, the characters instead take confidence in a false sense of tradition and heritage. When their own memories of the past prove to be too imperfect to give them shelter, they simply adopt a more reassuring history of events and believe in that instead.
This probably seems strange, but the novel actually reminded me a lot of Hamlet in a way. More than anything I think it's because the federal government almost seemed like a separate character in the novel in a way that reminded me a lot of Fortinbras' army (it's been a while so I could be wrong, I even had to double check if that was the right name). Even though it's never physically present, the federal government--with its distant promise of equality and civil rights--becomes increasingly present in the characters' lives in a way that reminded me a lot of Fortinbras' army, sort of an ominous external force that's always bearing down closer, invincible and inevitable.
After I finished the novel, which ultimately offers a promising, hopeful call for equality, I felt restless and I couldn't really figure out what to do with myself for a while. I didn't feel like going out for a walk, had already drunk way too much coffee, and definitely wasn't ready to pick up another book. So I ended up going back and reading the Court's opinion in Brown v. Board again, and that turned out to be the perfect complement to this beautiful novel.
4.5/5
My favorite thing about the novel was the depth and richness of its characters. McCullers writes with an unsparing tenderness, laying bare characters who are either unable or unwilling to see their own personal failures. Faced with the possibility of change and equality, the characters instead take confidence in a false sense of tradition and heritage. When their own memories of the past prove to be too imperfect to give them shelter, they simply adopt a more reassuring history of events and believe in that instead.
This probably seems strange, but the novel actually reminded me a lot of Hamlet in a way. More than anything I think it's because the federal government almost seemed like a separate character in the novel in a way that reminded me a lot of Fortinbras' army (it's been a while so I could be wrong, I even had to double check if that was the right name). Even though it's never physically present, the federal government--with its distant promise of equality and civil rights--becomes increasingly present in the characters' lives in a way that reminded me a lot of Fortinbras' army, sort of an ominous external force that's always bearing down closer, invincible and inevitable.
After I finished the novel, which ultimately offers a promising, hopeful call for equality, I felt restless and I couldn't really figure out what to do with myself for a while. I didn't feel like going out for a walk, had already drunk way too much coffee, and definitely wasn't ready to pick up another book. So I ended up going back and reading the Court's opinion in Brown v. Board again, and that turned out to be the perfect complement to this beautiful novel.
4.5/5
While I was reading this, I kept thinking of Beckett's Malone Dies ([b:Malone Meurt|1453393|Malone Meurt|Samuel Beckett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1183758952s/1453393.jpg|3198398]), written in 1951, ten years before this book. The main character here is also called Malone and he dies slowly while the rest of the story, some of which is a little absurd, happens around him. But dying itself is kind of absurd when you think about it. In any case, I was able to relate to Malone and his peripheral and long-drawn out dying because Malone, in spite of his condition, has memorable moments: dying had quickened his livingness!
As to the title, I wondered if it meant that when you know you have only a limited amount of time to live, as Malone does, you might prefer clocks without hands. I expect Carson McCullers must have thought more than most about dying having been ill all her life. She died a few years after she finished this novel which was her last.
…………………………………
In [b:The Mortgaged Heart|2766290|The Mortgaged Heart|Carson McCullers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1394322951s/2766290.jpg|386473], a collection of McCullers' writings, I came across this poem called 'When we are lost' which mentions clocks:
When we are lost what image tells?
Nothing resembles nothing. Yet nothing
Is not blank. It is configured Hell:
Of noticed clocks on winter afternoons, malignant stars,
Demanding furniture. All unrelated
And with air between.
The terror. Is it of Space, of Time?
Or the joined trickery of both conceptions?
To the lost, transfixed among self-inflicted ruins,
All that is non-air (if this indeed is not deception)
Is agony immobilized. While Time,
The endless idiot, runs screaming across the world.
As to the title, I wondered if it meant that when you know you have only a limited amount of time to live, as Malone does, you might prefer clocks without hands. I expect Carson McCullers must have thought more than most about dying having been ill all her life. She died a few years after she finished this novel which was her last.
…………………………………
In [b:The Mortgaged Heart|2766290|The Mortgaged Heart|Carson McCullers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1394322951s/2766290.jpg|386473], a collection of McCullers' writings, I came across this poem called 'When we are lost' which mentions clocks:
When we are lost what image tells?
Nothing resembles nothing. Yet nothing
Is not blank. It is configured Hell:
Of noticed clocks on winter afternoons, malignant stars,
Demanding furniture. All unrelated
And with air between.
The terror. Is it of Space, of Time?
Or the joined trickery of both conceptions?
To the lost, transfixed among self-inflicted ruins,
All that is non-air (if this indeed is not deception)
Is agony immobilized. While Time,
The endless idiot, runs screaming across the world.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Well-written and touches on a lot of interesting themes (race, identity, sexuality, status, dying) but in the end it feels very unresolved. Maybe that’s the point, there is no easy resolution.
I struggled to finish it because the plot goes very slowly and none of the characters are very likable.
I struggled to finish it because the plot goes very slowly and none of the characters are very likable.