The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers, is one of the saddest books I've ever read, so sad that it was hard for me to read much of it at a time. I felt for each and every one of the characters and the frustration over how people who have much in common still cannot take comfort in each other. Because of this inability to connect and see things as they really are, everyone is very alone. Each character has a dream, a purpose, or something he or she looks forward to, and without this, life seems pointless. Unfortunately, these dreams are unattainable and become torments. Mick Kelly is a particularly tragic character, an unusually bright girl growing up with a clear idea of what she would love to do in life, but no means of attaining that goal. There are four troubled and thoughtful personalities who are captivated with John Singer, the deaf man who is boarding at the Kelly's. Singer seems to listen to each of them with a wise ear, but none of them can know for sure what he is thinking, since he does not speak. He just listens, which proves to be exactly what each of them needs. Unfortunately, though, Singer has no outlet, himself. He lives for those rare visits with his old friend, another deaf man who has been committed to an asylum. Singer's relationship with this man, Spiros Antonapoulos, however, is the same: Singer has no idea how much Antonapoulos understands or listens, but he has put him on a pedestal, all the same. Antonapoulos has become the vision and inspiration Singer needs to live. This cannot end happily.

We open our mouths, we talk, but we don't really listen to each other, because we are too full of our own inner discourse. Lonely, indeed.