Carson
McCullers : A Life by Josyane Savigneau (Translator),
Joan E. Howard (Translator)
Here is the
first truly popular biography of one of America's greatest
novelists, the author of such classics as The
Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The
Member of the Wedding, and Reflections
in a Golden Eye. Carson McCullers's life story
rivals the plot of any of her novels. A brilliant, sensitive
artist who had a painful small-town childhood and early
international success, she was crippled by a mysterious disease in
early adulthood and suffered from a fraught mother-daughter
relationship, ambiguous sexuality, and a doomed marriage to an
alcoholic and ultimately suicidal husband, whom she married twice.
Her story also includes a large cast of witty, sometimes feuding
celebrities: Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Katherine Anne
Porter, Richard Wright, John Huston, Edward Albee, Ethel Waters,
and Marlon Brando. The first biographer to have the full
cooperation of the McCullers estate, Josyane Savigneau has
uncovered the private Carson McCullers -- a perpetual adolescent,
a woman whose candor, immense emotional needs, even egoism
sometimes overshadowed her great charm, generosity, loyalty,
humor, and deep intelligence. "You must read this passionate
biography to measure the full extent of McCullers's torment and
her determination to overcome her suffering" -- L'Express
Illumination
and Night Glare : The Unfinished Autobiography of Carson McCullers
(Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) by
Carson McCullers, Carlos L. Dews (Editor)
McCullers'
autobiography is somewhat like her life--fragmentary, painful,
flitting, sad, and short. Written almost 30 years ago--she died at
age 50--the volume was finally allowed to see the light of day by
her protective estate. The book consists of three segments. First
is a novella-sized fragment, which is more vignettes than
narrative, but is marred by repetition and a time line that keeps
hopping about. The second segment contains the World War II
correspondence between Carson and Reeves, her star-crossed and
two-time husband (who himself fell victim to suicide), which above
all demonstrates Carson's love but also her insecurities and
obsessiveness that must have been factors in her own drinking
problems. Finally, the third segment includes an original outline
of "The Mute" --which metamorphosed into McCullers'
brilliant novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Enough to
whet the appetite of literary groupies, but the book leaves one
pining for a full-scale biography. Still, an important piece of
the puzzle for literary historians. Allen Weakland from
The Booklist
