What did horses ever do to you, ma'am?

Ohhhhh the inner ghosts. It did not go the way I thought it would, and I love that it didn't.

Cortísimo, engancha casi desde las primeras páginas, pero el final me hizo quitarle una estrella aunque no sé bien qué esperaba de él. Muy fan de anacleto :)

This was strangely evocative of Mishima and Genet for me, doubly surprising considering the Southern gothic setting and the fact that McCullers wrote from a culture and perspective very different from the aforementioned Japanese and French authors. All of the following comparisons are not to discount McCullers's genius. Mishima is my second favorite author of all-time, and to find themes and characters here so parallel to his own was a delight. Elgee and Penderton are both near-Mishiman archetypes: the beautiful, brooding loner with inexplicable urges, and the older man (sexually) obsessed with and jealous of youth and death. Penderton read very gay to me, and I think it's a fair assessment considering McCullers's oeuvre, in which I find lots of coded queer language and characters (Singer in Lonely Hunter being the most prime example).

A few more thoughts about Elgee and Penderton: both are consumed with violence. Elgee's outbursts and criminal behavior reminded me very much of Jean Genet's idealizations of the beautiful criminal. Elgee also sunbathes in the nude, and while not described as a paragon, still manages to inspire jealousy and longing in Penderton. Probably my favorite line mentions the Captain's transcendence of love and hate, and his ultimate desire to shatter the barrier between the two men. This united the novella with McCullers's recurring theme of yearning, the quest for human connection, which is doomed to fail.

Honestly, this novella packs so much into so brief a space, it's worth a read for absolutely everyone. Penderton's idealization and preoccupation with Williams by the end reminded me of so many of my favorite Mishiman heroes. Even without all this cross-analysis, this book is a treasure of thematic depth, elegant prose, and memorable characters. I had initially given this 4-stars, but after writing all this out, have convinced myself to add a fifth.

A strange tale, told by a fairytale type of omniscient narrator ('and this is the way it came about'), dealing with strange longings and frustrations. Weird grotesque characters, a strange mix of DH Lawrence (The Prussian Officer comes to mind) and what might have been the author's personal preoccupations. I couldn't warm to it.

3,5/5

Carson McCullers, já na primeira página desse pequeno livro informa-nos que entre um determinado número de personagens (um soldado, dois oficiais e suas respectivas esposas, um ajudante e um cavalo) um assassinato será praticado, deixando-nos curiosos sobre quem assassina, quem é assassinado.

É assim que aos poucos vamos descobrindo os dramas vividos por esses personagens, tendo como local um forte militar. De certa forma, a história gira em torno do Capitão Penderton, casado com a bela Leonora, amante de seu vizinho, o Major Langdon, cuja esposa, Alison, se encontra enferma e aos cuidados de um jovem criado filipino, Anacleto. Para completar esse zoológico de almas em conflito, o soldado Williams, praticamente um ser à margem, com um intelecto aparentemente limitado (assim como o de Leonora) e emocionalmente instável (provavelmente em razão de sua criação); e o garanhão de Leonora.

O livro acaba por ser um interessante estudo dos conflitos vividos por esses personagens e cujo resultado já sabemos de antemão. Na verdade, poderiam ser descritos como "desajustados", mesmo que aparentem uma capa de civilidade e respeitabilidade, mas que no fundo possuem os conflitos emocionais que todos nós em variados graus temos, mas buscamos esconder sob essas mesmas capas, ocasionando ainda mais psicopatologias e conflitos. Por essa razão, embora as ações descritas no decorrer do livro se localizem na primeira metade do século XX e possa parecer datadas, na verdade, continuam tão atuais como sempre.

I saw the Marlon Brando film years ago, and I was fascinated by it. As I was buying audio books for my commute to and from work, I bought three of McCullers--which included this one. The prose is full of references to golden and amber-colored objects. I love how she sketches out the motives and the loneliness of several characters in such a small novel. It was also timely that I read it during Pride month as well.

This is an interestingly peculiar book. McCullers writes with a directness that can be startling. There are no airs to her approach, she’s direct. The book concerns a group of people in a quiet army camp. With not much to do and ample time for daydreaming and dalliances, these people gradually become intertwined. Eventually, a murder is committed by one of them — yet, all of them have motivations to kill.

McCullers is very good at crafting an atmosphere. Her mise-en-scène is palpable, you can feel the tension in a room or the hot sun warming bare skin. Her characters are enigmatic creatures; animals frightened by a sudden noise or wolves on the prowl. I wanted to know more about them, and in this slim book, I didn’t get their histories to the extent that I wanted. Perhaps that was intentional, adding to the mystique. However, I will need a few re-reads to crack the puzzle, to really understand the characters' motivations.

Regardless, this is an intriguing character study. Where will bored people go to find excitement? How do lonely people find solace? When do friendships become more palpable than marriages? What sustains one's love for another? McCullers dives into these questions and comes to some interesting conclusions. It’s a brief lighting bolt of book, that has left me startled.