Okay, so, as much as I love Carson McCullers (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of my all time favorites), I found this to be a bit disappointing. It's all technically there: the "freaky" characters, the sexual identity crisis(es), the "Southern Gothic"-yness of it all. But it's too short, the characters flash across the page and don't feel fleshed out. What is even the point of Anacleto, other than another "freak?" The plot never has any momentum. Am I supposed to focus on Captain Penderton's closet-case story, or Alison's depression, or Private Williams' stalking? I feel they're meant to be intertwined and show the interconnectedness humans rely on or something deep like that, but it doesn't work nearly as well as McCullers has accomplished in her other work.

What saved it, of course, is her writing. Clear and beautiful as ever, it's really the redeeming quality of the novel.