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A review by darwin8u
Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
4.0
"Leonora Penderton feared neither man, beast, nor the devil; God she had never known."
- Reflections in a Golden Eye, Carson McCullers
Published in 1941, RiaGE is McCuller's second novel after [b:The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter|48156289|The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter|McCullers Carson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568538541l/48156289._SY75_.jpg|73380610]. Anthony Slide considered RiaGE one of the four great pre-1950 gay English novels (Djuna Barnes' [b:Nightwood|53101|Nightwood|Djuna Barnes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1298480120l/53101._SY75_.jpg|828739], Capote's [b:Other Voices, Other Rooms|2287|Other Voices, Other Rooms|Truman Capote|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329028916l/2287._SY75_.jpg|2222705], and Vidal's
[b:The City and the Pillar|88884|The City and the Pillar|Gore Vidal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320504639l/88884._SY75_.jpg|6145478]).
To me, it was patient, beautiful and sad. Nothing like the melodramatic movie that John Huston made in 1967 out of it later. It's six fabulous characters drill into you. Loneliness and repression run circuits throughout. I felt like [a:Patricia Highsmith|7622|Patricia Highsmith|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1418715271p2/7622.jpg]'s entire ouvre was hatched out of this one egg.* For me, this is not so much gay lit as it is a fantastic psychological novel. Carson can bend the tension in people like a ridding crop and let it snap at will.
* I haven't read one way or the other if Highsmith EVER read this novel, but it almost feels like Highsmith's later works.
- Reflections in a Golden Eye, Carson McCullers
Published in 1941, RiaGE is McCuller's second novel after [b:The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter|48156289|The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter|McCullers Carson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568538541l/48156289._SY75_.jpg|73380610]. Anthony Slide considered RiaGE one of the four great pre-1950 gay English novels (Djuna Barnes' [b:Nightwood|53101|Nightwood|Djuna Barnes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1298480120l/53101._SY75_.jpg|828739], Capote's [b:Other Voices, Other Rooms|2287|Other Voices, Other Rooms|Truman Capote|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329028916l/2287._SY75_.jpg|2222705], and Vidal's
[b:The City and the Pillar|88884|The City and the Pillar|Gore Vidal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320504639l/88884._SY75_.jpg|6145478]).
To me, it was patient, beautiful and sad. Nothing like the melodramatic movie that John Huston made in 1967 out of it later. It's six fabulous characters drill into you. Loneliness and repression run circuits throughout. I felt like [a:Patricia Highsmith|7622|Patricia Highsmith|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1418715271p2/7622.jpg]'s entire ouvre was hatched out of this one egg.* For me, this is not so much gay lit as it is a fantastic psychological novel. Carson can bend the tension in people like a ridding crop and let it snap at will.
* I haven't read one way or the other if Highsmith EVER read this novel, but it almost feels like Highsmith's later works.