The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers

For stories of the American South, there are few more successful than Carson McCullers. Writing only four novels, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (her first in 1940), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), and The Member of the Wedding (1946) are classics. Each was turned into successful plays and filmed, including The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951). Like her friend Truman Capote, her Southern Gothic style has left an indelible mark on literature.

In a lonesome town for a cotton mill and its workers, on a main street a hundred yards long, stands a dilapidated store that was once its center. Tall and sexless, Miss Amelia Evans had once turned her feed and supply store into a cafe, where it was an event to attend. Stronger and more capable than any man in body and mind, Amelia ran the store, tended her still in the backwoods, butchered the meat, and canned the goods. She owned land and property from her father, and from an odd ten-day marriage she will never discuss. When she was thirty, a stranger appeared stating he was her aunt's child, Cousin Lymon. Short and hunchbacked, the rumors spread she would murder him in the night, but she accepted his friendship and began the cafe, serving catfish dinners and liquor. Four years later, the talk of her marriage could not be ignored when her ex-husband returns, and not a living soul was pleased to see him. Marvin was once the handsomest man in town, but any number of wicked things could be said against him. A 22-year-old Amelia agreed to marry him, and when it was done, she walked out of the church ahead of him, carrying on as usual. He had a temper but she could not be tamed, running him off after ten days. Talk was he ended up in the penitentiary. Now, he plans to stay, but Amelia has hung her punching bag in the backyard, practicing for a showdown.

Miss Amelia is unique in literature, and this odd story has a resonance you won't forget. There is no writer like McCullers, whose strange and unforgettable novel Reflections in a Golden Eye is a favorite. Many editions of The Ballad include: Wunderkind, The Jockey, Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland, The Sojourner, Domestic Dilemma, and A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud - stories so short they are like sketches.

Edward Albee adapted The Ballad of the Sad Café into a play in 1963, which was filmed by Merchant Ivory in 1991 starring Vanessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine, which in turn inspired the 1987 Percy Adlon film Bagdad Café.

1951 / Tradeback / 144 pages

My other review for Carson McCullers:

Reflections In A Golden Eye