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<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\nOFF THE SHELF<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Carson McCullers\u2019 first novel is known as a modern-day classic. To an extent it mirrors her own background of growing up in a poor mill town in the Southern United States.<\/p>\n The story tells of the lives of some of the townspeople and how they all gravitate towards a deaf mute called John Singer. They each confide in him with their problems and aspirations. There is Biff Bannon the local caf\u00e9 owner, a teenage girl Mick Kelly who dreams of making something of herself, Jake Blount a political activist and the town\u2019s African-American doctor Benedict Copeland. This doctor, despite his efforts and position in the town, is unable to change the residents\u2019 attitudes of racism.<\/p>\n John Singer is patient whilst they offload their problems; they are completely unaware that he has his own pain, mourning his friend Spiros Antonapoulos, who has been banished to an insane asylum. McCullers, writing beautifully, portrays a sad collection of hopeless characters; yet there is something haunting about this book which most of us found to be food for thought and a good read. We gave it a score of 7.5.<\/p>\n Tricia Coulthard<\/p>\n OFF THE SHELF “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers Carson McCullers\u2019 first novel is known as a modern-day classic. To an extent it mirrors her own background of growing up in a poor mill town in the Southern United States. The story tells of the lives of some of the townspeople and how they all gravitate towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[347],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-12627","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15473,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15473","url_meta":{"origin":12627,"position":0},"title":"“Frank and Red ” by Matt Coyne","author":"Alan Williams","date":"5th May 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"Frank and Red \" by Matt Coyne Our book club absolutely loved \u2018Frank and Red\u2019! It quickly became a favourite for many of us - with one member even saying it\u2019s now one of their all-time top reads. We were all swept up by the imagination and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for May 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for May 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=421"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16700,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16700","url_meta":{"origin":12627,"position":1},"title":"“I Am Malala ” by Malala Yousafzai","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st March 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"I Am Malala \" by Malala Yousafzai For this month\u2019s book, I Am Malala, an autobiographical work by Malala Yousafzai co-written with Christina Lamb, was a powerful and deeply moving read. Beautifully written and highly informative, it combines personal memoir with a clear-eyed account of politics, culture,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for March 2026"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for March 2026","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=431"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Malala.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16021,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16021","url_meta":{"origin":12627,"position":2},"title":"Famous Lines by John Masefield","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st August 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Famous Lines by John Masefield \u00a0 \"I must go down to the seas again, To the lonely seas and sky....\" These are famous lines from a poem by John Masefield. But no need for our strollers to feel lonely as they gaze out to sea...no doubt wanting to join the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carers Walk"","block_context":{"text":"Carers Walk","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=362"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Carers-Stroll-1-rotated.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13004,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13004","url_meta":{"origin":12627,"position":3},"title":"“The Boy with Two Hearts” by Hamed Amirii","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"The Boy with Two Hearts\" by Hamed Amirii \u00a0 There is so much press coverage around refugees and asylum seekers currently. It is interesting to read the perspective of a young boy and his family who have gone through the harrowing and often dangerous process to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12497,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12497","url_meta":{"origin":12627,"position":4},"title":"Before The Coffee Gets Cold","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd November 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 OFF THE SHELF \"Before the coffee gets cold\" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi I think we all found the idea of this book interesting. Who would not like to go back in time, even for a few minutes. The book provided lots of discussion. The writing at times was a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8854,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8854","url_meta":{"origin":12627,"position":5},"title":"My Mother\u2019s House by Lily Tobias","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th December 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF My Mother\u2019s House by Lily Tobias was written around 1930, so the style of writing is different, in so far as it is lyrical, explanatory and very vivid. The story concerns an intelligent boy who wants to break away from Judaism. The beliefs and actions of Judaism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12627"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12629,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12627\/revisions\/12629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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