心是孤独的猎手 (1940)

《心是孤独的猎手》（英语：The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter）是美国女性小说家卡森·麦卡勒斯的长篇小说。这是她的第一部长篇小说（处女作），美国版本于1940年出版，当时卡森·麦卡勒斯年仅23岁。

《心是孤独的猎手》曾获美国脱口秀主持人奥普拉·温芙蕾推荐，成为亚马逊书店的畅销书。

内容

故事发生于美国南方的一个小镇，两位聋哑人是彼此唯一的朋友，其中一位是希腊裔美国人，身材肥胖，担任引领角色；另一位名叫辛格，身材高挑、目光深邃。辛格每天在镇上的咖啡馆用餐，他的温和平静与总带微笑的面容，成为许多迷惘灵魂的倾诉对象。

这些人物包括：拥有音乐天分但叛逆的少女米克、拥抱革命理想的工人杰克、终身奉献于民权运动的黑人医师考普兰，以及外表冷漠的咖啡馆老板比夫……他们将辛格视为情感的出口，在他身上寻求慰藉，试图逃离各自生活的压抑。

译著

该书简体中文版由陈笑黎翻译。

改编电影

本书曾被改编为同名电影，由艾伦·阿金、桑德拉·洛克、斯泰西·基齐与西西莉·泰森主演。

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the debut novel of American author Carson McCullers, who was 23 at the time of publication. It is a Southern Gothic novel about a mute man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the U.S. state of Georgia.

The novel was received positively both as a realist commentary on social conflict and as a parable about fascism.

Title

The title appears to originate from the poem "The Lonely Hunter", written by the Scottish poet William Sharp under the pseudonym Fiona MacLeod, which uses the refrain "But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill."

Plot

The book begins with a focus on the relationship between friends John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulos, who are both deaf and mute and have lived together for several years. Due to Antonapoulos' increasingly frequent alcohol-induced misbehavior, he is put into an insane asylum far away from town, despite Singer's attempts at intervention. Now alone, Singer moves into a new room in the Kellys' house.

Many people in the town are attracted to Singer's presence. The remainder of the narrative centers on the struggles of four of Singer's acquaintances, all of whom frequently visit him: Mick Kelly, a tomboy who loves music and dreams of buying a piano; Jake Blount, an alcoholic labor agitator; Biff Brannon, the observant owner of a diner; and Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, an idealistic physician. Despite his lack of verbal response, each of these people believes Singer has a unique understanding of their struggles.

Singer misses Antonapoulos and makes visits to him in the asylum, but Antonapoulos seems unresponsive to Singer's attempts at communication.

Characters

John Singer

Singer is a deaf engraver who has learned to speak. However, after he meets fellow mute Spiros Antonapoulos, Singer chooses to use only sign language. Many characters in the novel are attracted to Singer’s silent presence and project their struggles onto him, believing Singer originates from or is sympathetic towards their respective demographic groups. For example, Dr. Copeland believes Singer is Jewish, and Blount believes Singer "knows" the Communist political message that Blount is trying to share. However, Singer never confirms or denies these potential aspects of his identity. Initially, McCullers conceived of Singer as a Jewish character named Harry Minowitz, based on a painting of a Jewish man in an art gallery whose expression she found to be "wise, kindly, and compassionate".

Spiros Antonapoulos

Antonapoulos is a Greek manufacturer of sweets. Upon finding out he is also mute, Singer bonds with him, and they live together for several years. However, Antonapoulous appears to have intellectual disabilities and is largely motivated by food and alcohol, which often leads him to behave inappropriately in public. After a string of incidents, Antonapoulos's cousin – who has taken the American name Charles Parker – sends Antonapoulos to an insane asylum. Within the asylum, Antonapoulous's health deteriorates. Singer, who seems to entirely overlook Antonapoulos's negative traits, thinks of his friend frequently throughout the novel and wishes they could be reunited.

Margaret "Mick" Kelly

Mick, whom McCullers initially conceived as a male character named Jester, is a twelve-year-old girl who dresses in boys' clothes. Her family rents rooms in their house to lodgers but nevertheless sinks further into poverty throughout the novel. Mick loves music, going out of her way to listen to it on various radios, and dreams of owning a piano. She develops an increasingly feminine presentation once she begins vocational school, but continues to idolize Singer. Mick eventually leaves school to work at Woolworth's in order to support her family, but feels tricked as she finds herself exhausted after work each day, with no time to think of music.

Biff Brannon