A review by ellies_shelf
Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers
5.0
This is Carson McCullers at her best, writing about society & prejudice in the American South of the early 1950s. Her wit is incisive enough to pierce through all of her (interestingly male) main characters. The 'clock without hands' in the title is explicitly referenced by JT Malone, one of the four main characters, a pharmacist who is diagnosed with terminal illness and feels as if he is watching a clock without hands as he waits for his own death; however, the symbol can also be applied to the other three men and to the atmosphere of sluggish Milan, Georgia where the novel is set.
The South is on the cusp of major change with the federal government pressuring for desegregation. Fox Clane, an all-but-retired congressman weakened by a stroke and diabetes, essentially wants to turn back the clock by bringing back Confederate currency, demanding reparations for the abolition of slavery and fiercely opposing integration; his schemes are cast in a pathetic light by his grandson, Jester, and met with anger by his young Black 'amanuensis', Sherman Pew. The seventeen-year-old Jester (who states towards the beginning of the novel that he no longer believes in white supremacy) is looking back into the past to try to uncover the secret of his father's suicide & watching the clock until his future takes him out of the town where he has spent his childhood. Sherman is also constantly waiting for something to change his existence: an orphan, he fantasises about his mother being a famous singer & towards the end of the novel feels a nagging urge to do something, do something, do something.
Like a clock without hands, the novel itself has little regard for conventional pacing and chapters skip forward through seasons with scant signposting. The ending leaves questions about whether change is possible in the Southern town - whether the clock is going to tick forward into the future or stay stuck in the present.
The South is on the cusp of major change with the federal government pressuring for desegregation. Fox Clane, an all-but-retired congressman weakened by a stroke and diabetes, essentially wants to turn back the clock by bringing back Confederate currency, demanding reparations for the abolition of slavery and fiercely opposing integration; his schemes are cast in a pathetic light by his grandson, Jester, and met with anger by his young Black 'amanuensis', Sherman Pew. The seventeen-year-old Jester (who states towards the beginning of the novel that he no longer believes in white supremacy) is looking back into the past to try to uncover the secret of his father's suicide & watching the clock until his future takes him out of the town where he has spent his childhood. Sherman is also constantly waiting for something to change his existence: an orphan, he fantasises about his mother being a famous singer & towards the end of the novel feels a nagging urge to do something, do something, do something.
Like a clock without hands, the novel itself has little regard for conventional pacing and chapters skip forward through seasons with scant signposting. The ending leaves questions about whether change is possible in the Southern town - whether the clock is going to tick forward into the future or stay stuck in the present.