Clock Without Hands : A Novel

An “impeccable” novel about race relations and responsibility set in the civil-rights-era South, by the author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (The Atlantic Monthly). In a small Georgia town, pharmacist J. S. Malone, diagnosed with leukemia, is given a mere year to live—and a lifetime's worth of regret over years and opportunities wasted. Meanwhile, Judge Clane, still reeling from the suicide of his son, looks for meaning in the past and judgment in the present. Clane's grandson, Jester, seeks identity in the wake of his father's selfish act. And all three of them find their stories inexorably bound together as Sherman Pew, a young black man with blue eyes, looking to uncover the truth about his parentage, moves into a white neighborhood, thus upsetting the fragile balance of the town. “One of the few first-rate novelists of our time,” Carson McCullers deftly weaves a story of life and death, love and hate, progress and stagnation, a brilliant examination of the universal human experiences that at once bind us together and tear us apart (Kirkus Reviews). Set in small-town Georgia on the eve of court-ordered integration, Clock Without Hands is Carson McCullers's final masterpiece as well as her most poignant statement on race, class, and individual responsibility. The actors in this allegory are J. T. Malone, a lonely, dying middle-aged druggist looking to redeem his misspent life; Fox Clane, a corrupt old judge and defender of the ways of the Old South; Jester Clane, the judge's orphaned grandson, a directionless adolescent with a strong sense of social justice; and Sherman Pew, an angry, blue-eyed black youth in search of his own identity. Their interlocking stories are told with that unique mix of humor, irony, power, and love that marks all of McCullers's writing. On The Eve Of Court-ordered Integration In Small-town Georgia, Four Characters Interact: J.t. Malone, A Lonely, Dying Middle-aged Druggist Looking To Redeem His Misspent Life; Fox Clane, A Corrupt Old Judge And Defender Of The Ways Of The Old South; Jester Clane, The Judge's Orphaned Grandson, A Directionless Adolescent With A Strong Sense Of Social Justice; And Sherman Pew, An Angry, Blue-eyed Black Youth In Search Of His Own Identity.--cover. Carson Mccullers. A Mariner Book. Set in Georgia on the eve of court-ordered integration, Clock Without Hands contains McCullers's most poignant statement on race, class, and justice. A small-town druggist dying of leukemia calls himself and his community to account in this tale of change and changelessness, of death and the death-in-life that is hate. It is a tale, as McCullers herself wrote, of "response and responsibility--of man toward his own livingness."