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The Ballad of the Sad Café and other stories, by Carson McCullers, is one of those books on the 2013 Christmas shopping list of President Obama.  First published in 1951, it is a classic work for generations, with a number of different stories.

The Ballad of the Sad Café is the longest story among a human triangle in an isolated Georgia town.  The human triangle surrounds the rising and the closing of a café owned by Miss Amelia. Miss Amelia is a formidable and rich southern woman who has lived her life alone, except for a marriage that lasted 10 days.   All things that could be made by hands Miss Amelia prospers, including people who are very sick.   She could not be at ease with most people, other than the very sick, as people could not be taken into her hands and changed overnight to something more worthwhile.   With the appearance of her cousin Lymon, a sick hunchback, her store changes overnight to become a café and a gathering place for the town.  Miss Amelia and cousin Lymon falls into a lover-and-being-loved relationship until the return of her ex-husband Marvin, and then the triangle relationship evolves to the demise of Miss Amelia, the café and the town.

There are other shorter stories in the book.  “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland” is about an intriguing discovery of the head of the music department regarding a new faculty member Madame Zilensky.  Zilensky owns an impressive reputation as composer and pedagogue; and yet live her life in lies.  “A Domestic Dilemma” is about the relationship of Martin Meadows and his staying-home wife who is becoming an alcoholic.  And then there is the “Sojourner” that tells the longings for love and belongings.

Carson McCullers use stories to share her acute observation of individuals, their relationship and their emotion towards love, being loved, loneliness, longing and other irrational sentiment; these sentiment may be missed but was plainly to be seen in the real world.   This is what she writes about love in “the Ballad of the sad café” – “love is a joint experience between two persons – but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved.  There are the lover and the beloved, but the two come from different countries”.

These stories leave a lingering flavor and remind the relationship subtlety we often miss in our busy daily life.  If you enjoy reading intriguing stories with delicate and in-depth portrait of relationship and emotions, this one would be for you.

Miss McCullers is the author of “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”, published in 1940 when she was 23; the book was later adapted into play and film.

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