We all thought that this book was an exemplary piece of writing by a young woman - barely out of her teens - illustrating the deep south in Georgia, USA, during those times of bleak hardship, deprivation, embedded racism and social isolation. She became a literary sensation upon publication of this, her first novel, and was hailed as the first white author to write with such insight, humanity and perception about the
racial injustices and hardships from a black person's perspective. It ranks alongside books by Steinbeck, Checkov, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy who also write about societal misfits, outsiders and the deeply sad and lonely.
The protagonist is John Singer, the deaf-mute 'silverware engraver' who becomes the novel's central persona for the other characters; his soul mate Spiros Antonapoulos, the obese deaf-mute Greek 'sweet maker' who is Singer's raisond'etre. The other main characters are Mick (Margaret) Kelly the teenager, Biff Brannon the owner of the all-night bar-diner, Jeff Blount the drunk labour activist and Dr Benedict Carson the frustrated, idealistic Negro doctor. The novel revolves around John Singer, as each of the four main characters seek him out to unburden themselves and share their aspirations and frustrations in his silence, without his judgment, criticism or even response. He is like a conduit or
channel of their life stories, as the novel unfolds in its many layers. The stories are multi-faceted and totally individual within the narrative, yet together they form a closely observed, sensitive, empathetic picture of these characters in the deep south in the 1930s.