Clock Without Hands

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.