The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Definitely Southern Gothic. This slice of life in 1930s Georgia was heartrending. We follow the lives of several people in a small town, an African-American doctor, a restaurant owner, an itinerant drunk espousing communism and at the center of it all a deaf-mute who connects them all by listening. Mr Singer becomes the unwitting MVP of the town, allowing every person he interacts with to imagine and become a more complete self. Lots of violence, poverty, heartbreak. But definitely not as dark as Flannery O'Connor.