Carson McCullers "Short Stories" by Reading Club "Books Up!"

Short Stories

carson mccullers

Analysed by the Reading Club: Books Up! Eoi de Vigo

Wunderkind The Jockey Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland The Sojourner A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud

Reviewed by

Salomé Tejo Petra Alma Celia Miralles Sonia García Begoña Rodriguez

Geni Mariñas Vera Graña Belén Tizón Servando Barreiro Nuria Abalde Mónica Rodríguez

Wunderkind reviewed by Salomé Tejo

Wunderkind reviewed by Salomé Tejo

When I read this ending, what stood out to me most was the image of Mr. Bilderbach’s hands. They’re described as “relaxed and purposeless,” it feels worse than if he had yelled at her. All through the story, his hands seem to represent control and guidance, so seeing them like that makes it feel as if Frances has lost her anchor. She seems to realize that the adult who believed in her doesn’t quite know what to do with her failure. The part where the door “shuts too firmly” also felt symbolic. I don’t know if McCullers meant it this way, but it made me think of a door closing on that chapter of her life—as if she’s literally being pushed out of the space where she used to be special. After that, the way she stumbles and even turns in the wrong direction shows how disoriented she is, not just physically but emotionally, as if her talent was the thing that gave her direction before, and without it she seems to be lost

" As she passed through the vestibule she could not help but see his hands—held out from his body and leaned against the studio door, relaxed and purposeless. The door shut too firmly. Dragging her books and satchel she stumbled down the stone steps, turned in the wrong direction, and hurried down the street that had become confused with the noise and bicycles and the games of other children""Wunderkind" by Carson McCullers

Continuation ....Wunderkind reviewed by Salomé TejoCarson McCullers and Joyce's Araby

The last sentence really struck me. Walking into a street full of noise and kids playing, she suddenly seems to be just another child. Earlier, she was “the wunderkind,” someone different and set apart, almost as if she belonged to the adult world of expectations and ambition. Now, she is thrown back into ordinary childhood but without any sense of belonging there either. It actually reminded me a bit of Joyce—especially stories like “Araby” where the young narrator suddenly experiences a moment of painful self-awareness. In Joyce, these epiphanies often reveal the gap between the character’s idealistic self-image and the disappointing reality. Frances has a similar moment here: she realizes that she’s not the genius everyone thought she was, or at least not anymore. Joyce’s characters often face the “failure of expectation,” and Frances faces something even harsher—the burdenof being expected to be extraordinary. So the ending feels tragic, but not in a dramatic way, it is more like a quiet collapse, where the world doesn’t change at all but she does. And for me, that is what makes it so powerful.

Reality Collapse in

“Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland”“Wunderkind” and “The Jockey”

Reviewed by Petra Alma

Reality collapse in “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland,” “Wunderkind” and “The Jockey” by Petra

What drew me to McCullers stories is the way she let reality collapse for her characters. Not in a supernatural sense, but in a human, internal one. Each story contains a moment when the world the character believes in suddenly shifts, exposing a truth they can no longer avoid. I chose these three passages because they show how consistently McCullers returns to this pattern, but always in a different way.

Reality collapse in “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland”, “Wunderkind” and “The Jockey” by Petra

1. From Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland "Never afterward could Mr. Brook forget the face of Madame Zilensky at that moment. In her eyes there was astonishment, dismay, and a sort of cornered horror. She had the look of one who watches his whole interior world split open and disintegrate." [..] "An hour later, Mr. Brook sat looking out of the window of his office. [..] he realized with a kind of cold surprise that the old dog was running along backward."

In “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland,” it is psychological. When Mr. Brook confronts her, the world glitches – the dog runs backward as if her invented truth briefly overrides reality.

Reality collapse in “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland,” “Wunderkind” and “The Jockey” by Petra

2. From Wunderkind "What had begun to happen to her four months ago? The notes began springing out with a glib, dead intonation. Adolescence, she thought. Some kids played with promise - and worked and worked until, like her, the least little thing would start them crying, and worn out with trying to get the thing across - the longing thing they felt - something queer began to happen - But not she! She was like Heime. She had to be." [..] "She felt that the marrows of her bones were hollow and there was no blood left in her."

In “Wunderkind,” it is existential. Frances circles back to the same room where she began, realizing her identity as a prodigy has silently slipped away.

Reality collapse in “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland,” “Wunderkind” and “The Jockey” by Petra

3. From The Jockey "He shook the table so that the plates rattled, and for a moment it seemed that he would push it over. But suddenly he stopped. His hand reached out toward the plate nearest to him and deliberately he put a few of the French-fried potatoes in his mouth. He chewed slowly, his upper lip raised, then he turned and spat out the pulpy mouthful on the smooth red carpet which covered the floor. "Libertines," he said, and his voice was thin and broken."

In “The Jockey,” the collapse is moral. Jockey’s bitter outburst exposes the truth of exploitation that everyone else pretends not to see.

Reality collapse in “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland,” “Wunderkind” and “The Jockey” by Petra

Together, these moments reveal McCullers deep interest in the “split second” when an inner truth surfaces and the world around the character shifts in response.

The Sojourner reviewed by Celia Miralles

The Sojourner reviewed by Sonia García

The Sojourner A meditation on time, loss and a wasted life. by Sonia García Pérez

John Ferris thinks about his meaningless life after an impulsive phone call to his exwife that leads to an invitation for an early dinner at her home, where he meets her husband and two children. “His decision to call his ex-wife was impulsive. The number was under Bailey, the husband's name, and he called before he had much time for self-debate. He and Elizabeth had exchanged cards at Christmas time, and Ferris had sent a carving set when he received the announcement of her wedding. There was no reason not to call. But as he waited, listening to the ring at the other end, misgiving fretted him.”

The Sojourner - part 2A meditation on time, loss and a wasted life. Sonia García Pérez

John experiences a complex mix of feelings seeing his exwife’s life that make him even lie about the qualities of his own life, claiming he will soon marry Jeannine, the woman he has been seeing when he realizes his life has just been a series of short relationships. “In the living room beyond the hall, the husband provided another surprise; he too had not been acknowledged emotionally. Bailey was a lumbering red-haired man with a deliberate manner. He rose and extended a welcoming hand. Bill Bailey. Glad to see you. Elizabeth will be in, in a minute. She is finishing dressing" The last words struck a gliding series of vibrations, memories of the other years. Fair Elizabeth, rosy and naked before her bath. Half-dressed before the mirror of her dressing table, brushing her fine, chestnut hair. Sweet, casual intimacy, the soft-fleshed loveliness indisputably possessed.”

The Sojourner - part 3A meditation on time, loss and a wasted life. Sonia García Pérez

There isn’t a lot of action in this short story but so much of everybody’s life on it (loss, divorce, regret, wasted time, unfulfilled promises) that makes you wonder about your own life’s expectations and accomplishments. Finally, John realizes his painful reality. His father is dead, he has lost Elizabeth, whose music haunts him and keeps coming back always fragmented, he has no wife, no son. He always brings too little to a relationship and has never been able to keep his promises and now it’s too late. L' improvisation de la vie humaine," he said. There is nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book.” "Monsieur Jean," Valentin said, the guignol is now closed." Again, the terror the acknowledgment of wasted years and death. Valentin, responsive and confident, still nestled in his arms. His cheek touched the soft cheek and felt the brush of the delicate eyelashes. With inner desperation he pressed the child close -- as though an emotion as protean as his love could dominate the pulse of time.”

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland reviewed by Begoña Rodríguez

Source for image here

Madame Zilensky reviewed by Begoña Rodríguez

From the very moment you read the title of McCullers´short story “Mrs Zilensky and the King of Finland” the idea that something weird is hidden here comes to our minds. Finland became a Republic in 1918. There are two main characters, who are two musical people, Mr Brook and Mrs Zilensky.The only coincidence, by far. Mr Brook is a solitary man who had “ a watchful vocational patience” but “when confronted with some grave, incongruous situation” he feels uncomfortable. He cannot cope with it because he tends to have rigid interpretations of reality and people.So, he is not the tolerant person we are told.He is not a soft , delicate , “pastel” person. Then, the description of Mrs Zilensky is full of antithetic adjectives.”She is a tall, straight woman with a haggard face” and “she had large, elegant hands, which were grabby.Indeed, her shadowed eyes and darkness, which speak of hard word and commitment to her students and music and thence, the fact that she neglects her physical appearance, contrasts with her beautiful,blonde children. Maybe it is all about isolation and the way different people deal with it, that is to say, Mr Brook, rigidness, Mrs Zilensky’s children, strange behaviour and Mrs.Zelensky, her all- pervading creativity and imagination. Clearly,Mr Brook and the “blank-eyed” children lack this characteristic. But it is so powerful that even he experiences it at the end of the story.

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland reviewed by Geni Mariñas

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland reviewed by Geni Mariñas

In this story, we can appreciate two similar characters at the beginning of the story; both of them are really devoted and passionate composers and teachers, both are a bit eccentric and solitary, The story is being told by Mr Brook whom from the very beginning suspects that there is something wrong with Madame Zilensky derived from her small talks and the way she refers to her life and adventures. When Mr Brook discovers that she is a pathological liar, his first reaction is of extreme anger , he can barely believe that, but worst of all, he cannot cope with it since it collapses with his rational way of understanding life. After a bit of reflection he understands why she does it as the only way of having a full life. He confronts her, but the result is even worse being a witness of the horror and dismay she feels . On seeing this he feels like a murderer. As a result a mixture of compassion and love make him accept her lies and asks nicely about the king of Finnland. Once accepted, he returns to his cotidial life, the following day he sees a dog running backward but takes it as a normal thing. What I like most about this story is that through compassion and love ,he is able to empathize with opposite ways of thinking and living. In a nutshell both characters approach life and truth in a really different way

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland reviewed by Vera Graña

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland by Vera Graña

This is a cliffhanger story; readers will not know the real ending unless we make assumptions about the characters depicted, Madame Zilensky and her children. Mr. Brook, the head of the music department at Ryder College, US, seems to be due all the credit for getting Madame Zilensky on the faculty, where she and her children are nicely welcomed by Mr. Brook, and accommodations are provided. The story draws my attention because of Madame Zilensky’s behavior, characterized by an adamant personality, an honorable professional demeanor, and dedication to her pupils. However, she seems to be a haggard, grubby, and very dubious person, a compulsive liar when it comes to her children´s identity, which makes Mr. Brook feel nagged, racking his brain about her private life. Contrariwise, Mr. Brook embodies the qualities associated with pastel colors, such as being a soft, gentle, calm, and sensitive man; he perseveres in sneaking around Madame Zilensky’s behavior and lies. He has developed an interest in the children's privacy, who look alike, although from different fathers; this doubt is never revealed. The children are depicted as blank-eyed, which might indicate they are disinterested or mentally severely depressed, due to trauma or dissociation. To make the story short, Madame Zilensky’s children, Sigmund, Boris, and Sammy come from different fathers, making Mr. Brook upset and questioning himself about Sigmund’s paternity, which turns up to be a mystery and it is covered up by Madame Zilensky’s convoluted statements, when she appoints the King of Finland to be one of the possibilities, however Finland never was a monarchy.

A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud Reviewed by Servando Barreiro

A Tree, a Rock, A Cloud reviewed by Servando Barreiro

In A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud, Carson McCullers explores how love can transform a fragmented self into a unified one. The old man explains to the young boy that he has always been easily impressed by beauty, women, and fleeting pleasures, but none of these sensations ever meant anything to him. They left him “loose inside,” emotionally disconnected, because he had never committed, never been vulnerable, and never allowed his experiences to take root. His life was full of impressions but empty of connection. Everything changes when he meets the woman he marries. For the first time, all the scattered pieces of his emotional life “gathered together” around a single person. She becomes, as he says, an “assembly line” for his soul, giving shape and unity to what had always been chaotic. Through her, he experiences real love for the first time. But when she leaves him, he collapses into emotional blankness. To survive this loss, he invents a “science of love,” beginning with simple objects (a tree, a rock, a cloud) and slowly rebuilding his ability to love without fear. The story ultimately suggests that love is not only an overwhelming emotion but also a fragile, patient discipline that restores meaning to a lonely life.

A Tree, a Rock, A Cloud Reviewed by Nuria Abalde

A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud reviewed by Nuria Abalde

With only 3 characters and a single setting (a café) the author builds a story rich in contrasts: adolescence versus a life already lived, naiveté versus cynicism, passion versus the pain of unrequited love, idealisation versus simplicity and harshness. The story ends without answering the crucial question of the boy ("Is he crazy?"). Adults have lived but that experience doesn't give them the keys to love, nor to heartbreak. If anything, it allows us to explore unexpected "alternative" paths, not always understood by others: those of a reality embellished as an antidote. Loving "a tree, a rock, a cloud" could be less threatening but it undoubtedly requires great doses of humility. How could the author write this story at only 25 years old?

In Praise of Madame Zilensky's Embellishment of Life by Mónica Rodríguez

In Praise of Madame Zilensky's Embellishment of Life by Mónica Rodríguez

Madame Zelensky and the King of Finland, by Carson McCullers, presents us with two clashing characters. On one corner we have Mr. Brook, a non-descript, unremarkable, “somewhat pastel person” who seems to be fixated with order. On the other corner, we find Mme. Zilensky, restless, unconventional, a force of nature. Both of them are music teachers and, while Mr Brook relishes collecting methodically-structured canons from his students, Mme. Zilensky “got hold of four pianos… and set four dazed students to play Bach fugues together. The racket that came from her end of the department was extraordinary”.

In Praise of Madame Zilensky's Embellishment of Life by Mónica Rodríguez

Mr. Brook seems to respect her professionally but he freely admits to a “nagging apprehension” about her and there was “something queer or slanted” in her outlandish anecdotes. One night, he eventually manages to put his finger on what was so vexing about her colleague, apparently, she was a charlatan, a compulsive liar. However, could it be that this man, so narrow-minded, opinionated and decidedly lacking in imagination, believed all her accounts to be forcibly false just because of his inability to apprehend the vivid and luxuriant overtones of a reality so alien to his small world? His fury - “that day after day [she] would have the gall to sit there in his office and deluge him with her outrageous falsehoods!” - was unleashed by her passing allusion to the King of Finland, maybe imprudently assuming this piece of information to be a fabrication. Actually, a German prince was proclaimed King of Finland in 1918 but never took office nor set foot in Finland. Therefore, Mme. Zilensky could not have possibly seen him in Helsinki, but she may have elsewhere.

In Praise of Madame Zilensky's Embellishment of Life by Mónica Rodríguez

After hours of musing, the myope Mr. Brooks finally reaches a startling conclusion: “Day and night she had drudged and struggled and thrown her soul into her work, and there was not much of her left over for anything else. Being human, she suffered from this lack and did what she could to make up for it. […] Through the lies, she lived vicariously. The lies doubled the little of her existence that was left over from work and augmented the little rag end of her personal life.” It is almost endearing how little he understands. What’s wrong with the adornment of one’s life? Thanks to her vivid imagination, Mme. Zilensky leads a colourful and stimulating life, whereas Mr. Brooks’ existence is dreary and humdrum in comparison. “He was conscious of a warmth in his chest, and feeling of pity”. I dare ask, who is to be pitied here? After all, famous personalities such as Tamara de Lempicka or Coco Chanel were renowned liars, endlessly fantasizing about their present and past circumstances. And people around them mostly believed them or did not care… as a life full of imagination is more exhilarating and vibrant, even more worth living 😊

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