I was completely unfamiliar with this book and its author, looking for a book on JD.com, stumbling upon it, attracted by its title, and bought it to browse roughly.
The inhabitants of the southern town did not know each other.
Copland, the black doctor, was lonely. For the rights and interests of the blacks, he struggled alone with illness.
Jack the Tramp is lonely. He recognized that America was a madhouse, but people turned a blind eye to lies and continued to live in them. He ran and shouted for the rights and freedoms of the people, and he should be few. He and Dr. Copeland share a common rationality, but they are unable to communicate effectively with each other.
The café owner Beav is lonely. Crowds are pouring in, where is his love?
The little girl Mick was lonely. Growing up, who can understand her dreams?
The lonely, able-bodied people had no choice but to confide in mr. Singer, a kind, dumb white man. Singer was willing to listen, but couldn't actually fully understand them. On the other hand, people only know how to talk to Singh, but they don't know how to listen to the latter—he is also lonely. So Mr. Singer had to devote all his feelings to his old friend, the mute Antonapolos, who was already a psychopath. As soon as his old friend died, he was so grief-stricken, disheartened, and pitiful, that he committed suicide.
This novel has a specific background of the times, racial oppression, inequality between rich and poor, Nazis came to power, the spread of communism... From 1940 to the present, more than half a century has passed, and some of the phenomena written in the book have become historical relics, but as far as loneliness is concerned, has it passed away with the wind? Those who turn a blind eye to lies are also those who are in it and do not know it.