I couldn’t help but think about Barry Hannah while reading Carson McCullers’ novella, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1951). It encompasses everything he admired in literature: gutsy narrative, strong characterization, dark humor, a plot steeped in violence and irony, unfolding in a setting and in a time that is in pitch perfect harmony with the language in which it is told. McCullers allegorical tragedy stars one of the greatest characters in literature, the six feet two, breech-clad, “somewhat queer of face,” motherless, independent Miss Amelia Evans, a desperately lonely woman who lets her guard down for the sake of love only to be – not once but twice – betrayed.