That fairy tale-ish vibe is one of my favourite things about "The ballad of the sad café"!! And I think it's really interesting that McCullers gave it a less typical happy ending--Miss Amelia doesn't exactly come out as the winner of the story, but she gets to decide how to go on afterwards, in her own terms, and that's a really important thing, and I find it very realistic. And even if McCullers usually writes about depressing stuff, she also adds all those little, beautiful details that make things be not entirely hopeless. And I also love that strangeness that's all over her work, and her memorable female characters! And her writing is so queer overall, and so dedicated to showing the way queerness, disability and the experiences of minorities overlap, many times with a realistic, honest sense of humour. She's such an amazing writer! <3

And I think Hudson is at his best when he writes about nature stuff--some of his stories about the people he knew are sweet and funny, but the racism pokes its head a lot, and it's pretty annoying! :( I remember enjoying this book a lot as a kid, though! I liked the random, back and forth style of narration--I think it's charming, and it feels very natural, it reminds me of oral narration, which has no editing, so it's very spontaneous, which I love!