The critical reception of Carson McCullers, author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe has reflected the prevailing cultural preoccupations of the five decades since the publication of her first novel in 1940. James distinguishes between pre and post-war criticism and further identifies other critical approaches - that of New Criticism which saw her work as working in the shadow of Faulkner; the response to the psychological and social rhythms of her fiction; and the recognition of the interplay of gender, race, and class in her life, and her texts.