Flannery O'Connor Books

Spivey describes meeting Flannery O'Connor in 1958 and offers impressions and details of their correspondence. Notes the belief she shared with T.S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats, that "a new dark age was about to descend upon mankind," and supports this view with Sally Fitzgerald's comment that, O'Connor "was, at times, a kind of modern sibyl." Remarks on her "profound emotional and visionary quality" and her "pessimism" rooted in "a Southern stoicism" adopted by pre-Civil War Southern gentry.

Explores, Flannery O'Connor's "intellectual life in the context of her life in the South." Identifies the three intellectual viewpoints O'Connor adhered to: "that of Southern Agrarianism, of a strictly orthodox Thomism, and of an apocalyptic Catholicism." Compares O'Connor to Walker Percy and finds her "both a profounder thinker and artist."

Notes O'Connor's attraction to "religious existentialists," such as Martin Buber and Gabriel Marcel and her use of the "rebellious individual" character in Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away.

Discusses her status as "a woman of letters" and comments on her portrayal as "a kind of recluse." States that James Joyce meant more to O'Connor "than any other writer," and that she turned to his and Hemingway's work "for inspiration."

Ties her work to Joyce's in "her first chief theme: the individual who cannot free himself from Jesus," and in her "profound concern with art in all its manifestations." Includes a lengthy explication and discussion of Wise Blood showing links with Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Argues that even though O'Connor "was a gifted critic, thinker, artist and even woman of letters, she was primarily a literary visionary not unlike Joyce or even Dostoevsky."

Reads "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "The Displaced Person" as O'Connor's "profoundest visions of the destruction of paralyzed worlds."

Offers, as well, explications of "The River," "Good Country People," and "The Artificial Nigger." Praises her deep visionary insight in her novel, The Violent Bear It Away, especially in "her characterization of old Tarwater in terms of his suffering, his prophetic insights and actions, his alienation in an unbelieving world, and his fraternal association with several blacks ... who make up a cadre of believing Christians."

Considers O'Connor's "vision of the growth of a new communal association of humanity," based upon influences of Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Merton. Discusses how this theme is evidenced in "Revelation" and "The Enduring Chill." Contends that de Chardin served as "only" an inspiration for her, "not a revered master like Saint Thomas Aquinas."

Notes similarities between the works of O'Connor and Thomas Merton, and illustrates how she labored through her work to show "how, through suffering and evil, human beings learn to realize the essential human core in themselves and others."

Concludes with discussion of several stories from O'Connor's second collection, including: "The Lame Shall Enter First," "The Enduring Chill," "Greenleaf," "The Comforts of Home," "A View of the Woods," "Parker's Back," and "Judgement Day."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

In Christian experience, one of the central themes recurring over time and in the attendant literature has been sin and redemption. From this book by Kim Paffenroth, 'The Heart Set Free', one sees selected snapshots of this issues from the Gospels (first/second century), Augustine (fourth/fifth century), Dante (thirteen/fourteenth century), and Flannery O'Connor (twentieth century). According to Paffenroth, 'these thinkers offer timeless criticisms of four of the greatest and most flawed societies of all time - Israel, Rome, medieval Europe, and America - and they do so in a way that raises their critiques out f the particular historical context and renders them relevant today.' Paffenroth's method is explained in the preface - each figure is contained in a chapter, with two particular sins highlighted, and two actions that can be redemptive. Then for each, Paffenroth highlights three specific texts and does a directed study including reflection and prayer. This includes both an academic and spiritual element to the writing, in combination in such a way that makes this text useful for classroom, congregational and small group study.

The chapter on the Gospels looks at the sins of revenge and arrogance. These are sins recurrent in today's society, and Paffenroth choses the texts of Matthew 5 (love your enemies), Mark 10 (the request of James and John to sit at Jesus' right and left hand), and Luke 4 (the proclamation of the Acceptable Year of the Lord). Paffenroth draws on various means of textual analysis and spiritual analysis, including interfaith dialogue. For example, the idea of service being an antithesis to arrogance is one that occurs in other religions, too. 'From completely different theologies, Hindus and Christians have both perceived and tried to follow the difficult truth that devoted service is not just the means to salvation; it is also the end or goal of a saved life.'

I first discovered Paffenroth's writing through a companion book on Augustine (one of my special subjects of study), so the chapter on Augustine held particular appeal to me. After a brief biographical sketch, Paffenroth identifies pride and ambition as major sins of concern, both for Augustine and for Rome. The opposites presented here are humility and contemplation. One of the problems of both of these sins, in Augustine's time and our own, is that they are subtle, and often encouraged by the general society. Rome itself was ambitious in the world, and proud of its history. But pride blinds one to sin (Paffenroth excerpts the 'Confessions', book 5 here), and ambitions can trap us and corrode relationships ('Confessions', book 9). The very first paragraph of the 'Confessions' is highlighted as the third text, one in which the proud, ambitious, highly intelligent Augustine humbles himself in contemplative manner toward the will of God - 'our heart is troubled until it rests in you'. (inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te). The world is indeed a restless place, then and now.

The section on Dante looks at appetite (not simply gluttony, according to the traditional list of seven deadly sins, but encompassing a larger range including lust, greed, and others) and malice. Dante provides the images of a hierarchy of sin - despite the scriptural ideas of 'all falling short', we have a natural inclination to think that some sins are in fact worse than others; Dante obviously shared this, by making the punishments in hell worse and worse as things progressed. Dante's view of many of the sins of appetite is that they are in fact so close to not being sins in many respects that they warrant the least punishment. However, sin is a trap - contrasting Dante's view of the sinful (even the minor sinful) Christians versus the non-Christian virtuous, Paffenroth states that 'the sinners are trapped in their individual places, incapable of movement or change' - sin is a prison, a chain, something that, far from adding variety, in fact makes existence more monotonous. Malice, on the other hand, is a more deliberate act, and one that is both uniquely human and uniquely destructive of relationship - hence, loneliness and separation are far more of a torment than fires and cauldrons and smoke (which are still there in Dante, in some abundance). Paffenroth draws on excerpts from the Inferno, the Purgatory, and the Paradise.

Perhaps my favourite chapter in the book is the one dealing with Flannery O'Connor. Upon receiving this book I at once turned to this chapter to see if Paffenroth had included the story of Ruby Turpin (it was there, much to my delight). The sins of self-righteousness and self-deception are brought into focus, and the way these can destroy both oneself and one's relationships in the world are brought into high focus. Self-deception requires revelation, a unique kind of knowledge and insight given by God, to be overcome. Self-righteousness requires grace, something found in abundance if one looks in the right places, but sometimes with an awesome cost. Paffenroth selects 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', 'A Temple of the Holy Ghost', and a third story [the censors won't let past to be listed] for examples of problems with perception and judgement, and a moment of grace.

After each chapter, Paffenroth gives a short annotated bibliography with selected further readings, as well as endnotes; the use of endnotes rather than footnotes gives this more of a 'general' feel rather than an academic format; while the book certainly stands up well to academic standards and the endnotes are very useful, they can also be somewhat distracting for the more general reader.

This is the kind of book I wish I had written. It has motivated me to re-read the primary material again with new insights in mind. This is the kind of book that can stimulate discussion - try to find a friend with whom to read and share.

She's good, one of those sardonic southern writers who couldn't write a bad sentence if you held her feet to the fire or offered a bribe. She's got that fine ear that condenses our common language and turns it into near poetry. Every word pure protein, no filler. She fuses voice to people to place, like Grace Paley only Hood's people live in rural Georgia, tend to hunt, and Church sends its long shadow. So, imagine cross between Grace Paley and Flannery O'Connor. THrow in the terse existentialism of the blues. Richer language than Raymond Carver, or Tobias Wolfe but part of that short story renaissance that started in the Eighties. She's one of the best.

Offers a description of the arrangement of O'Connor's manuscripts in the Flannery O'Connor Collection in the Ina D. Russell Library at Georgia College & State University and notes that they illustrate how she "often produced dozens of variants of single episodes."

Discusses in particular the large number of drafts that exist for her last two stories -- "Parker's Back" and "Judgement Day" -- and indicates that they "suggest the amount of rewriting that O'Connor normally did [for her stories] and, consequently, how many of the drafts for her other fiction are missing."

Entries in the catalog "describe the physical appearance of the manuscripts in the folders and files, and the plot, characters and stylistic and formal characteristics of their contents." Details the arrangement of the 905 folders in 297 files and how they are cross-referenced to other related files. Provides an index which "shows the order of the files and folders...[and] how [Driggers'] file numbers differ from Dunn's. Also included is a timneline indicating dates O'Connor is believed to have worked on each piece of fiction.

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

This is an incredible true sweet tale of a little girl born with a physical disfiguration. Flannery O'Connor wrties a brilliant introduction and the story of this innocent little girl is irresistable.

For the O'Connor scholar, Humphries devotes two chapters for discussion of O'Connor's affinities and possible indebtedness to Marcel Proust (Chapter 6, "Proust, Flannery O'Connor and the Aesthetic of Violence" and Chapter 7, "Art, Delusion, Disease and Reality: The Apotheosis of Asbury Fox in 'The Enduring Chill'").

Provides a close reading of O'Connor's "The Enduring Chill," with numerous references to a variety of her other stories and two novels. Finds her use of physical violence helpful in casting "shadows" in such a manner that they positively articulate the "negative space" that Proust explored.

Suggests that O'Connor's "The Enduring Chill" did not reach its final form until after she had read Proust. Contends that the story can be read as "a parodic retelling of the 'happy' tale which many readers seem determined to read in Proust's work -- that is, Marcel Proust's discovery of art as an vocation and his transmogrification as artiste -- whether or not [O'Connor] had Proust consciously in mind."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

Carter Martin's Introduction summarizes the "broad range of works" that Flannery O'Connor chose to review, including biographies, saints' lives, sermons and theology, fiction, literary criticism, and works related to psychology, philosophy, science and history.

Discusses the reviews collected by Leo J. Zuber -- her longtime book review editor and friend -- and considers why O'Connor contributed reviews to the particular publications she chose and the "recurrent concerns that emerge as themes in the reviews." Emphasizes her focus on, and committment to, books "about religion."

Concludes that O'Connor's reviews confirm that her art "arose from the religious convictions that she subjected to intenses scrutiny not only in her heart but in her mind as well."

Some sections were previously published in "Reader, Look for Yourself': Recovered Book Reviews," [Georgia Review 37.2 (1983): 371-82]. Provides an author and title index.

Reviewer's Note: Carter Martin is the author of: The True Country: Themes in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor (Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 1994); and, contributed a number of articles to The Flannery O'Connor Bulletin and other published anthologies of criticism. His Ph.D. dissertation, completed at Vanderbilt University in 1991, is titled: "The Ethical Implications of Flannery O'Connor's 'Prophetic Imagination.'"

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

John May discusses, in the Introduction, how O'Connor's "sense of tradition in both literature and religion has caused a revolution of sorts in the American literary world." States that because she forced "contemporary criticism to witness a seemingly anachronistic wedding of art and belief," critics have had to wrestle with whether or not they "strip O'Connor's art of its distinctive meaning if ... [they] fail to comprehend its grasp of mystery."

Suggests that, "in addition to the aesthetic problem posed by the currently disturbing religious vision that O'Connor dramatizes, she has raised the practical question of the very validity of our interpretation of fiction." Uses as an example, the scholarly dialogue among biblical scholars -- from a wide variety of denominational beliefs -- which has produced an enormous body of objective exegetical literature, and sees an opportunity for similar approach among literary scholars. Views her work as fertile ground for such efforts and urges that the "critical dialogue" found in the body of criticism surrounding her writings be used to produce a similar objective consensus regarding its interpretation as well. Follows with a description of the phases that such an objective consensus might require; then indicates the phases various scholarly efforts to interpret her fiction might fit.

Focuses in the first chapter, on reading O'Connor's fiction from the perspective that "the New Hermeneutic's understanding of 'word' [serves] as interpreter of human existence." Contends that her fiction "achieves its distinctive dramatic impact through the power of language to interpret its listener rather than through its need to be interpreted by him." Uses examples from her story, "Revelation," to point out how she uses words and gestures to articulate the meaning she intends for the reader to understand. Sees in O'Connor's work, a technique similar to that of Jesus's use of parables; readers extract -- from scenes of ordinary life in her fiction -- meaning and wisdom relevant to their "universal human existence."

Recognizes that O'Connor, like Jesus, conveys her themes "through a new configuration of existing language" that forces readers to take a fresh look at their world because it makes reality live for them in a new way. Proposes that, as a result, her readers not only read her work but participate in it as well.

Devotes the remainder of the text to readings and discussion of hermeneutic patterns seen in O'Connor's fiction which demonstrate and articulates opportunities for readers to participate in her depiction of reality. Considers, in the second chapter, her "uncollected stories," including: "The Geranium"; "The Barber"; "Wildcat"; "The Crop"; "The Turkey"; "The Train"; "The Peeler"; "The Heart of the Park"; "Enoch and the Gorilla"; "You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead"; "The Partridge Festival"; and "Why Do the Heathen Rage."

Follows, in the third chapter, with explications of stories in her two collections, Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. The fourth chapter is devoted to a discussion of "hermeneutic patterns in [her novels] Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away."

The text includes bibliographic notes; a "Selected Bibliography of Textual Analyses"; and, a subject index.

Dr. May completed his Ph.D. at Emory University in Atlanta where he wrote his dissertation, "Apocalypse in the American Novel," in 1971. He also contributed numerous articles on O'Connor in such journals as "Religion & Literature," "The New Orleans Review," "Renascence," "New Catholic World," "The Flannery O'Connor Bulletin," and "Horizons."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

Westarp and Gretlund offer "critical essays celebrating Flannery O'Connor's unique vision of the convergence of the temporal and the eternal." Notes that while some essays "point out that her fiction is grounded in the particularities of the South and her awareness of her immediate world," others focus on her "literary integrity and offer an evaluation of her literary impact."

All treat O'Connor as "the prophetic poet, the realist of distances, who tried to recall us to our largely forgotten relation to the world and each other." Remarks that the essays were all originally presented at a symposium held during August 1984 at Anderborg, Denmark.

In addition to Sally Fitzgerld's "Degrees and Kinds: Introduction," the volume's essays are grouped into five sections:

Section I: Developing Artist:

Brown, Ashley. "Flannery O'Connor: A Literary Memoir."

Drake, Robert. "'The Lady Frum Somewhere': Flannery O'Connor Then and Now."

Westarp, Karl-Heinz. "Flannery O'Connor's Development: An Analysis of the 'Judgement Day' Material."

Schlafer, Linda. "Pilgrims of the Absolute: Leon Bloy and Flannery O'Connor."

Section II: Narrator:

Feeley, Kathleen. "'Mine is a Comic Art . . .': Flannery O'Connor."

Ashley, Jack Dillard. "Throwing the Big Book: The Narrator's Voice in Flannery O'Connor's Stories."

Gentry, Marshall Bruce. "Narration and the Grotesque in Flannery O'Connor's Stories."

Section III: Image Maker:

Currie, Sheldon. "Comic Imagery in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor."

Blasingham, Mary V. "Archetypes of the Child and of Childhood in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor."

Garson, Helen S. "Cold Comfort: Parents and Children in the Work of Flannery O'Connor."

Washburn, Delores. "The 'Feeder' Motif in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction: A Gauge of Spiritual Efficacy."

Section IV: Aesthete:

Beck, Christiane "Flannery O'Connor's Poetics of Space."

Martin, Carter. "'The Meanest of Them Sparkled': Beauty and Landscape in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction."

Muzina, Matej. "Inescapable Lucidity: Flannery O'Connor's Gift and Most Terrible Affliction."

Zacharasiewicz, Waldemar. "From the State to the Strait of Georgia: Aspects of the Response by Some of Flannery O'Connor's Creative Readers."

Section V: Thinker and Believer:

Ireland, Patrick J. "The Sacred and the Profane: Redefining Flannery O'Connor's Vision."

Gretlund, Jan Nordby. "The Side of the Road: Flannery O'Connor's Social Sensibility."

Ebrecht, Ann. "'The Length, Breadth, and Depth of the World in Movement': The Evolutionary Vision of Flannery O'Connor and Teilhard de Chardin."

Mott, Sara. "Flannery O'Connor's Unique Contribution to Christian Literary Naturalism."

Montgomery, Marion. "Flannery O'Connor: Realist of Distances."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

With the enormous influence that Flannery O'Connor's works have had on students, scholars and other writers, this volume is a welcome addition to O'Connor scholarship.

The teaching role of Edmondson's discussions of O'Connor's perspectives on good and evil and of her views of the intervention of God's grace in the affairs of humankind, are especially insightful. His views on the pervasiveness of humankind's descent into nihilism are very thought-provoking.

Readers of this book--just like readers of Flannery O'Connor's works--may find themselves affected by the content far more than they might imagine.