Always More To Say
Years ago a dear mentor and friend recommended I read Flannery O'Connor. I became a fan immediately. There is a pervasive faith in her writing and also humor (when I asked a hippy-dippy writing professor of mine why he liked O'Connor's writing he replied, "Flannery makes me laugh, man.") There is also shocking violence and an underlying anger.
It was a no-brainer that I'd be interested in the first biography ever on O'Connor, which just came out and in certain circles is getting a lot of hype. So two weeks ago when I fell asleep on the bus and had to get off at the fancy Route 4 mall with the Barnes and Noble, I tool it as a sign.
I've been trying to get through the book but suspect some kind of scam. I don't doubt the sincerity or diligence of the writer. There's just way too much detail for my taste. I can't get through it, but I want to. It's so extreme that I can't imagine anyone reading every word. I've noticed that most reviewers quote from the charming story about a backwards walking chicken that opens the book and that's about it. A friend alerted me to a review by Joyce Carol Oates, which is much more readable than the books. I suggest reading the original works of O'Connor (start with A Good Man Is Hard To Find and you should be hooked). For more insight into her life I suggest the collections of her speeches and letters which are more heartfelt and to the point than this biography called Flannery by Brad Gooch, which I think misses presents every tree and leaves it to fans of Flannery to find the forest (as Oates did).
While I'm being hoity toity/literary I might as well tell you that I liked this week's fiction piece in The New Yorker. You can find it here. There's a lot that struck me in this short story. I've never gotten the holiday hotel experience, used to say that it felt to me like being in a very fancy jail. So this line by Brad Watson in The Visitation stood out: "With its courtyard surrounded by two stories of identical rooms, and excepting the lack of guard towers and the presence of a swimming pool, it followed the same architectural model as a prison." I found the whole story strong, it really pulled me along.
On the Torah side of things - here's what I posted last year and gave out to and discussed with students on Friday regarding Tzav. There's more to say but I feel like closing up this post.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 9:28 PM
5 Comments:
If it's an academic biography, you might as well give up now. They are as a rule all boring detail. With a popular biography you have a better chance, but it's still hit or miss. So many biographers are dreadfully untalented.
It's being pushed in the general media as a regular book,but you got it - I think - it really is an academic biography. I think it takes great talent to write a book like this. But I was yearning for something else.
Read Flannery O'Connor's collected letters instead. Most of what you'll want to know is in them.
I agree. I see you're a maven.
Thanks for the story link. I didn't know the New Yorker fiction was online. Doesn't it seem if you name a character "Loomis" he's destined to be a shlemiel? It seems almost cruel to give a fictional character such a name.
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