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Liked It “Flannery O'Conner is truly the master of Southern Gothic fiction. This is one wild and twisted tale, something of a religious nightmare in fiction form. No matter the level of faith or belief or the lack thereof in the individual characters, they resist a reader's sympathy. They remain like the...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Didn't particularly like it or get it. Well written but in the end I was left asking "so what?"” see full review » see other reviews » |
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1 of 1 members found this review helpful“Wise Blood is a comedy with a fierce, Old Testament soul. Flannery O'Connor has no truck with such newfangled notions as psychology. Driven by forces outside their control, her characters are as one-dimensional--and mysterious--as figures on a frieze. Hazel Motes, for instance, has the temperament of a martyr, even though he spends most of the book trying to get God to go away. As a child he's convinced that "the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin." When that doesn't work, and when he returns from Korea determined "to be converted to nothing instead of evil," he still can't go anywhere without being mistaken for a preacher. (Not that the hat and shiny glare-blue suit help.) No matter what Hazel does, Jesus moves "from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark..."
North Shore Country Day School English-10 wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Adrift after four years in the service, Hazel takes a train to the city of Taulkinham, buys himself a "rat-colored car," and sets about preaching on street corners for the Church Without Christ, "where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way." Along the way he meets Enoch Emery, who's only 18 years old but already works for the city, as well the blind preacher Asa Hawks and his illegitimate daughter, Sabbath Lily. (Her letter to an advice column: "Dear Mary, I am a bastard and a bastard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven as we all know, but I have this personality that makes boys follow me. Do you think I should neck or not?") Subsequent events involve a desiccated, centuries-old dwarf--Gonga the Giant Jungle Monarch--and Hazel's nemesis, Hoover Shoats, who starts the rival Church of Christ Without Christ. If you think these events don't end happily, you might be right.
Wise Blood is a savage satire of America's secular, commercial culture, as well as the humanism it holds so dear ("Dear Sabbath," Mary Brittle writes back, "Light necking is acceptable, but I think your real problem is one of adjustment to the modern world. Perhaps you ought to re-examine your religious values to see if they meet your needs in Life.") But the book's ultimate purpose is Religious, with a capital R--no metaphors, no allusions, just the thing itself in all its fierce glory. When Hazel whispers "I'm not clean," for instance, O'Connor thinks he is perfectly right. For readers unaccustomed to holding low comedy and high seriousness in their heads at the same time, all this can come as something of a shock. Who else could offer an allegory about free will, redemption, and original sin right alongside the more elemental pleasure of witnessing Enoch Emery dress up in a gorilla suit? Nobody else, that's who. And that's OK. More than one Flannery O'Connor in this world might show us more truth than we could bear. --Mary Park ”0 of 1 members found this review helpful“**spoiler alert** A short but powerful read which demonstrates the importance of believing in something good and edifying. Haze, the main character, is truly living in a haze throughout the novel -- all he has been taught is a fervent and hateful brand of Christianity, and in his attempts to escape the unnecessary guilt this tradition has placed on him, he becomes a nihilist.
Thomas Johnson wrote this review Wednesday, November 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
But shunning all spirituality for dependence on material things, like the piece-of-junk car which ends up failing him, ultimately lead him unsatisfied. His ability to do whatever he wants, without the prospect of eternal consequences, brings him no more happiness than did his former Christian beliefs. All that does seem to remain is a guilt, which continues to creep around him, driving him back to the sect he hated enough to leave.
Haze never considers, and never finds, another belief system which might propose hope instead of damnation, that might imbue his life with meaning without constantly filling him with self-loathing. He never finds the golden mean between the two extremes of zealous Christian fundamentalism and zealous Nihilism. What's more, the other characters never find anything constant to believe in, always putting their faith in untrustworthy people or in material facades.
With all these unhappy endings, I think Wise Blood can be safely labeled a depressing book. I think its worth is as a cautionary tale for the reader to find that golden mean, between empty meaningless and vile meaningfulness. It definitely encourages a second read -- I think there's plenty of deeper of meaning I haven't managed to grasp. ”“Flannery O'Conner is truly the master of Southern Gothic fiction. This is one wild and twisted tale, something of a religious nightmare in fiction form. No matter the level of faith or belief or the lack thereof in the individual characters, they resist a reader's sympathy. They remain like the figures in a bad dream--you want them to go away, you want to stop them--but they continue to disturb you to the very end. The redeeming thing about reading this novel is the way it leaves you thinking about belief, faith, religion, human nature, and the nature of evil without easy clear cut answers. ”
Greg G wrote this review Thursday, October 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Excellent characters, unpredictable plot. It's a shame this was O'Connor's only book; without a doubt, she was one of the most talented, Southern writers of her time.”
Kim Hayner Dearing wrote this review Tuesday, October 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“She's a genius for a reason. ”
Patrick W wrote this review Friday, October 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Religious study - when God is perverted, strange things happen”
Jane H wrote this review Sunday, October 4 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Brilliant.”
Peggy H wrote this review Saturday, July 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Didn't particularly like it or get it. Well written but in the end I was left asking "so what?"”
Craig V wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
0 of 1 members found this review helpful“My blog contains a recent posting regarding the Legacy of Flannery O'Connor. http://www.theliberalspirit.com/?p=594”
Robert H wrote this review Thursday, July 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
0 of 1 members found this review helpful“In reading this, I found myself in a strange Southern landscape with poor people from whom I did not expect such weirdness (weird to me) or such wisdom. O'Connor has a voice all her own.”
Carol M wrote this review Monday, July 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
