I'd always heard of Flannery O'Connor, primarily since she is regarded as one of the great female American authors, but had never read any of her work. However, my first exposure to her writings were less than satisfactory as I read the novel Wise Blood this past Christmas break. To begin with, I've never been particularly fond of books that make use of strong southern dialects, and that is exactly the mode in which this novel operated. Some lines of dialog were practically unintelligible, and I found myself having to repeat sentences in order to grasp their meaning. To make things worse, the story line in and of itself is difficult to follow. I still can't understand why one of the characters gets himself lost in the woods and then runs away in a gorilla suit that he finds on the ground.
Regardless, I suppose there is something to be said for the examination of religion that O'Connor presents. The main character, Hazel, rallies against the religion of his youth and founds "the church without Christ", in his attempt to spread the word that no one needs Jesus for salvation. His fervor is that of an anti-Christ, but as the story progresses, he finds that even he cannot escape the grace of God. The message is there, but it took a lot of effort to work it out of a mysterious and improbable plot. I give it a D+.
13 down 988 to go!
"Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one." (Flannery O'Connor)
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