Sunday, February 15, 2009

Early Reviews of "Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor"

Here's a review of Brad Gooch's book in the LA Times, and here's a review in the Washington Times. 

From the Washington Times: "Mr. Gooch has crafted the first serious biography of the distinguished Georgia writer, and in doing so he clears away some misconceptions about O'Connor and clarifies much about her life and work."

From the LA Times: "Gooch is brilliant on the fiction, passionate and smart, able to contextualize both the individual pieces and the scope of the career. He astutely notes that, despite producing two novels, Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away, O'Connor was not really a novelist, which is why those books don't quite hold up. She was, rather, perhaps the greatest 20th century American practitioner of the short story, a writer with an acute moral vision who understood that faith and salvation do not necessarily go hand in hand."

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