Christ-haunted

Ever read anything by Flannery O’ Connor, a “southern-gothic” fiction writer who died of lupus when she was 39 and I was two months old? Philip Yancey refers to her a lot, so I have always meant to get to her books. Recently I have.

Flannery O’ Connor was a devout Catholic from Georgia (huh?) who became one of the best writers America has ever produced. In her brief career, she wrote two short novels Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away and a sizable collection of short stories. O’ Connor’s characters, especially in the two novels, are often described as “Christ-haunted”. That is, you get the idea that they’d rather Christ didn’t exist, but he does, and there’s no point fleeing to Tarshish to escape Him.

That may not sound very uplifting, but the fun of Flannery O’ Conner is in the reading. In interviews she admitted to making her “heroes” grotesque and even crazy in their religious affections in order to shock us into seeing how radical this whole Christ-idea is. She’s good at it too.

I got my O’ Connor books at the used book store (and I’ll loan them out) but they probably have them at the library too. Well, maybe.

Her BEST story: Judgement Day (her spelling). The best one to start with: Revelation. Her best novel: The Violent Bear It Away.

One of my friends recently commented that not all good “Christian” literature is sold at Lifeway. Flannery O’ Connor is exhibit A.

October 26, 2006 · Filed Under Books

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