The Violent Bear It Away

from MistahKurtz

Just read this very short novel again after thirty years - in fact I wrote my master's thesis on this book. It's amazing to sense that same intensity once more. Flannery O'Connor was an anomaly - a devout Catholic imbued with the New-Testament message of a God of Love living in a Bible-haunted So...

from HankIII

Anytime, I read Flannery, I know I'm reading an original writing genius; The Violent Bear It Away is just one of her novels, yet I find myself looking into the very essence and ramifications of primitive spiritual influences upon Tarwater, as he struggles, resists, and succumbs to its outcome. Fl...

from StephenBarkley

I'm almost at a loss for words after finishing this book. I picked it up after reading Rowan William's discussion of her work. I was unprepared for the power of her prose. O'Connor has an uncanny ability to get inside the minds of the characters she's created and explain their thoughts like no on...

from stillatim

O'Connor is like a really cranky Tolstoy: great with the psychology, great with the symbolism and the narrative ironies, and fabulous with ideas. But not always so great with the prose. If only an editor had gone through and cut out all those terrible analogies. Otherwise, there's not much to say...

from jawalter

This could have so easily just been a simple allegory of the conflict between faith and reason, but O'Connor does a wonderful job of subverting expectations while simultaneously broaching a number of other issues that spring organically from her characterization of the people who populate her str...