August 8, 2011
I like to read with a pen and small notebook close by, to copy a phrase or thought or question for later reflection. This book caused me to stop so often to bookmark or jot something down that it almost became a distraction. "A Good Hard Look" may be the most thought-provoking book I have read in many months.
Flannery O’Connor is an author I have read off and on throughout my life, drawn to her style and subjects at times, put off by her raw emotions at others, intrigued by the literary giants who were her peers, and saddened by her debilitating illness and early death. In this novel, she, and the fictional characters that surround her, come to life struggling with their tragic flaws.
At the beginning of this novel, O’Connor has been back in her childhood home in Georgia for 12 years, forced to move from her stimulating writing life in the North back to her childhood home where her mother could help care for her after her diagnosis with lupus. “She knew what it was like to have a life, and then lose it.” The townspeople resent her because they believe she has used them and the town in her novel, Wise Blood, and anticipate their lives could and will be used again. Meeting her face to face, hearing her searing, honest thoughts, further frightens them away.
The foreshadowing in the early pages of the novel is evident, but I was unprepared for the tsunami that occurred bringing such destruction to so many characters. Details are exquisitely drawn, almost excruciatingly, moment by moment, as one observes Flannery’s beloved peacocks and characters. The author manages to capture moments in characters’ lives that both defined them and revealed their most awful selves. The reader may also see something of himself.
Flannery O’Connor…Melvin Whiteson…Cookie Himmel…Miss Mary…Regina O’Connor…Lona, Bill, Gigi, Joe…The platonic relationship that develops between O’Connor and a recently married man whose wife has long despised O’Connor is built upon secrecy. Ironically, words connected them; Flannery “fought to make every word count” in her writing. She and Melvin Whiteson are able to converse with each other in a way that is not available elsewhere in their lives. “He knew from her writing, from the way she trapped tiny disappointments, tiny hopes, tiny frustrations and pinned them down with sentences. Flannery saw everything, and was able to translate her insights into words.” Whiteson’s wife, Cookie Himmel, is driven to carve out a life in Milledgeville that serves her self-indulgent needs, feeds her ego, and separates her from Flannery; it also reflects the socioeconomic realities of the small town. While she and an ambitious police officer are strategic about their work, other characters seem to behave more aimlessly, and yet, all are caught in the tidal wave.
“Everyone had, at best, only one big story in his or her life; a story that rendered everything else just a footnote.”
Flannery’s knowledge that death was imminent and her obsession with her writing as time was running out kept pace with the small steps being taken by others whose lives were irrevocably changed one afternoon.
In the end whose fate is worse? Who has lost more? Are there lessons of forgiveness and redemption? “There were very few guiltless people that day.” The perceptions of the characters reveal their flawed, very human thinking…that Flannery’s illness kept her “good” and now she has disappointed…that only one person survived…that Cookie has lost everything despite doing everything right, that guilt replaces grief, tethering certain people to place…”Hope. They are sustained by hope. Hope may have a positive reputation, but it has a vicious downside. If you have hope, you may be crushed”…that “Grace changes a person…And change is painful”... “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
Napolitano’s research and understanding of O’Connor’s writing is demonstrated throughout the novel. However, the many passages revealing O’Connor’s deep faith and her later struggle were riveting, reflecting the connection between her faith, living with her illness and her writing…”she had used it to shape her life.”
Flannery O’Connor is an author I have read off and on throughout my life, drawn to her style and subjects at times, put off by her raw emotions at others, intrigued by the literary giants who were her peers, and saddened by her debilitating illness and early death. In this novel, she, and the fictional characters that surround her, come to life struggling with their tragic flaws.
At the beginning of this novel, O’Connor has been back in her childhood home in Georgia for 12 years, forced to move from her stimulating writing life in the North back to her childhood home where her mother could help care for her after her diagnosis with lupus. “She knew what it was like to have a life, and then lose it.” The townspeople resent her because they believe she has used them and the town in her novel, Wise Blood, and anticipate their lives could and will be used again. Meeting her face to face, hearing her searing, honest thoughts, further frightens them away.
The foreshadowing in the early pages of the novel is evident, but I was unprepared for the tsunami that occurred bringing such destruction to so many characters. Details are exquisitely drawn, almost excruciatingly, moment by moment, as one observes Flannery’s beloved peacocks and characters. The author manages to capture moments in characters’ lives that both defined them and revealed their most awful selves. The reader may also see something of himself.
Flannery O’Connor…Melvin Whiteson…Cookie Himmel…Miss Mary…Regina O’Connor…Lona, Bill, Gigi, Joe…The platonic relationship that develops between O’Connor and a recently married man whose wife has long despised O’Connor is built upon secrecy. Ironically, words connected them; Flannery “fought to make every word count” in her writing. She and Melvin Whiteson are able to converse with each other in a way that is not available elsewhere in their lives. “He knew from her writing, from the way she trapped tiny disappointments, tiny hopes, tiny frustrations and pinned them down with sentences. Flannery saw everything, and was able to translate her insights into words.” Whiteson’s wife, Cookie Himmel, is driven to carve out a life in Milledgeville that serves her self-indulgent needs, feeds her ego, and separates her from Flannery; it also reflects the socioeconomic realities of the small town. While she and an ambitious police officer are strategic about their work, other characters seem to behave more aimlessly, and yet, all are caught in the tidal wave.
“Everyone had, at best, only one big story in his or her life; a story that rendered everything else just a footnote.”
Flannery’s knowledge that death was imminent and her obsession with her writing as time was running out kept pace with the small steps being taken by others whose lives were irrevocably changed one afternoon.
In the end whose fate is worse? Who has lost more? Are there lessons of forgiveness and redemption? “There were very few guiltless people that day.” The perceptions of the characters reveal their flawed, very human thinking…that Flannery’s illness kept her “good” and now she has disappointed…that only one person survived…that Cookie has lost everything despite doing everything right, that guilt replaces grief, tethering certain people to place…”Hope. They are sustained by hope. Hope may have a positive reputation, but it has a vicious downside. If you have hope, you may be crushed”…that “Grace changes a person…And change is painful”... “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
Napolitano’s research and understanding of O’Connor’s writing is demonstrated throughout the novel. However, the many passages revealing O’Connor’s deep faith and her later struggle were riveting, reflecting the connection between her faith, living with her illness and her writing…”she had used it to shape her life.”
