Scan barcode
nssutton's review
3.0
i can't quite call reading a third of this book and then putting it down because you're tired of trying to figure out the logistics of taking a 600 page hardcover book, your lunch and your gym bag to work every day "couldn't finish."
i love flannery o'conner's dry wit that is so evident in some of her shorter letters, particularly to those on the publishing side. every time i thought of quitting, another correspondent would be added in the mix and i couldn't do it. and i told myself to read through it, even when her thoughts on religion were too much for me, because it was outside of my comfort zone.
but this is the sort of trouble i ran into when trying to read the not-so-portable-copy of the portable dorothy parker. you start spending 200+ pages with one voice with one eye and the other eye starts wandering to the rest of your reading queue. it did make me curious to take up more letter reading, however.
i love flannery o'conner's dry wit that is so evident in some of her shorter letters, particularly to those on the publishing side. every time i thought of quitting, another correspondent would be added in the mix and i couldn't do it. and i told myself to read through it, even when her thoughts on religion were too much for me, because it was outside of my comfort zone.
but this is the sort of trouble i ran into when trying to read the not-so-portable-copy of the portable dorothy parker. you start spending 200+ pages with one voice with one eye and the other eye starts wandering to the rest of your reading queue. it did make me curious to take up more letter reading, however.
dblake6145's review
3.0
Really long book of letters that gives great insight into the life of Flannery O’Connor. Humorous, thoughtful, and at times sad because I already knew she died at the young age of 39. The last month of her letters before her death are quite poignant. Enjoyable read.
ryanofmaryland's review
5.0
Deep insight into one of the brightest minds of the 20th century American letters. O'Connor has a deep faith and a keen intellect and this glimpse into her private thoughts serves as an examination of conscience and a mirror for our own attempts at creation and creativity.
hannahcomer4d's review against another edition
4.0
Reading these letters is like reading a biography. In them we get the soul of O'Connor, and we can get a sense of her love, compassion, and hospitality--a side that is not as often seen when describing O'Connor.
This book was very, very long, and at times it almost felt tedious. Many letters seem to be rather unimportant. However, isn't that what life actually is like? Even though I was pushing myself through the 600 pages, I felt sad to finish; it was as though I was losing a friend.
This book was very, very long, and at times it almost felt tedious. Many letters seem to be rather unimportant. However, isn't that what life actually is like? Even though I was pushing myself through the 600 pages, I felt sad to finish; it was as though I was losing a friend.
pceboll's review against another edition
funny
reflective
3.5
3.5 stars...this one took me a bit to get through but I honestly really enjoyed it. It's fascinating how much you can learn about a person from their letters alone..O'Connor was quite the personality. Witty and to-the-point, she wrote with so much love and generosity to those she conversed the most with despite simultaneously being a bit of a solitary grouch; however this makes her even more endearing-you can tell how much the people in her life cared for her. A true artist devoted to her craft, this collection brings insight into how O'Connor wrote and how she became a figure in the literary cannon. I think it is a more enjoyable read if you are well-versed in her body of work. I started to get chills as I neared the end of the book, and felt a certain grief on the last page. There's a bit too much religious rambling and obviously her ideas on race are problematic and outdated, but it is accurate to who she was. Satisfying read.
radioactve_piano's review
2.0
A book that is pretty much unbearable to read on its own, not because it's challenging, but simply because it's a little tedious to read multiple accounts of the same thing because she was writing different people.
Worth a read if you know O'Connor's work, or are curious about a Southern writer in the mid-1900's. Had to remind myself throughout the book that her word choices and opinions were an example of much of the white south at the time, getting used to integration (not that bracing myself for it made it any easier to stumble into those racist remarks).
She had a dry wit, though, that kept me reading. I liked her stories simply because they are grotesque (to use one of her favorite descriptors) - it was interesting to see the woman behind the dead babies and grandmas.
Worth a read if you know O'Connor's work, or are curious about a Southern writer in the mid-1900's. Had to remind myself throughout the book that her word choices and opinions were an example of much of the white south at the time, getting used to integration (not that bracing myself for it made it any easier to stumble into those racist remarks).
She had a dry wit, though, that kept me reading. I liked her stories simply because they are grotesque (to use one of her favorite descriptors) - it was interesting to see the woman behind the dead babies and grandmas.
courtneyfalling's review
DNFing early in the sense I flipped through the introduction, some of the early letters, and some letters toward the end of the collection, and coupled with what I already know about Flannery O’Connor (dropping this here for reference: www.new yorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/how-racist-was-flannery-oconnor/amp), I didn’t feel like this was going to be worth fully reading. I wanted to read a book of letters this year and I’m interested in how her moral pessimism and overall Southern Gothic tone relate to her lupus diagnosis and her father’s lupus death (lots of stuff about illness, time, and the certainty and meaninglessness of pain, thinking especially of “Good Country People”), but I definitely forgot how wildly racist her writing can be.
missjaneeyre's review
4.0
Flannery is funny and smart. I feel I know her so much better than I could have known just from reading her stories. I think I have a better lens to read her through.
More...