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lisamquinn's review
3.0
I'm torn between 2 or 3 stars...2.5. This book made an interesting start, but it kind of fell apart for me when Melvin didn't know you you shouldn't put a baby on the ground near a bunch of peacocks.... .
lulubella's review
5.0
A Good Hard Look completely lived up to every single expectation I had. In fact, it might have exceeded them. I am always wary of historical fiction novels that feature real-life people. In the case of A Good Hard Look, that person is Flannery O’Connor. I’ve haven't read much by Flannery O'Connor, just a story here and there, but I’ve been intrigued by her for a while now. A Good Hard Look just made me more interested in O’Connor and her fiction.
The separate plots in this novel weave together beautifully to a tragic climax that affects everyone in Millidgeville. I think the best novels are the ones that, when a tragedy occurs, you just can’t believe it yourself. You want to go back to that time in the novel when everyone was happy, or when everything is “good”, as the first part of the novel is titled. What happened hit me hard and, honestly, was so unexpected. Ann Napolitano has written a book that truly just made me feel. I felt Flannery’s loneliness and the joy she felt when she was with Melvin. I felt Melvin’s helplessness in front of his own life. He’s a wealthy man, but he never seems to do much with it or do much at all, until he meets Flannery. I understood Cookie’s resentment of her famous cousin. And when it all fell apart, I fell apart too. These characters were just so real.
In a recent article, Ann Napolitano says that she thinks Flannery O’Connor would have hated this book. I have to agree with her, but only because I think the Flannery that Napolitano created is so vivid and real. And while she is the “backbone” of this novel, as Napolitano describes her, she’s not necessarily what this book is about. This book is about the complexity of love and all of its manifestations and it is done beautifully.
The separate plots in this novel weave together beautifully to a tragic climax that affects everyone in Millidgeville. I think the best novels are the ones that, when a tragedy occurs, you just can’t believe it yourself. You want to go back to that time in the novel when everyone was happy, or when everything is “good”, as the first part of the novel is titled. What happened hit me hard and, honestly, was so unexpected. Ann Napolitano has written a book that truly just made me feel. I felt Flannery’s loneliness and the joy she felt when she was with Melvin. I felt Melvin’s helplessness in front of his own life. He’s a wealthy man, but he never seems to do much with it or do much at all, until he meets Flannery. I understood Cookie’s resentment of her famous cousin. And when it all fell apart, I fell apart too. These characters were just so real.
In a recent article, Ann Napolitano says that she thinks Flannery O’Connor would have hated this book. I have to agree with her, but only because I think the Flannery that Napolitano created is so vivid and real. And while she is the “backbone” of this novel, as Napolitano describes her, she’s not necessarily what this book is about. This book is about the complexity of love and all of its manifestations and it is done beautifully.
kfor24's review
5.0
Absolutely loved this novel featuring Flannery O'Connor as a main character. I don't know how I missed it back in 2011, but I am definitely buying the other book by this author. Delightful!
timshel's review
5.0
Ann Napolitano is brave. Fictionalizing a prominent person in history would make most writers nervous, but making that person such an important and central figure to the plot—well, I think many of us would prefer to leave that to the likes of Napolitano. In A Good Hard Look, Flannery O'Connor takes the stage with a backdrop of her hometown, Milledgeville, Georgia. O'Connor and Milledgeville are both crafted with great care and grace; it is evident the author not only researched her subjects, but handled them with great adoration and empathy.
A Good Hard Look is penned with great skill. Most outstanding is Napolitano's beautiful language, a myriad of well-placed and wonderfully chosen words. Also, worth noting are the perspectives. Her use of the alternating third-person is executed extremely well. In a novel such a this, timing is crucial, and I feel the author did a fabulous job knowing what character to follow and when to abandon ship.
For me, there is a shift in my feelings toward these characters midway through the novel. By no tricks of the author—just careful planning and raw talent—the characters who are reasonable become flawed; those who at first seem beyond redemption elicit my sympathies. This promotes the feelings of forgiveness at the novel's center without preaching and without excessive evidence of the author's hand.
Only months ago, I read O'Connor's collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find. I appreciated O'Connor's talent, but I didn't fall in love with the collection as I had hoped. I still wanted to read more O'Connor, but her works moved down my priority list considerably. Reading Napolitano's novel gets me in the mood to read O'Connor again. Anytime an author spends considerable time with an historical character, they should have strong feelings for the subject—either love or hate—otherwise the true person dissolves into a mere plot device. Those feelings should be evident to the reader. Napolitano makes Flannery very alive for me. And because of that, I am once again excited to read O'Connor. And even more excited to revisit Napolitano.
A Good Hard Look is penned with great skill. Most outstanding is Napolitano's beautiful language, a myriad of well-placed and wonderfully chosen words. Also, worth noting are the perspectives. Her use of the alternating third-person is executed extremely well. In a novel such a this, timing is crucial, and I feel the author did a fabulous job knowing what character to follow and when to abandon ship.
For me, there is a shift in my feelings toward these characters midway through the novel. By no tricks of the author—just careful planning and raw talent—the characters who are reasonable become flawed; those who at first seem beyond redemption elicit my sympathies. This promotes the feelings of forgiveness at the novel's center without preaching and without excessive evidence of the author's hand.
Only months ago, I read O'Connor's collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find. I appreciated O'Connor's talent, but I didn't fall in love with the collection as I had hoped. I still wanted to read more O'Connor, but her works moved down my priority list considerably. Reading Napolitano's novel gets me in the mood to read O'Connor again. Anytime an author spends considerable time with an historical character, they should have strong feelings for the subject—either love or hate—otherwise the true person dissolves into a mere plot device. Those feelings should be evident to the reader. Napolitano makes Flannery very alive for me. And because of that, I am once again excited to read O'Connor. And even more excited to revisit Napolitano.
lenavanausdle's review
4.0
There is a garish trashiness about this novel that keeps it from being great. The characters are gratingly narcissistic. They spend the whole novel just bumping into each other while immersed in their own thoughts and concerns; picking up the pieces from the damage the bumping caused. But isn't that how most human beings live their lives? And it's that insight into human nature that made the trashiness worthwhile.
jodiwilldare's review
2.0
It’s probably a good idea to bone up on the life and times of Flannery O’Connor before you dive into Ann Napolitano’s latest novel, A Good Hard Look. As a fan of O’Connor’s work, but pretty clueless about her life, I struggled with the timing and pace of this novel set in the last few years of the great Southern writer’s life.
While I was well aware that Flannery died young of Lupus, I couldn’t remember if it was in the 50s or 60s. Since I’m an ardent believer that one shouldn’t have Google at the ready when reading a book, and that the author should provide all the information needed, I really struggled to get my feet under me in this one.
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While I was well aware that Flannery died young of Lupus, I couldn’t remember if it was in the 50s or 60s. Since I’m an ardent believer that one shouldn’t have Google at the ready when reading a book, and that the author should provide all the information needed, I really struggled to get my feet under me in this one.
Read more.
jooniperd's review
4.0
i don't know about you, but if i am going into a fictionalized version of flannery o'connor, i go in expecting things to be a bit dark and twisty. so i am glad ann napolitano went down those paths and embraced the complicated and more wicked/sad sides of life. while o'connor is part of a larger cast of characters, and the novel isn't solely about her, i enjoyed the portrait created in this book and she certainly serves as the centre around which the action and characters move. having read much of o'connor's fiction, and [b:Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor|5350543|Flannery A Life of Flannery O'Connor|Brad Gooch|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344268232s/5350543.jpg|5418030] (along with a whole bunch of articles and essays), the way napolitano presented o'connor (and her mother, regina) was quite believable, and i liked the view of milledgeville and its citizens as invented in a good hard look. i feel as though napolitano writes with a huge amount of empathy and sensitivity so that even though there is a lot of wretchedness, hope sustains.i felt the book wobbled a bit near the end, and i did end up a bit disappointed with the arcs of a few characters. after all of the time and build-up things ended with a bit of a fizzle for me and felt a bit limited. but i was quite absorbed in the book and its themes of happiness, duty/obligations, and consequences. this book did nothing to endear me to peacocks though. heh.
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