Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
It took me a long time to get into this one, and by the time I was interested, I had almost finished it. It might require me to do a little research on it to fully appreciate it.
I’m not sure wtf I just read, but the movie was laughably bad.
This is some seriously dark shit in this book.
O'Connor's exploration of loss of faith, of the desperate need to find meaning, of the struggle for human connection... it's definitely not what I would consider enjoyable to read, but it's beautiful and thought provoking.
O'Connor's exploration of loss of faith, of the desperate need to find meaning, of the struggle for human connection... it's definitely not what I would consider enjoyable to read, but it's beautiful and thought provoking.
Enjoyable writing style, but the commentary on religion is a bit too cliche. Perhaps at the time the book was written the story of Hazel Motes was more of an eye-opener (haha).
It seemed like time went by so fast you couldn't tell if you were young or old.
He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he had forgotten had happened to him.
He knew that what he didn't know was what mattered.
If you don't understand it, it ain't true, and that's all there is to it.
It seemed like time went by so fast you couldn't tell if you were young or old.
He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he had forgotten had happened to him.
He knew that what he didn't know was what mattered.
If you don't understand it, it ain't true, and that's all there is to it.
Absurd and darkly humorous, this book perfectly captures the madness of a culture steeped in religious dread, institutional racism, and general sociopathy in the post-WWII South. Rounding up from 4.5 stars.
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This might be my new favorite book - it's amazing how well Flannery O'Conner is able to construct a story that feels so alien and frightening without any fantastical elements/magical realism. This feels wholly different from anything that I've read/watched/consumed before
Honestly I don't know what to think or say about this book. I think I probably need to read it a few more times.
I am not sure what to think. My mind is still reeling after finishing the novel yesterday afternoon. There is so much to unpack, and the images that keep haunting me -- the mummy's --the new Jesus--"eyelid had split and a pale dust was seeping out of it" and when Mrs. Flood notices the "three strands of barbed wire wrapped around [Haze's] chest" and Enoch Emery in a gorilla suit. There's more -- the rat-gray car, the stripped umbrella with a fox terrier head, the rock-filled shoes. How Hazel Motes takes care of Hoover Shoats without flinching. And I have been ruminating over Mrs. Flood's narration at the end of the novel -- how her voice takes over the story with different energy. Even though she is questioning and curious in wanting to figure out the mystery of Hazel Motes, she doesn't seem as vague or as confused or... I cannot find the correct word here... as muddled as Enoch or Hazel or even Sabbath (who seems to be clearer in her vision of her place in the world than those two male characters, but her voice is not as forceful as Mrs. Flood; she is still a child and a "throwaway female" as she seems aware of it but also desperate to not be?). And at the end, I think , what the...? And there is something about it that is so tangible: these interior lives of people who are searching for some kind of meaning, but have no idea what it might be and how to obtain it. They are victims of their past and the messed up culture that we (still) live in. In "Writing Short Stories" O'Connor tells of how she gave her stories to a neighbor down the road who read them and then told her "just goes to show you how some people will do." That is it. These some people who are often invisible in our American experiment until something horrible happens are the very humans O'Connor had her eye on; and the disappointing part for those of us who read to maybe figure something out -- to glimpse into that mystery of what makes people "do," to examine the sinews of human existence only walk away breathless and confused. Yet, at the same time O'Connor exposes the pain of the human condition and the outcomes she presents seem a logical conclusion. Maybe the breathlessness and confusion I feel whenever I finish one of her works (and this is the first novel of hers I have read) is my own resistance to feeling hopeless. I am instead sure that I have missed something -- missed the silver lining--so I had better go back and reread.