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A review by livingpalm1
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor by Sally Fitzgerald, Flannery O'Connor
5.0
The book is formed from Flannery's prolific letter writing over an almost twenty-year span until her painful death, lovingly curated by her author friend Sally Fitzgerald. The book (before the index) is 506 pages long. And I read every single one. It felt a bit like searching for clues to answer my question "Can I take this woman seriously when she says that she loves God and loves the Church and loves writing?"
Her take on the world is completely outside of my paradigm. If she were alive today and lived next door to me I think I'd avoid her for fear of her sharp insight into human behaviour, my behaviour to be specific. But letters, I could handle and letters seemed to be her favorite form of communication as well.
What surprised me most was the way she seems so often gentle, empathetic, even silly, in her letter writing voice. This felt quite different than her storytelling voice and rounded out my perspective on Flannery as a woman, daughter, mentor, and friend.
This is a book I've shamelessly marked up and will return to time and again. I hope that by the time I actually get to meet Flannery in person, I won't be so afraid of her. In the meantime, I'd like to be a little bit like her, the way she refused to take herself too seriously while at the same time observing fervently the truths of God and the human condition and writing them exactly the way she saw them. I'd like to make her a little bit proud, but I'm guessing she wouldn't admit it either way.
More of this review at my blog: http://www.tamarahillmurphy.com/blogthissacramentallife//2011/09/from-book-pile-2011-18-20.html?rq=habit%20of%20being
Her take on the world is completely outside of my paradigm. If she were alive today and lived next door to me I think I'd avoid her for fear of her sharp insight into human behaviour, my behaviour to be specific. But letters, I could handle and letters seemed to be her favorite form of communication as well.
What surprised me most was the way she seems so often gentle, empathetic, even silly, in her letter writing voice. This felt quite different than her storytelling voice and rounded out my perspective on Flannery as a woman, daughter, mentor, and friend.
This is a book I've shamelessly marked up and will return to time and again. I hope that by the time I actually get to meet Flannery in person, I won't be so afraid of her. In the meantime, I'd like to be a little bit like her, the way she refused to take herself too seriously while at the same time observing fervently the truths of God and the human condition and writing them exactly the way she saw them. I'd like to make her a little bit proud, but I'm guessing she wouldn't admit it either way.
More of this review at my blog: http://www.tamarahillmurphy.com/blogthissacramentallife//2011/09/from-book-pile-2011-18-20.html?rq=habit%20of%20being