A review by quoththegirl
Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch

4.0

Years ago, one of my favorite English professors had a classful of us over for dinner to meet two of her friends (also English professors) and to discuss Southern American literature. Seeing three old friends talk with one another was beautiful, and their conversation held all of us completely in thrall. These three women were brilliant in their respective fields, utterly hilarious, and had tremendous strength of friendship. We talked about many authors, but the one that really sticks out in my mind is Flannery O’Connor. Until that evening, I had pretty ambivalent feelings about Flannery O’Connor’s writing. After hearing one of the friends, a brilliant Flannery scholar, hold forth on the topic, I was inspired to read every short story O’Connor ever wrote. This woman’s passion for O’Connor’s work was so strong that she made me love her work too. I remember the professor quoting Flannery, explaining her work’s violent turning points to shock spiritually complacent readers: ”To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.” The professor recommended the biography Flannery by Brad Gooch, and I finally read it this week. The above quote was in the book, and I was suddenly transported back to my professor’s living room, sitting on cushions and drinking coffee and talking about wonderful books.