Wise Blood: A Novel (FSG Classics)

Perhaps I needed to start with Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, to which I plan to turn next (maybe!) and then re-read Wise Blood because so many friends have extolled her writings, and I personally have often quoted her wisdom on writing to “Show, don’t tell.” But this book mostly repulsed me (along similar lines as Infinite Jest repulsed me – and the book by Markus Zusak called I Am the Messenger).If this story was intended to be satire, it did not amuse me, though the names she created for her characters did. Instead of finding humor in it as I had hoped, I found a strange cartoon that was dark and hideous, like being in a Fun House that wasn’t fun. I think I “get” that the subject here is spiritual blindness, but I don’t think that’s funny. Perhaps I’m just getting cranky in my old age – maybe! I will get back with another review when/if I change my mind about Wise Blood.

This is a hilarious romp through the "Dark Night of the Soul," Southern-hick-style. By referencing "Dark Night of the Soul," I am indeed referring to the poem by 16th Century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. It's a short poem, and the same one parodied by Douglas Adams in his title :The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul," and I am glad I connected this poem to this work by Flannery O'Conner. It should be companion reading to this book. It will help you unpack these incredible characters that O'Conner paints with her exceptional prose. St. John's version is from a different perspective, of course: the actor of his poem is treading through a darkness of the soul, and comes to discover that the darkness helps him to identify the Light, and provide direction toward it. In O'Conner's story we have an actor who is actively trying to turn off the Light, and what becomes of him.Main character Hazel Motes is committed to denouncing Jesus as the Light. He commits himself to the ministry of calling people to the "light" of unfaith. Yet, in his quest, he finds himself in a dark night where the only light is the Light that persistently burns in his soul. No matter how hard he tries, Hazel just cannot stomp out this persistently burning fire. Ignore it as he might, he cannot help but notice it. He eventually comes to the point of reversing course and darkens his physical eyes so he can do a blind walk of penance back to the Light he tried to escape.Poor Mrs. Flood. She just barely perceives this pin prick of Light in the darkened eyes of her boarder Hazel. But although she just can't seem to help but persistently look for this Light in the darkened eyes of Hazel, it is always beyond her reach, most likely because she is preoccupied with her noble schemes to separate Hazel from his government paychecks. Some might say she preferred the darkness to the Light.And then there is Enoch. He just wants to be friends. It is his Wise Blood for which this novel is named. Wise blood is sort of a turn of phrase he uses to describe his instincts, which largely lead him to do things that ultimately contrive him to make unconventional (and without a doubt disturbing) human connections. He is compelled to veil himself... he hides in a bush to observe the women at the public swimming pool, he pilfers an ape suit in the expectation that it will help people to shake his hand. He seeks connection -- Communion, even. And so we have another seeker going about it the wrong way.This book is thick with Christian themes, and presented through characters that are written in such a way that you are compelled to not really relate to them so that you laugh at them and, hopefully, clearly contemplate the seriously significant subject matters regarding the salvation of the soul. O'Connor's approach is definitely a Roman Catholic approach, but I think the elements of penance presented here are worthy of a protestant's consideration. While we  are saved by grace, it does not discount the many scriptures that speak to the fact that faith without works is dead. Hazel takes his long penitential walks, and he rightly tells Mrs. Flood that, as far as she is concerned, she is good... making the point clear that there are none so blind as those who will not see.

Flannery O'Connor was, first and foremost, a Catholic. She made this plain in how she lived her life, and in her letters her deep commitment to the faith of her fathers becomes very evident. It is impossible to correctly understand her work from any other paradigm.In one letter she writes that she feels most people who read Wise Blood see her as a "hillbilly nihilist." Rather, she would hope, they would see her as a "hillbilly Thomist." Her references to the work of Jacques Maritain (combined with the fact that she read the Summa as a youngster) give proof to her mindset.With this backdrop in mind, reading O'Connor's work becomes an exercise in the best sort of exegesis. Her use of symbol, the grotesque, and even violence, as ways to talk about and analyze Grace and God's actions in our lives (usually soteriological) are profound.Wise Blood is no exception. Her brilliance is on full display here. Haze's commitment to nihilism as a philosophy, and the rejection of Christ that is at its core, is clear. Utilizing this rejection (and employing symbol and imagery) O'Connor shows Haze's denial of Christ, and Christ's constant outpouring of love and grace in pursuit of Haze. Ultimately, Haze is saved, although given O'Connor's brilliant writing, it is hardly sappy or obvious.The characters are rich, interesting, and yes, grotesque. These characters are classic O'Connor, and one does not struggle to find empathy for them, even in their brokenness. We find a "blind preacher" who is not blind, who had resolved to blind himself as a witness to Christ's passion and justification of his sins, but lost his nerve and his faith. Enoch Emory is a fascinating and sympathetic character. It is crushing what rejection by one's father can (but not necessarily will) to do a soul. Yet there is hope for him still.This is a book that I finished a week ago, but has been "with me" constantly since. The writing is absolutely amazing, deep and polished. O'Connor did not write quickly. She wrote, re-wrote, crafted, and re-crafted. Every word that is there is there for a reason, and one must read carefully to get at it all.O'Connor, in all her Scholastic brilliance, is on full display here. This is probably one of the greatest novels I have ever read. Coming to grips with Flannery O'Connor will enrich your life. Don't wait. Read this author now.

The absence of likable characters makes it hard to care what happens, and even harder to finish. Yet, on a symbolic level, it possesses a profound message. Essentially, it is a dystopia of a protestant society after it has left the unifying power of the catholic church. O’Conner, as a catholic (which I am not), saw Protestantism as a fracturing force that unleashes a variety of destructive false prophets. They have no common language and no common arbitrator to tell the heretic from the saint. The breakdown of community ties leaves all the characters to manipulate each other for their own ends.With God gone or discredited, the mandate to ‘love thy neighbor’ turns into ‘use thy neighbor’.If you are catholic this will strengthen your views, if you are a protestant this will be a profound warning, if you are secular with little understanding of religious themes this will either be a struggle or a validation of the vileness of religion.It’s hard to look at America now and not feel that Flannery was on to something…

Yet another publisher thinks it's a good idea to include an introduction that completely ruins the story, including key and arresting details affecting the main character. Thankfully I've gotten used to this stupid practice and skipped the introduction until I'd finished the book. Has no-one heard of an afterword? Or give a warning? If I'd read the intro it would have completely spoiled the full effect of the book.Great book by the way, unnerving, odd and pretty bleak. Characters are drawn beautifully and the writing is great. I heard about it through an interview with Buzz Osborne of the Melvins who recommended the film adaptation by John Huston which I'm planning to watch after enjoying the book.

I came to Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood' through my admiration of John Huston's 1979 film adaptation of the novel: the film is now neglected and little seen, but in my opinion remains on of the best examples of the independent, adventurous American cinema that flourished in the 1970s. I recall the bizarre, almost surreal narrative of Huston's film and was interested to find out how it compared to the source novel. O'Connor's book did not disappoint. I am not sure that I like it as much as the film, but it is certainly like no other book I have read.The novel was published in 1952 and describes small town America in its Southern state of Tennessee. It has been described as a work of the 'Southern Gothic' genre, drawing on the religious eccentricities and superstitions that persist in the relatively backward rural communities of the Old South.The novel is short and episodic, having been assembled from a number of short stories and sketches that O'Connor had written for magazines. We discover the central figure of Hazel Motes aboard a homebound train as he returns from World War 2 nursing psychological as well as physical damage. He finds his old house deserted, his community dispersed, and on impulse he boards the next train to the town of Taulkinham harbouring some strange notion of founding his own church there. We learn that Motes' grandfather had been a travelling preacher and it seems that Motes shares his oratorial ambitions.However, scarred by his experience of war, Motes has lost whatever faith he may have had, and he is intent on spreading his vision of a religion without a saviour: the Church Without Christ. The story is rich in religious symbolism and fine detail, and paints a world that will be unfamiliar to most readers but one that was very real to the author. The writing is sharp, often cutting, and blends wit with woe. I found myself grinning on many occasions at the black humour that runs throughout the story. It is a comedy as much as it is a tragedy, as it mocks human vanity and ambition.Every character in the story appears to be twisted and self-interested, with few if any redeeming features. Motes does, at least, seem to be seeking some sort of truth and spiritual direction, however bleak and negative his vision becomes, and the manic zookeeper Enoch Emery - who sees Motes as some kind of a messiah - believes that Motes shares the "wise blood" that he, Emery, inherited from his father. This wise blood manifests itself as an intuitive knowledge, independent of any rational or theological direction, that guides the bearer through life. However, everyone that Motes encounters in Taulkinham seeks to use him for their own ends. The populace remains disinterested in his preachings, although willing to listen and engage with the fraudsters and conmen there that preach their own promises of salvation.There is a streak of human cruelty running through the story, which turns shockingly brutal on one casual occasion. At other points the narrative takes on surreal and absurd tones (there are men dressed in gorilla suits, a mummified dwarf ...), particularly when we follow Enoch Emery on his personal quest to find whatever it is that he must find. This tangential story of Emery (a reworked version of O'Connor's short story 'Enoch and the Gorilla' incorporated into the novel) leaves Motes' disciple isolated, outside the community, as he sat on a rock and "stared over the valley at the uneven skyline of the city."I am not sure that I really understood the character of Motes or what he was seeking, nor am I clear as to what O'Connor was trying to say in the novel. What she wrote in a foreword to the 1962 edition suggests that she adhered to her strict Catholic upbringing, and that the moral of the story lies in Motes' failure to cast off his need for religious belief, for some kind of redemption: "That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence. For them Hazel Motes’ integrity lies in his trying with such vigor to get rid of the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of his mind. For the author Hazel’s integrity lies in his not being able to."Nevertheless, I feel that there is much more than this going on here. O'Connor lost her father to the degenerative disease lupus when she was just 15 and was diagnosed as having lupus herself when 26 years old, with a prognosis that she would live no longer than 5 years more. Thus when she wrote 'Wise Blood' she must have been struggling to reconcile the loss of her father and her own brief mortality with her devout Catholic belief in a benevolent deity. I think that when Motes rails against religion and calls into question its fundamental belief in salvation, O'Connor may have been testing her own religious integrity. It is certainly a work that is open to both religious and atheistic interpretation.

"Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not."It's all in the eyes. Eyes that see sin, through and past it, that have seen war, that witness sex and twist it into perversion, and the eyes that in the end go blind in a wracked tailspin of faith.Blind faith. Quite literally. Kills you in the end. Hazel Motes stalks false prophets and liars, salesmen and loose women, wandering through the debris of his soul. Creates his own Church in a moment of Protean inspiration, and is as valid and as real as anything orthodox. Barbed wire and self destruction end his days. His self created myth turns to dust.Southern gothic, darkly comedic, grips like an alligator and shakes you until you choose a side to be on.

Dark and disturbing, but really powerful. This is a great book, and an author I will be happy to return to, though she didn't write many books before her early death. Kind of reminds me of Cormic McCarthy, in that the writing is stripped back and not a word is wasted. There is no judgement on the characters actions, those actions are just described. Loved it.