A Prayer Journal

A fascinating little gem; short and intriguing.

Excellent.

A short book of which half is photocopies of O'Connor's journal. As a writer myself, and a person of deep faith in a Divine Being (whatever one wishes to call that Divinity), I was fascinated by her struggle to keep faith in God & herself, and by her constant pleas to God to grant her ambitions to be more than a mediocre writer (possibly because they echo my own prayers)However, cynically, I wondered who tore out the missing pages - was it the publishers themselves(to keep the journal focused on he writing prayers) and were they really missing when the journal was found? I'm not a fan of living celebreties biographies and advice books - but O'Connor is no longer living, and her talent has stood the test of time. Thus, this journal could have been a great inspiration to unpublished authors. It is fascinating seeing her insecurities & ambition laid bare. I did, however, expect a prayer journal to cover other aspects of her life, and that was missing from this very short book. I did, however, like the photocopies of the actual journal and seeing her actual handwriting.

Flannery O'Connor's "A Prayer Journal" is as far from Chris Robert's mangled comments on it as the Bible is from a dictionary without definitions. The "Journal" reflects a young (20/21 years old) woman's deep and intense desire to know and to live in deep love of, and obedience to God, albeit growing at the same time in work (i.e. writing) which would contribute something positive to the world -- which it certainly did, and also quite outside the "Journal". Her spirituality and its growth over eighteen months or so which it projects is both quite profound and inspiring from one so young. This work lay hidden for years but is now available to inspire a much later generation.