Flannery O'Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith

by Angela Alaimo O'Donnell

Flannery O’ Fiction Fired by Faith tells the remarkable story of the gifted young woman who set out from her native Georgia to develop her talents as a writer and eventually succeeded in becoming one of the most accomplished fiction writers of the twentieth century. Struck with a fatal disease just as her career was blooming, O’Connor was forced to return to her rural home and to live an isolated life, far from the literary world she longed to be a part of.

In this insightful new biography, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell depicts O’Connor’s passionate devotion to her vocation, despite her crippling illness, the rich interior life she lived through her reading and correspondence, and the development of her deep and abiding faith in the face of her own impending mortality. She also explores some of O’Connor’s most beloved stories, detailing the ways in which her fiction served as a means for her to express her own doubts and limitations, along with the challenges and consolations of living a faithful life. O’Donnell’s biography recounts the poignant story of America’s preeminent Catholic writer and offers the reader a guide to her novels and stories so deeply informed by her Catholic faith.

People of God is a series of inspiring biographies for the general reader. Each volume offers a compelling and honest narrative of the life of an important twentieth or twenty-first century Catholic. Some living and some now deceased, each of these women and men has known challenges and weaknesses familiar to most of us but responded to them in ways that call us to our own forms of heroism. Each offers a credible and concrete witness of faith, hope, and love to people of our own day.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

152 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2015

Reviews

[Delany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good (and very brief) biography of one of my all-time favorite writers. There’s a strong emphasis on O’Connor’s religion, and the huge impact that her religion had on her writing; one might suggest that, without her deep immersion in Catholic Christianity, there would be no novels or stories written by Flannery O’Connor.

It’s clear, too, and equally true that her Southern sensibility is deeply embedded and evident in her work, as well as her compelling interest in the injured, the violent, the vulnerable, the rejected — and these interests, of course, are closely deeply connected to her faith. Interestingly, although she was a very theologically conservative Catholic, later in life she encountered Teilhard de Chardin and was strongly influenced by his ideas (despite the fact that he had been denounced by the Vatican). It was one of his concepts that gave her the title to her volume of short stories: Everything That Rises Must Converge; in choosing it she “signaled her debt to his new vision of an evolving unity, or convergence that she had been given a glimpse of.”

Highly recommended.

[Joe Boenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fordham professor of literature, Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, has taught the writings of Flannery O'Connor for many years before writing this book for Liturgical Press. In this very readable volume, the author presents the life and writings of Flannery O'Connor in a way that highlights Christian Catholic faith lived through disadvantage and ill-health. Living as a Catholic in the Deep South during the 1940s to early 1960s was no small feat, but, as the book allows us to see, Mary Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) used a serious dose of humor to overcome what others might feel were insurmountable obstacles. In presenting O'Connor's writings (published works and correspondence), the author offers us a glimpse at how lay Catholics might embrace faith and culture, even to a heroic degree.

I will be recommending this book during an upcoming course that I shall be teaching on Spirituality and Catholic Laity for the Diocese of Oakland.

[Howard Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a lot by and about Flannery this summer. This is a very personal stand out, but I could’ve made a case for the habit of being or her collected letters.

I am now rereading her stories with new perspective and new, and even higher respect.

[NDH · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that impressed me most about this 2015 biography of Flannery O’Connor is that it seems to have been written for children, 5th-graders to be precise. I’m surprised it isn’t an illustrated biography, with pencil sketches of Flannery and her birds or some such thing. I know that I haven’t read everything by or about FOC—and the academics do seem to keep cranking it out—but I don’t really see that this adds much of anything new or original. Is there a market for such a work? I can only suppose that the author’s early-21st-century university students could be induced to buy something so undemanding. Spoon-feeding is the image that comes to mind, one manifestation of which is the author’s oh-so-helpful parentheticals. Maybe you’ll see what I mean and roll your eyes with me if you read this book. And although I suppose that the term “intersex person” (referring to the hermaphrodite who appears in ‘A Temple of the Holy Ghost) is the politically correct term, I find it both gag-worthy and offensive. I’d never make it in academia today. What’s the world converging to when you can’t call a spade a spade?
Which brings me to FOC’s retroactive conviction for the Sin of Racism (see Chapter 7). That the Jesuit president of Loyola Maryland would cancel FOC because she does not “reflect Loyola’s Jesuit values” does not surprise me; Jesuit values are pretty flexible and all relative anyway, no?…except perhaps when it comes to Cowardice. But I came to this book in part to acquaint myself more thoroughly with the thinking behind that cancellation, specifically, the thinking of the author (AAO’Donnell), “poet, author, and professor at Fordham University” whose work seems to have been foundational for that cancellation effort (fairly or unfairly. See: ‘The Canceling of Flannery O’Connor? It Never Should Have Happened’). I haven’t decided yet what to make of AAO’s ‘not mea culpa’, but I will soon be reading her “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor”.
One thing I will NOT be reading is Paul Elie’s biography of FOC (which AAO actually praises in her Acknowledgements of this current volume; I wonder what she did to anger PE so…)
Finally, I hate sloppy proofreading and careless editing, and while there are a small number of examples thereof (opening page and pages 95 and 120), the one utterly inexcusable error is on page 28, which I quote.

“O’Connor’s college years were heady as well as lively. In December of 1942, the students bore witness to Pearl Harbor, …”

I guess the news traveled slow in Georgia in those days.

[Spencer Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

O'Donnell, Professor at Fordham University writes with a stunning beauty about the faith of Flannery O'Connor, a strong Catholic in the deep Protestant south. Her focus is how the contours of her faith were deeply embedded in her characters, even when they tried to run away from all things related to God.

Angela gets into the life of Flannery as she sought to be molded by Mass, Aquinas, and the stability of the Eucharist that provided a vision of the sacrificial life of faith. We also get a glimpse of her interactions with her readers, some making the way to Rome prodded by her words. Further, she makes the point throughout the book that even the vilest of God's creatures can't possibly get away from the sacred and holy world God made. In other words, glimpses of his mercy remain even after the Fall.

Read this book, then again and be refreshed!

[Patrick Sharpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really gets into O'Connor's stories and how her strong religious beliefs shaped her writing. O'Donnell does a great job connecting the dots between O'Connor's fiction and her faith. I recently did an essay on O'Connor's biography, especially focusing on “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” and this book added some cool new angles to what I already knew. Also found this awesome analysis of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” on https://gradesfixer.com/lit/a-good-ma...— it's a super helpful resource for diving deeper into O'Connor's stories. Definitely recommend checking out both the book and the analysis if you're into O'Connor's stuff.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent & brief biography and literary review of Flannery O’Connor. This is an excellent introduction to the author, her life, and her body of work.

There is Gooch’s more detailed biography and Elie’s book about O’Connor, Percy, Merton & Day (which I have not read). It also addresses her views on race which I think is addressed further in a recent collection of essays “Reconsidering Flannery O’Connor”.

I am saddened by the recent efforts to “cancel” her work. I will still enjoy her stories.

[Johannes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flannery O'Connor was as "ordinary as a loaf of bread," and she lived her life between "the house and the chicken yard," but she drew out the light of eternal mystery and made it shine so brightly that even on late Georgia nights when her mother peaked into Flannery's bedroom to tell her to put down her St. Thomas and shut the light out and get some sleep, Flannery could say only that "this is a light that cannot be put out."

[David Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very readable and insightful biography of one of my favorite authors.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent short biography of my favorite author. A fruitful read for both the O'Connor neophyte and the O'Connor aficionado.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written, concise biography of O’Connor that offers insight into her life and work. I’ve read nearly all of O’Connor’s published work and several biographies. This bio is my favorite.

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are certainly more in-depth biographies of O’Connor in the world, this was a fine starting point.


3 stars.

[Brace1737 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read several biographies of Flannery O'Connor. She remains one of my favorite authors but she is not an easy one to read. This book is a biography and commentary on her work with an empathsis on how her faith influenced how she wrote. AS such it serves as a useful introduction to her work for reads just discovering her and a guide for those who want to greater understanding.