Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers

by Daniel Moran

Flannery O'Connor may now be acknowledged as the "Great American Catholic Author," but this was not always the case. With Creating Flannery O'Connor, Daniel Moran explains how O'Connor attained that status, and how she felt about it, by examining the development of her literary reputation from the perspectives of critics, publishers, agents, adapters for other media, and contemporary readers.



Moran tells the story of O'Connor's evolving career and the shaping of her literary identity. Drawing from the Farrar, Straus & Giroux archives at the New York Public Library and O'Connor's private correspondence, he also concentrates on the ways in which Robert Giroux worked tirelessly to promote O'Connor and change her image from that of a southern oddity to an American author exploring universal themes.

Moran traces the critical reception in print of each of O'Connor's works, finding parallels between her original reviewers and today's readers. He examines the ways in which O'Connor's work was adapted for the stage and screen and how these adaptations fostered her reputation as an artist. He also analyzes how--on reader review sites such as Goodreads--her work is debated and discussed among "common readers" in ways very much as it was when Wise Blood was first published in 1952.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

272 pages, ebook

Published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some great research in this book, including tabulating O'Connor references on Goodreads. It traces the evolution of O'Connor's literary and popular reputation--the cover art analysis is particularly insightful.
There are some gaps that I would have liked to have filled in. While there is a chapter on film adaptations of O'Connor's work--and especially on John Huston's Wise Blood--I'd like to have seen more on O'Connor's evolving reputation in pop culture. The introduction references the birthday party parade in Savannah and her influence on musicians such as Springsteen, but I'd like to have seen those focused on in the chapters as well. But perhaps that's a separate book.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it" Flannery O'Connor 1955

Truth is that O'Connor is not a southern writer or Catholic writer, she's a universal writer because she seeks truth and her writing is true. True her landscape is southern and theology Catholic - a Catholic thoelogy that sadly, hardly exists today - but her writing transcends theses labels

Thoroughly detailed and unsentimental, the author frames O'Connor's place in the hall of poets and our literary cannon.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a scholarly and meticulously researched work of literary criticism, but it is also very much an accessible and eminently readable account of Flannery O’Connor’s writing, concentrating primarily on her critical reception. So not a biography as such, although inevitably the life is touched upon, and not a work of pure criticism, although that comes into it too, but a more unusual approach, exploring the way O’Connor’s writing was perceived at the time and how it is viewed today. The author takes readers’ reviews from Goodreads to discuss contemporary views, an approach I haven’t seen elsewhere and one which works very well in this context. What “ordinary” readers think and feel is every bit as valid as what academics and professional critics think and feel. An excellent contribution to O’Connor studies, the author’s clear and concise style makes the book entertaining and enjoyable and I found it a wonderful introduction to O’Connor and a spur to discover more of her writings.

[Manda Loughmiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book centers around her reputation, I like that the author gives attention to the two main interpretations of Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away, and also the public's and critics' reactions to the John Huston movie.

[Maggie Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found most of this book insightful and valuable, especially Moran's review of critical opinions of O'Connor's work in contemporary publications. The chapter on Sally Fitzgerald's efforts to publish O'Connor's correspondence was excellent. His review of the cover art of her editions and his chapter on the film "Wise Blood" were superb. I would have given this a higher score if he hadn't relied on anonymous Goodreads opinions as sources for O'Connor's effect on readers. A survey of students, academics or critics might have made this a really good book instead of relying on Goodreads. One can always access Goodreads to see what its users have to say instead of reading comments in Moran's book.

[Kirsty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for this, but was really rather disappointed, and didn't see it through to its end. It read like an enormous literature review for the most part.