Novel
Wise Blood
Flannery O'Connor · 1952
Synopsis
Hazel Motes, from Tennessee, returns from the army in a blue suit and a black hat, and makes his way to the city of Taulkinham. He buys an old Essex that runs badly for forty dollars and preaches, from the top of his car, the Church Without Christ, where there is no redemption since there was no fall. He follows Asa Hawks, a preacher who claims to be blind, and his daughter Sabbath Lily, and rents a room in their boarding house. Enoch Emery, a zoo attendant, steals a mummy from the museum for him, and a huckster, Hoover Shoats, sets up a rival Church.
Context
Four chapters had first appeared as short stories, from 1948 to 1952, notably in the Sewanee Review and the Partisan Review. Initially promised to Rinehart, the book was published by Harcourt, Brace on 15 May 1952 and received a mixed reception. For the second edition, in 1962, the author wrote a note in which she presents it as a comic novel about a Christian in spite of himself, and for that reason very serious. John Huston made a film from it in 1979, shot in Macon.
Who it is for
A short novel, both comic and violent. Translated into French by Maurice-Edgar Coindreau in 1959.
Prizes and reception
Reception at first divided, despite the praise of Caroline Gordon; it is the first of its author's two novels.
Sources for this page 15
The pages consulted to check this page.