In a beautifully written analysis of O'Connor's life and work, Balee displays considerable knowledge of the cultural and historical background of O'Connor's world, and provides rare and revealing photographs. A must read, and apparently the first biography of O'Connor.

I was privileged to be introduced to Flannery O'Connor's works in Dr. Rath's Fiction class at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. At the time, I wasn't aware that Dr. Rath is considered to be one of the most important authorities on O'Connor's work and life.

Dr. Rath once told us in class that he would describe his feelings toward O'Connor and her writings as love, and were she alive, he might seriously consider leaving Mrs. Rath for her. Of course, he was joking, but Dr. Rath writes about Flannery O'Connor's work and life with a passion that few can match.

Flannery O'Connor is perhaps a greater writer about the South than William Faulkner. She had a life cut short by chronic illness but in her short life she managed to write some of the most memorable stories I've ever read.

You will enjoy Dr. Rath's writings about Flannery O'Connor. I encourage you to do an online search for his articles and essays once you have read his book on the subject.

I have written my MA thesis on O'Connor, and I can tell you that you will not find a better book that this one for teaching or research. Asals exploration of O'Connor is so extensive, clear and perceptive it discourages further efforts.

With the enormous influence that Flannery O'Connor's works have had on students, scholars and other writers, this volume is a welcome addition to O'Connor scholarship. The teaching role of Edmondson's discussions of O'Connor's perspectives on good and evil and of her views of the intervention of God's grace in the affairs of humankind, are especially insightful. His views on the pervasiveness of humankind's descent into nihilism are very thought-provoking. Readers of this book--just like readers of Flannery O'Connor's works--may find themselves affected by the content far more than they might imagine.

Dr. Prown explores a whole new approach to O'Connor. She displays a rare understanding of the place of O'Connor in modern Southern and feminist literature. Dr. Prown goes far beyond the usual realm of literary criticism to place O'Connor into the thread of our everyday lives. I highly recommend this book to scholars, laypersons, and all readers interested in O'Connor, Southern literature, and feminist writers.

In Silent Retreats, Philip Deaver shows us what so few writers can: the sometimes delicate, sometimes harrowing, shifting of real emotion beneath the everyday. With deft turns of phrase and a sharp eye for telling detail, Deaver's haunted runners, love-struck teens, and overstressed businessmen seeking serenity reflect to us things about ourselves we have always known, but never stated. In the early-60s, small Illinois town setting of "Arcola Girls", an O Henry Award winning story, Deaver depicts with tenderness teenage love, longing, and loss. Why this book is out of print is beyond me.

When I was researching my thesis at Vanderbilt on O'Connor, Thomas Daniel Young, my advisor, recommended this book as the best book on O'Connor, and I can think of no better authority than Dr. Young. It was invaluable to my understanding of her work.

Essays of varied worth to celebrate the genius of O'Connor. Several are excellent. A few are self-serving and weaken the power of the book.

My hat is off to all the writers who contributed to this book which celebrates the 75th anniversary of Flannery O'Connor's birth. Every piece is a unique glimpse into what O'Connor has meant to so many writers and to so many readers. I was forutnate enough to be in Milledgeville for the launch of this book-David Bottoms, Sarah Gordon, Bret Lott, Greg Johnson, and Kellie Wells--thank you for your readings that day. CHEERS.

This is a warm and wonderful elegy for one of America's most respected writers. Students, friends, colleagues--all come together to pay homage to one of the seminal figures of twentieth-century literature. Can you tell I'm a fan of Flannery? The short story by Greg Johnson is alone reason to buy this book. Recommended.

There seems to be a theme in most of the stories in Everything That Rises Must Converge, and that is sudden violence... usually at the end. I'm not giving anything away, because the read is the important part. O'Connor creates very authentic southern characters, that are funny, disgusting, bigoted, warm and all around human. There seems to be a slight O'Henry in O'Connor in that she likes to surprise you... some may say suddenly end things, quite dramatically. But it is with this ease that her writing is that much more disturbing. On the surface, the south she portrays is gentle and simple. Yet with sudden ferocity, she turns it on its head. To read O'Connor is really enthralling. The intensity and description in which she writes makes each story in this collection seem like a novel. I read Wise Blood a few years ago and liked it, but I will have to read it again as well as her other works after the great fulfillment this collection gave me.

Flannery O'Connor's untimely death at the age of 39 cut short a gifted career that certainly would of produced even more vivid works than are available. This collection includes some of her finer short stories. My favorite, and the one I would like to review is titled, "Revelation". This is a story of Mrs. Turpin, a self righteous bigit who spends most all her time analyzing and judging other people (sound like anyone you know???). O'Connor seethingly depicts the racial tensions in the south, just as William Faulkner does in so many of his writings. As a reader you come to dislike Ms. Turpin so much that you are relieved when in the end, Ms. Turpin certainly does receive a 'revelation'. The ending is a little silly, but that is part of O'Connor's style. She makes fun of the everyday and brings it to life! In all of Flannery O'Connor's writings look for the mention of light, this is the authors way of letting you know a revelation is about to be had! Read all the stories in this collection and you are guaranteed to be an O'Connor fan forever! HAPPY READING!!!

I nearly fell out of my chair when I began reading this collection. I then read it cover-to-cover in a single sitting. It is difficult to describe O'Connor's style, simply because it is so infinitely unique. "Visceral" is a start, but it falsely suggests an explicit rendering of detail and emotion. Rather, the stories are written with an odd, and even ethereal, detachment. Each story surprises and frightens you; and, as you finish one, you find that you must read the next. It is a strange spell. The characters seem so exaggerated, yet palpable and familiar. I do wonder why Flannery O'Connor isn't read more. Her writing is so taut and finely tuned; her stories disturbing, haunting, and ineffably sad.

Hazel Motes, protagonist of "Wise Blood," is an accidental prophet. Though the novel precedes the much better "The Violent Bear It Away," it can be read as a sort of sequel to that novel - what might have happened to young Tarwater if we were allowed to see his adventures in the city.

Motes goes around the city in the evenings, preaching the Church Without Christ, a church in which the individual is free from the 'bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus' - freed from tradition, from dogma, from traditional notions of salvation. Motes preaches the coming of a new Jesus - a contemporary that modern (or post-modern) people can relate to.

In his quest, Motes is pursued by two individuals, Sabbath Hawks, the daughter of a blind false prophet, and Enoch Emery, a wannabe disciple. Emery wants very badly to find that new Jesus and receive a revelation from him.

Full of strange and compelling, if somewhat distant characters, including a small mummy and a gorilla suit, "Wise Blood" does not have the plot flow of "The Violent Bear It Away," and it is a little more haphazard, but it is a wonderful first glance into Flannery O'Connor's genius fictional mind, possessed with finding Christ in existentialism with or without Kierkegaard.

If you're looking for religious literature in the hope and comfort vein, skip Wise Blood. I do, however, think that feel-good Christians on chummy terms with God might do well to remember that, according to a verse from Hebrews, "it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God." This is what happens to Hazel Motes, about as unsympathetic a protagonist as you're ever likely to clap eyes onto (the rest of the characters, no-hopers all, won't warm your heart much, either). In a book that's both wildly funny and profoundly thought-provoking, O'Connor pries up the rock of conventional religious belief and examines what lies underneath it. Read it.

What an insane book. It's really quite incredible. Flannery O'Connor found all the problems of society, injected them into absurdly weird yet decidedly realistic scenarios and made a book about it.

This book deals with obsession, self worth, and generally a whole bunch of people trying to escape themselves, or at least what they think defines themselves. And to boot, it can be terribly funny in a twisted way. Flannery O' Connor rocks.

It's about Hazel Motes and the various well defined characters that ram into his life, and he doesn't even notice them. There's the ... blind preacher's daughter, and the suburban washup teenager, and the blind preacher, who all play pivotal roles in Motes' existence, though again, he doesn't realize it. Hazel pretty much goes through the book living in his own world, even though he hates his head also. Motes, after all, is a strange character who is desperately seeking peace with himself, and as you'll see he never fails in punishing himself. He's obsessed with Christ and purity, yet he loathes Christianity and purity. So he creates the Church of Christ Without Christ, and as he tries to promote it, a series of terrifying and subtle events occur that will make you bugeyed with wonder and horror and disgust. He descends from what you would think is a good proper religious fanatic, to a degraded near maniacal individual, and that's what really captivates you, though O'Connor provides ample sideshows. And then, the end is as strange and satisfying as the rest of the book.

This is a strange crazy incredibly captivating and overwhelmingly intense book that only lasts a hundred or so pages, but after you'll probably run to Jane Austen. But then in their own funny ways, both Pride and Prejudice and Wise Blood are full of that irony that makes us think about what a bunch of hypocrites we can be to ourselves sometimes.