{"id":1660,"date":"2016-04-10T13:13:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T20:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2017-12-18T08:32:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:32:13","slug":"review-wise-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/10\/review-wise-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Wise Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wise<\/a>
\n Wise Blood<\/a> by Flannery O’Connor<\/a>
\n My rating: 4 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

Not sure if there\u2019s any point to writing a review about a book that\u2019s been out since before I was born, but what the hell. My so-called reviews are basically just blog entries anyway. Have you read Wise Blood<\/em>? Maybe you should. If you\u2019re a writer, anyway. It\u2019s the kind of book that locks down a style and does not let go. Doesn\u2019t compromise because it doesn\u2019t have to. If you want to know what a \u201cvoice\u201d is and what it can do, read Wise Blood<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re a reader, the kind of person who likes to open a book and plant his or her eyes on the first word and get pulled along and then look up eventually and realize half the day is gone. And this without much of a plot to speak of. Flannery O\u2019Connor manages, somehow to plop you down in the post-war South without too much flowery language. You\u2019ll get a few mosquito bites and tend to mop at your brown with a damn handkerchief and you won\u2019t even realize it until you think about it.<\/p>\n

I came to Wise Blood<\/em> because a friend of mine was reading it, and he\u2019s going through a rough patch, and O\u2019Connor\u2019s a go-to for him when he needs some perspective. But I\u2019d read some of the short stories it\u2019s based on before, which made parts familiar. I think you\u2019ll find that multiple readings just make this book better. Being familiar with Flannery O\u2019Connor in general, and this book in particular, will show off its depth, which can be glossed over, since it\u2019s so easy to read otherwise.<\/p>\n

Of course a novel set in the American South in the 40s is going to have some racist language in it. But to her credit, O\u2019Connor doesn\u2019t accept or promote racist ideas- they\u2019re just part of the background. The distinction is necessary, otherwise every novel set in America would either be a racist screed or a pamphlet for social-justice. The former is to be abhorred, and the latter applauded, but not every book has to be about race. Nevertheless, the language can be uncomfortable. Some people don\u2019t read Mark Twain for this reason. I\u2019m not going to blame them- there are too many books in the world to have endure something you don\u2019t want to endure if you\u2019re just looking for a good read.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, rest assured that in Wise Blood<\/em>, at least, there\u2019s not much of it. Same can\u2019t be said for other works by O\u2019Conner, but this one\u2019s more about religion than anything else. Or a lack of religion. Or what happens when a fellow tries to get rid of something he hasn\u2019t got in the first place.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not sure if there\u2019s any point to writing a review about a book that\u2019s been out since before I was born, but what the hell. My so-called reviews are basically just blog entries anyway. Have you read Wise Blood? Maybe you should. If you\u2019re … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Review: Wise Blood”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-qM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}