Wise Blood

Name: Wise Blood
Author: Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor · 1952

Hazel Motes founds the Church Without Christ in the American South. O'Connor's 1952 debut is grotesque, hilarious, and haunted by a God who will not leave people alone. Her Catholicism is violent and strange, nothing like comfort. The prose has teeth.

The case against

on the length
“Wise Blood might have been 50 pages and a few characters shorter”
four stars · a book blog
on the characters
“It’s hard to find an empathetic character in the bunch”
a book blog
on the cast of characters
“this cast of bizarre characters, ranging from merely repugnant to truly evil”
a book blog
on the plot
“The plot, for one, is nearly impossible to summarize”
a book blog