Review of the book  Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor,  by Brad Gooch

Richards, William A.

English

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University

Georgia Library QuarterlyVolume 46 | Issue 3 Article 23July 2009REVIEW: Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'ConnorWilliam A. RichardsGeorgia College & State UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/glqPart of the American Literature CommonsThis Review is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in GeorgiaLibrary Quarterly by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contactdigitalcommons@kennesaw.edu.Recommended CitationRichards, William A. (2009) "REVIEW: Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor," Georgia Library Quarterly: Vol. 46 : Iss. 3 , Article 23.Available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/glq/vol46/iss3/23Georgia Library Quarterly   Summer 2009   23NONFICTIONTy Cobb Safe at Home by DonRhodes (The Lyons Press, 2008; ISBN978-08203-3017-4, $15.95, pbk.)The Ty Cobb EducationalFoundation Through Fifty Years byJerry Atkins (Five Points Press, 2007;ISBN 978-09789539-0-4, $21.99,hbk.)In the preface to his work Ty CobbSafe at Home, Don Rhodes states thatone of his goals is to focus on TyCobb’s “rich life in Augusta.”  WhileCobb’s place in baseball drives otheraccountings of his life, including hisown autobiography, Ty Cobb: My Lifein Baseball, this account looks atCobb through the words of Augusta,Ga.’s newspapers and the eyes of Augusta’s people.  Wesee Cobb leaving home and coming back, participating incivic and social life and being part of the fabric of thetown. By emphasizing Augusta’s position as the homebase of Cobb’s life, Rhodes has succeeded in makingCobb the man the focus of the story rather than theteams, scores and plays. Rhodes says nothing whichwould revise opinion that this legendary ballplayer was inprivate: quick-tempered, impatient, sometimes violentand less than kind to his family. Rather, he shines morelight on a Cobb who was motivated by high standardsand, in spite of serious faults, still made the world abetter place when he left, as is illustrated in Cobb’s legacyof the Ty Cobb Healthcare System and the CobbEducational Foundation. It’s a swift and absorbing read,of interest more to the local history enthusiast than thebaseball fan, but satisfying to both. If your interest ispiqued by the insight into the man, a further look at hislegacy might be in order. The Ty Cobb EducationalFoundation Through Fifty Years has capsule biographiesof important people in Cobb’s life and reproductions ofCobb’s correspondence. The reliance on primary sourcesadds weight to the narrative of the founding of the fundand the awarding of subsequent scholarships. While aninformative and interesting book on its own, this wouldbe an excellent addition to the reading resource list ofGeorgia academic counselors and scholarship referencecollections. — Reviewed by Carol Waggoner-AngletonReese LibraryAugusta State UniversityFlannery: A Life of FlanneryO’Connor by Brad Gooch (Little,Brown and Co., 2009; ISBN 978-0-316-00066-6, $30, hbk.)O’Connor once speculated that“there won’t be any biographies ofme because, for only one reason,lives spent between the house andthe chicken yard do not makeThe Georgia Library Quarterly reviews books on aspects of life in Georgia and the South, including history, literature,politics, education and genealogy. Materials written by Southern authors or published by regional publishers may alsobe considered, as well as those on libraries and librarianship.Brijin Boddy, Off the Shelf Co-editor, Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library System, bboddy@cvrls.netKaren Odom, Off the Shelf Co-editor, Houston County Public Libraries, kodom@houpl.orgSee more Off the Shelf reviews at http://gla.georgialibraries.org/glq_bookreviews.htm1Richards: REVIEW: FlanneryPublished by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University, 200924   Summer 2009   Georgia Library Quarterlyexciting copy.” Those readers familiar with O’Connor’swork will appreciate the self-effacing humor and irony inher comment. Yet, in fact, it took 38 years for the firstbook-length biography of  O’Connor to appear (FlanneryO’Connor: A Life, by Jean Cash, University of TennesseePress, 2002).  And now we have Brad Gooch’s very goodbiography of her as well. Why did it take so long for abiography to appear? Certainly not because she was anunworthy subject. As Gooch points out, O’Connor hasbecome a one-woman academic industry. To date, morethan 195 doctoral dissertations, more than 70 book-length studies and well over 1,000 articles have beenwritten about her relatively small body of work.No, the reason there was no biography of O’Connor untilrecently is that her friend Sally Fitzgerald was generallyunderstood by fans and scholars of O’Connor to beworking on the definitive O’Connor biography, a projectthat had been under way for more than 20 years.Fitzgerald was still working on the O’Connor biographywhen she died in 2000. This provided Cash and Gooch anopportunity to fill the biographical void.Gooch’s carefully researched and documented biographyrelies heavily on the recollections of people who actuallyknew O’Connor. That is both a strength and something ofa weakness, since some of those recollections are wellover 50 years old. He also largely refrains from literaryexplication in favor of giving biographical details that helpprovide context for the stories.So now we have two biographies, and one would thinkthat would be more than enough to cover a life “spentbetween the house and the chicken yard.” As Goochcommented in a recent interview, “Unless someonecomes walking out of the woods with a startlingrevelation, the plot points of O’Connor’s life have beenset, and the connections with her work are now openand available for interpretation and reinterpretation.”All Georgia libraries should have both the Cash and theGooch biographies in their permanent collections. Yetwhat is lacking in both books is a better understanding ofO’Connor’s essential spiritual life and its relationship toher art. Perhaps the biography currently being written byprofessor emeritus William Sessions (who knew O’Connorwell) will address this aspect of her life more fully. In themeantime, the best sources for understanding thatfundamental aspect of her life and art remain her ownletters and essays published posthumously as The Habit ofBeing and Mystery and Manners. — Reviewed by William A. RichardsProfessor of Library ScienceGeorgia College & State UniversityPortraits of Grace: Imagesand Words from theMonastery of the HolySpirit by James StephenBehrens, OCSO (ActaPublications, 2007; ISBN 978-0-87946-334-2, $19.95).This collection of observations and meditations pair aphotographic image from the monastery with correspond-ing text. Both the size of the photos and the amount ofrelated text vary from page to page. Some observationscover three paragraphs, others two or less. Each photo hasa caption, or title, such as “Friends,” “Colored Brick Wall,”“Stress,” “The Brighter the Light.” The book is coffee-table sized, at 9-by-10 inches. All photos are color.Although the book follows no obvious pattern (there isno table of contents), it does offer  a focus of morningobservations in the first pages. Each photo captures ascene, an object or a mood from the monastery.  Besidesthe photo of the author on the back cover overleaf, nohuman is fully pictured. Among the 200 or sophotographs, only three contain images of the humanform: an artist painter’s torso, Jesus Christ on the Crossand the Buddha. Still, the book is titled Portraits of Grace.The objects of the photographer’s eye range from clay potsto airplanes to flowers to aged tools to scenes of rooms setwith their items of function such as a dining room, ascriptorium or a wall of shelved books. Many photoscapture a sense of timeless function: a brick pathway, anold step stool, a bicycle, a pair of worn boots. Otherscenes capture the columns of the monastery church invarious shades of contrast from vivid dark to bright light,or subdued infusions of light. An ever-present theme ofthe book is light: the light of the Divine, which illuminatesthe human to better grasp as well as the variety of lightneeded to capture the photo in its intended sense.Is it a photography book or one of meditations? It is botha visual delight and a collection of concise wise observa-tions about our lives within the context of a largercontinuum. The Monastery of the Holy Spirit, a Trappistcommunity, is located in Conyers. Visitors are welcome towalk the grounds, shop at the bookstore/gift shop andbonsai nursery, to worship at regularly scheduled services,as well as attend retreats. This book is the third by theauthor. All three volumes explore the dimension of gracefound in the everyday, the ordinary and in the monasticway of life. — Reviewed by Tim WojcikLibrarian & Media SpecialistOur Lady of Mercy Catholic High School2Georgia Library Quarterly, Vol. 46, Iss. 3 [2009], Art. 23https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/glq/vol46/iss3/23

REVIEW: Flannery: A Life of Flannery O\u27Connor

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REVIEW: Flannery: A Life of Flannery O\u27Connor

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