Wise Blood
by Flannery O'Connor
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Paperback Reprint edition (August 1996)
Noonday Pr; ASIN: 0374505845
Avg. Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars ; Number of Reviews: 4

Customers who bought this book also bought:

• The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (A Harvest/Hbj Book); Katherine Anne Porter
• The Complete Stories; Flannery O'Connor
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew/The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe/The Horse and His Boy/Prince Caspian/Voyage of the Dawn Treader/The Silver Chair/The Last Battle ; C. S. Lewis, et al

Amazon.com
The first novel by Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood thrust her into the arena of the finest voices of the South. The story involves Hazel Motes of Eastrod, Tennessee, who comes home from the Army and becomes entranced by the power of a street preacher, Asa Hawks and his daughter, Lily Sabbath Hawks. Motes sets about to preaching in his own way and runs into conflict with Hawks when he declares a new religion called The Church Without Christ. From one destitute town to the next, he preaches from the hood of his ratty car. The beauty and power of the book emerge not only from O'Connor's distinctive voice but from her brutal depiction of the less-than-admirable characters that can turn up where you least expect them.

The New York Times Book Review, William Goyen
There is in Flannery O'Connor a fierceness of literary gesture, an angriness of observation, a facility for catching, as an animal eye in a wilderness, cunningly and at one sharp glance, the shape and detail and animal intention of enemy and foe.

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature , 04/01/95
First novel by Flannery O'connor, published in 1952. This darkly comic and disturbing novel about religious beliefs was noted for its witty characterizations, ironic symbolism, and use of Southern dialect. Wise Blood centers on Hazel Motes, a discharged serviceman who abandons his fundamentalist faith to become a preacher of anti-religion in a Tennessee city, establishing the "Church Without Christ." Motes is a ludicrous and tragic hero who meets a collection of equally grotesque characters. One of his young followers, Enoch Emery, worships a museum mummy. Hoover Shoats is a competing evangelist who creates the "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ." Asa Hawks is an itinerant preacher who pretends to have blinded himself to show his faith in redemption.

Average Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars Number of Reviews: 4

Blythe Sturdevant (sturdbax@ptialaska.net) from Juneau, Alaska USA , 04/20/98, 4 out of 5 stars
The novel was compelling, it had amazing imagery.
Street Preaching: Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, was published in 1952. It introduced Flannery to the literary world, and quickly made her style one of the most recognized of all time. She writes of deep Southern towns, where one gets lost in musty streets and dark sinister alleys, encountering equally musty and sinister characters. This book set the path, on which her subsequent novels follow.

Wise Blood begins by introducing the main character, a discharged service man named Hazel Motes, who finds a new home in a large city. Hazel discovers the wonderful world of street preaching and creates a church titled, the ‘Church Without Christ.’ His attitude toward life and those in it is cynical and almost absurdly opinionated. This demeanor shapes the story to the point where the reader believes his immoral actions and opinions are reasonable.

During the first day of his new life in the city, Hazel meets new characters in similarly desolate states of being. Enoch Emery portrays a ravaged young man whose blood tells him what to do and often dominates him to a point where Enoch can no longer control his actions. Asa Hawks, a street preacher, accompanied by his daughter, Lily Sabbath Hawks, tries to change Haze’s life for the better, but ends up only confusing him. Hoover Shoat becomes Haze’s one and only prophet, but later turns against him and changes to his street-preaching competition. The characters weave a bizarre story, to which Flannery provides the necessary details to create dreadfully vivid scenes.

Often, the theme in Flannery’s books is not clear and one must dig deeper into the book to find its true meaning. In her short story books, like Everything that Rises Must Converge, I find it easier to discern a prominent theme, because I can compare the stories to find a common thread. However, the theme of Wise Blood hides within the more complex story line. Through looking into the characters’ actions, I found this dominant theme: ‘Do not plan too far into the future, until you know what lies ahead.’ Too many of the characters in the book make plans for the morrow but cannot fulfill them and ultimately end up disappointed. Enoch Emery feels in his blood that he has a mission, but he is unsure of how he should react to the strange messages. Instead of being productive and continuing with job and other engagements, he spends all of his time worrying about what he must do. If he had been flexible from the beginning and pondered less about his “mission,” he could have avoided being caught up in theft of a museum artifact.

Flannery’s writing, especially in this short novel, is compelling, and makes it hard to put the book down. Her attention to detail makes one feel that the characters have been neighbors all one’s life, even though they lived in such a different time and place. She has a way of writing that enfolds the reader into the story. I often was frustrated with the story line, because she made me realize that the characters’ conflicts with their surroundings and each other result in doings that are morally wrong. This style characterizes Flannery’s writing, in that her stories often end up with an unexpectedly tragic ending. Her tragic endings are just one more way that she portrays the grim life style of those less fortunate.

The ending left me thirsty for more of the story. I did not feel Flannery completely told parts of the novel; she did not finish many of the sub-stories that she started. Despite this drawback, I found the book to be well thought out and written in the amazing way that only Flannery can write. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy in-depth but short novels that transport them into the hard life of those who struggled to get along in the city slums of the Fifties.

cdavis@ucla.edu from Los Angeles, CA , 04/02/98, 5 out of 5 stars
David Lynch Meets John Kennedy Toole
Wise Blood is at once engaging, provocative, and wildly funny. The author's gift for describing people and events of dark comic outrageousness will cause the story to stick in your head for a long time. It packs Hunter Thmopson's comtempt for authority into the perspective of a fly on the wall, watching an absurd circus of misguided faith. READ IT!

sholz@execpc.com from Milwaukee, WI , 03/03/98, 5 out of 5 stars
A superlative character study
In this story by Flannery O'Conner, the plot contains an emotional depth and fullness of character that is no longer found in literature. "The Church of Christ without Christ" is an amusing and creative attempt by the character to combat his feelings for Christianity. When his first and only disiple attempts to turn his philosophy into a money making scam, it is a perfect example of how any idea, even a poor one, can be taken and perverted into a profit making scheme. This occurence, and many others in the novel, are what make it a classic.

mikego@webtv.net from Orlando, Florida , 12/27/97, 5 out of 5 stars
SHEER GENIUS
I've never read a piece of American literature as profound as WISE BLOOD. Even though it was first published in early '50s, the book will certainly shock you all the way through with its violent images and brutal characters. BUT this American masterpiece is still helplessly beautiful. And also amazingly funny. After reading WISE BLOOD, you will never be able to shake it out of your mind as long as you live - GUARANTEED!! Flannery O'Connor is god!

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