Fanaticism and fundamentalism do not make for good people, no matter what side of the aisle they fall. Horrible story beautifully written. ( )

Published in 1960, this grim Southern Gothic story is set in rural Georgia. It follows the men of the Tarwater family (the women have fled or been driven away). Mason Tarwater is an evangelist and self-proclaimed prophet. He rears his great-nephew, Francis to follow in his footsteps as a prophet. Mason asks Francis to bury him when he dies and ensure his grave is marked with a cross. He also asks Francis to baptize his mentally impaired cousin, Bishop. Bishop is the son of Rayber, who was kidnapped by Mason as a youth and has since become an atheist.

This is a character-driven tale of religious obsession. I think it also intends to comment on the bending of religion to fit a personal agenda. There are obvious references to the conflicts between secularism and religion, and plenty of symbolism. Parts of it are brutal. It is short and goes by quickly, but there are no likeable characters here and little hope. It is well-written but was difficult for me to become fully immersed in it – perhaps due to the central theme or possibly due to the dark content. I can see why it is considered a literary classic. ( )

The Violent Bear It Away
by Flannery O'Connor
1955
Signet Classic
****

Powerful, Bleak, Demanding and Rewarding.
This book left me unsure what to think. It did leave me with a lot ot think about, and that is part of the point of this novel. One part near the end I still cannot come to terms with.

It is brutal. It is savage. The charcters are all extremists, and none are what they seem, or are especially likable, in this Southern Gothic style novel. The imagery of destruction and isolation, and her language of redemption is done brilliantly.
The struggle of poverty, and religious fanaticism are ruthless, deep themes, and leave the reader with a haunting feeling. fundamentalism vs. secularism.

I would recommend this book, but it may be to heavy for alot of people. Her other novel may be a better starting point, if you are interested in her work. ( )

A terrifying book about how religion ruins families and lives.

P.24:
" 'I take my directions from the Lord God,' the old man said, 'who moves in his own time. I don't take them from you.' "

P.124:
"he pushed through the straggly shrub beneath it and, his chin just above the ledge, looked into what appeared to be a small ante - room. A door on the other side of it opened onto a stage and there a man in a bright blue suit was standing in the spotlight, leading a hymn. Rayber could not see into the main body of the building where the people were. He was about to move away when the man brought the hymn to a close and began to speak.
" 'friends,' he said, 'the time has come. The time we've all been waiting for this evening. Jesus said suffer the little children to come unto him and forbid them not and maybe it was because he knew that it would be the little children that would call others to him, maybe he knew, friends, maybe he hadda hunch.' Rayber listened angrily, too exhausted to move away once he had stopped.
" 'friends,' the preacher said 'lucette has traveled the world over telling people about Jesus. She's been to India and China. She's spoken to all the rulers of the world. Jesus is wonderful, friends. He teaches us wisdom out of the mouths of babes!'
"Another child exploited, Rayber thought furiously."

P.128:
" 'for 10 years I was a missionary in China," the woman was saying, 'for five years I was a missionary in Africa, and one year I was a missionary in Rome where minds are still chained in priestly darkness; but for the last six years, my husband and I have traveled the world over with our daughter. They have been years of trial and pain, years of hardship and suffering." she had on a long dramatic cape, one side of which was turned backward over her shoulder to reveal a red lining.
"the woman's tone had changed. The sound of something grasping drew his attention again. 'we have not had an easy time. We have been a hard-working team for Christ. People have not always been generous to us. Only here are the people really generous. I am from Texas and my husband is from Tennessee but we have traveled the world over. We know,' she said in a deep and softened voice, 'where the people are really generous.' "

P.180-1:
"rayber continued to think of tarwater's future, his thoughts rewarding except when every now and then the boy's actual face would Lodge in the path of a plan. The sudden intrusion of the face made him think of his wife. He seldom thought of her anymore. She would not divorce him for fear she would be given custody of the child and she was now as far away as she could get, in Japan, in some welfare capacity. He was aware of his good fortune in getting rid of her. It was she who had prevented his going back and getting tarwater away from the old man. She would have been glad enough to have had him if she had not seen him that day when they went to powderhead to face the old man down. The baby had crawled into the door behind old tarwater and had sat there, unblinking, as the old man raised his gun and shot Rayber in the leg and then in the ear. She had seen him; Rayber had not; but she would not forget the face. It was not simply that the child was dirty, thin, and grey; it was that its expression had no more changed when the gun went off than the old man's had. This had affected her deeply.
"if there had not been something repellent in its face, she said, her maternal instinct would have made her Rush forward and snatch it. She had even had that in mind before they arrived and she would have had the courage to do it in spite of the old man's gun; but the child's look had Frozen her. It was the opposite of everything appealing. She could not express her exact revulsion, for her feeling was not logical. It had, she said, the look of an adult, not of a child, and of an adult with immovable insane convictions. Its face was like the face she had seen in some medieval paintings where the martyr's limbs are being sawed off and his expression says he is being deprived of nothing essential."

P.190:
"the girls could be distinguished from the boys only by their tight skirts and Bare legs; their faces and heads were alike. They danced with a furious stern concentration. Bishop was entranced. He stood up in his chair, watching them, his head hanging forward as if any moment it might drop off. Tarwater, his eyes dark and distant, stared through them. They might have been insects buzzing across the surface of his vision.
"when the music whined to a stop, they clambered back to their table and sprawled in their chairs. Rayber turned his hearing aid on and Winced as bishop's Bellow Blared into his head. The child was jumping up and down in his chair, roaring his disappointment. As soon as the dancers saw him, he stopped making the noise and stood still, devouring them with his gape. An angry silence fell over them. their look was shocked and affronted as if they had been betrayed by A fault In creation, something that should have been corrected before they were allowed to see it. With pleasure Rayber could have dashed across the room and swung his lifted chair in their faces. They got up and pushed each other out sullenly, packed themselves in a topless automobile And roared off, Sending an indignant spray of gravel against the side of the lodge. Rayber let out his breath as if it were sharp and might cut him. then his eyes fell on tarwater.
"The boy was looking directly at him with an omniscient smile, faint but decided. It was a smile that Rayber had seen on his face before. It seemed to mock him from an ever-deepening inner knowledge that grew in indifference as it came nearer and nearer to a secret truth about him. Without warning its meaning Pierced Rayber and he felt such a fury that for the moment all his strength left him. Go, he wanted to shout. Get your damn impudent face out of my sight! Go to hell! Go baptize the whole world!"

P.202-3:
"he got up and went to the window and leaned out. The sky was a Hollow black and an empty road of moonlight crossed the lake. He leaned far out, his eyes narrowed, but he could see nothing. The stillness Disturbed him. He turned the hearing aid on and at once his head buzzed with the steady drone of crickets and tree frogs. He searched for the boat in the darkness and could see nothing. He waited expectantly. Then an instant before the cataclysm, he grabbed the metal box of the hearing aid as if he were clawing his heart. The quiet was broken by an unmistakable Bellow.
"He did not move. He remained absolutely still, wooden, expressionless, as the machine picked up the sounds of some fierce sustained struggle in the distance. The Bellow stopped and came again, then it began steadily, swelling. The machine made the sound seemed to come from inside him as if something in him were tearing itself free. He clenched his teeth. The muscles in his face contracted and revealed lines of pain beneath harder than bone. He set his jaw. No cry must escape him. The one thing he knew, the one thing he was certain of was that no cry must escape him.
"The Bellow Rose and fell, then it blared out one last time, rising out of its own momentum as if it were escaping finally, after centuries of waiting, into silence. The Beady night noises closed in again.
"He remained standing woodenly at the window. He knew what had happened. What had happened was as plain to him as if he had been in the water with the boy and the two of them together had taken the child and held him under until he ceased to struggle."



( )

The ending didn't work for me, but the rest of it was great. ( )