The Violent Bear it away (FSG Classics)

by Flannery O'Connor

[jamiereadthis]

“After four days of Tarwater, the schoolteacher’s enthusiasm had passed. He would admit no more than that. It had passed the first day and had been succeeded by determination, and while he knew that determination was a less powerful tool, he thought that in this case, it was the one best fitted for the job. It had taken him barely half a day to find out that the old man had made a wreck of the boy and that was called for was a monumental job of reconstruction. The first day enthusiasm had given him energy but ever since, determination had exhausted him.”

It was an unfair thing for me to say, back when I said Flannery doesn’t care about her people. She does. You can see, though, how I had to dig so far to understand that she does.

And yet, for all the brilliance of The Violent Bear It Away, for all the humor and mad genius, I am Rayber after four days of Tarwater. The fault lies with me, nowhere else. I’m more in tune with what Flannery is trying to do than I’ve ever been before, and… there’s still that thing in me that begins with enthusiasm and energy and in no time at all, soldiers on in determination and exhaustion.

All comparisons, though, that have ever been made to Flannery? I hereby dismiss them as absurd. Even comparisons I’ve made myself. Nobody, but nobody, writes with the exact kind of power she does.

I will admit no less than that.