15th Meeting: Wise Blood

The 15th meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary took place on a sunny and mild Sunday afternoon in February. One our newest members, Rachel, hosted the discussion of Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. I was extremely excited to read this book for many reasons- mostly, I have embarrassingly never read anything by Flannery O'Connor, and I feel as though I should considering she is a literary icon. Also, she is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and happened to write at least a portion of the novel while here! It is incredible to be living in the same city and walking the same streets as so many literary geniuses, and reading the works they wrote while living and studying here is just too cool.

Unfortunately, I didn't love the book-- and barring one exception, neither did most Literary Eaters & Drinkers. We had an amazing discussion though. The novel is about a maladjusted WWII veteran, Hazel Motes, who returns to the south from the war having a crisis of faith. He starts preaching and starts the "church of Christ without Christ". The cast of characters are all misguided mis-fits and the symbolism, religious themes, and dark comedy of the book are inescapable. 

I appreciate the book much more after our discussion, but while reading it, I kept feeling like I just wasn't smart enough. I didn't see the masterpiece, I didn't get the comedy, I wasn't shocked (in a good way or bad) by the religious themes. Overall? I just didn't get it. The chapters didn't seem to flow, and I was just not that engaged. At first I chalked it up to the fact that I was incredibly preoccupied with prospectus writing and applying for fellowships, but after finishing the novel, I looked it up on Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge, right?) and found out that the book was basically a compilation of multiple originally separate short stories (one of which was O'Connor's thesis at Iowa!) After I realized that the chapters were originally distinct stories, I felt much better about the whole book. And in fact, I could see merit in individual chapters and I think I would have enjoyed them much more if they were just a short story. 

Kelsey, the loan true fan of the book, is also a huge fan of O'Connor in general. She said that once you "get" the dark comedy of her work, that the rest falls into place.  So, with that endorsement, I have decided not to give up on O'Connor's work! And maybe in time, I will come back to Wise Blood and see if I can get a clue! 

On my shelf (and other stuff)

On my shelf:

I'm currently reading two books-- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (which is the next book club pick!) and Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (which was a gift from my mom). I'm enjoying both, though I have to admit I'm only a few chapters into each of them. Somehow my subconscious keeps combining them into one book. In the morning I find myself searching for "Mud Blood" before I hop on the bus. If I was a maniacal Harry Potter fan, this might be more expected, but instead it's just kind of hilarious.

Other stuff:

So many of the books I've read since starting this blog have been turned into TV shows (all of the Sookie books) or movies, (the Twilight series, The Help, The Hunger Games, and Cloud Atlas), or were based on an event that is also the topic of a great documentary (Let the Great World Spin) that I have been thinking of adding a series to the blog. My goal would not be to become a movie critic (because I am just not cool enough, skilled enough, or... well, I think "cool enough" summed it up) but would just be to compare the works in written format to the works in the film format.

For example-- take the Twilight series. Twilight still makes me get butterflies and googly eyes in the written form, (I know, it's embarrassing and anti-feminist but I JUST CANNOT HELP MYSELF. I mean, he LOVES her but he wants to EAT her. How can you not swoon?) but the movie hurts my soul. My favorite scene of the book (in the meadow-- anyone? Anyone?) is completely ruined in the movie by awkward teenage actors and windchime sound effects accompanying the worst "glittery skin" special effects I have ever seen. The second and third movies  were not much better (though, the books weren't as good either so this is hardly a surprise). However, the fourth movie (which yes, I did see in theaters.... and not in an ironic way, sadly) was staggeringly better than the outrageous and ridiculous (first half of the) fourth book.

Okay-- enough talking about tween vampire romantic thrillers. But, just get ready, readers (and by "readers", I mean "Mom", because she's the only one that reads this), because more film/book comparisons are coming your way soon!