August 2007 Book of the Month

With two reviews of River of Earth posted, I have selected geneg's as the winner. Both he and CarolinaCatherine touched on the same issues (immersively dark tone, difficult dialect) but geneg offered a rich personal view, which, incidently is the same quality that made Catherine's earlier review of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood stand out.

As a reminder, July's Book of the Month is Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. Geneg will select August's book, and the author of the best review for Ella Minnow Pea will choose the book for September.

For something Southern and Gothic I choose The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor. I look forward to your reviews and I hope everyone enjoys this book.

Sounds like an intriguing choice from a master of the writer's art.

Thanks for inviting me -- I have been recently reading what I think would qualify as Southern Gothic -- Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Carson McCullers, and I did recently read The Violent Bear it Away.

Very mixed feelings about the Violent (see my review)and lots of questions so I'll look forward to discussing with y'all. One thing that helped me to 'get' it was figuring out that O'Connor was actually hardcore religious herself - I mean hardcore -- and believed in violence and blood sacrifice in the name of religion. She did NOT mean this novel to be taken as a parody of 'old time' religion. Chilling, IMHO.

i nominate flannery o'connor, too, but for the work "Wise Blood." If she hadn't been the sum of what she had experienced and believed, we wouldn't have this marvelous story. If eating while reading this, make sure you have a lot of vinegar and raw garlic in your food.

My review of The Violent Bear it Away can be read here

Ok, kids. It's (practically) August, so The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor is up to the plate. All reviews (not just those from folks who read it this month) are eligible in the contest to decide who picks October's Book of the Month.

#8 -- so my review from when I read it earlier this year counts? Do I just leave it where it is in reviews, or do I transpose it into this thread?

Leave it in reviews. What I do is look through all the reviews posted to the book page, note which were left by members of the group, and pick out the best one.

Discussion is encouraged, so don't be shy about re-hashing your official review as part of discussion here.

to all those on these "book of the month thingies) --

i cannot see where tooting your own horn is rewarded by flagging the post for abuse. well, i got the drift, folks. i thought "flag abuse" was for criticizing another uncivilly or for using profanity or such. didn't know it was wrong to let you know a book i worked on so damned hard for a year and reedited for six months of that time and am proud of is wrong to tout for "book of the month."

and guess what? i still don't think it's wrong.

hee

One of my favorites - looking forward to it.

OK y'all -- there are dust bunnies blowing around this thread! Where is the discussuion?

Geneg -- I read your great review and agreed with it! The whole book was very perplexing to me. It seems to suggest that one may have to perpetrate viloence; a "blood sacrifice" for God. Bishop had to be drowned (killed) to be baptized. But certainly if Ms. O'Connor was espousing jihad -- she certainly didn't make her characters very heroic. The boy and the great uncle (the prophets!) were scary, gross, crazy, somehow unclean.

Why would she make her 'heroes' so repulsive to the reader? Or maybe she didn't mean for them to come off that way? I agree the writing is exquisite, powerful -- but the message -- clear as mud. For me, this detracted from the novel.

Anyone, anyone? .. . Class?. ... Bueller?

OK. We reached the end of the month. There are 5 reviews posted, of which two came from members of this group. I've invited the other three to join, but we can move on with winner jhowell's pick for the October Book of the Month.

Congratulations.