Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Love

Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Love. By Richard Giannone. New York: Fordham Universtiy Press, 1999. xxi + 268 pp. $33.00 (cloth): $18.00. (Paper).

For those who suspected that Flannery O'Connor might be more Christian than the Christians who have commented on her work over the years, Richard Giannone's Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Love will come as a welcome source of support. The fact that this carefully researched and thoughtfully argued study is seeing its second printing in ten years is a strong testimony to its value in the crowded field of O'Connor criticism. Giannone has read and digested the reviews the book received its first time out and decided to change nary a word in spite of some strong suggestions that he do so. This can only be chalked up to the credit of a dedicated and sympathetic interpreter of the feisty Ms. O'Connor.

From a slightly more cynical point of view, however, the reissue of Giannone's study and his refusal to adapt its overtly appreciative and theological stance may simply highlight the increasing polarization in O'Connor studies around the matter of her Christian faith and its expression in literature; perhaps no other champion of intellectual Christianity has emerged in the last decade of O'Connor criticism. Accepted into the pantheon of Great American Writers, O'Connor is a staple of college English departments throughout the land even as her theology is blown away as so much chaff obscuring her strong powers of observation and storytelling. Giannone, an English professor himself, seems to be directing his argument for the "mature nature of O'Connor's Christianity" at his colleagues, but his repeated claims to read O'Connor's fiction "on its own terms" signals a naivete bound to earn the ridicule of the average post-critical English department (p. xv). Nevertheless, his scholarship has a density that the typical fan of O'Connor's works may find daunting. Following a coherent thread from violence to guilt to relationship to love (of a most stark and brutal nature), Giannone makes a convincing case for the hard terms on which transcendence must be embraced. He also demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of O'Connor's fiction in support of his claims. But where is the market for a theology that is neither easily explained nor happily embraced? Who will take the time to understand the hard message of O'Connor's gospel?

The answer may lie in those who have been drawn intuitively to O'Connor's powerful stories and now want to understand the compelling vision that motivates them. Giannone has a superb grasp of the interrelatedness of O'Connor's themes and provides a helpful concordance of references to her novels and stories. His overview of recent O'Connor criticism in the preface and his extensive bibliography are also valuable for anyone wishing to study her work more. Most significant, however, is Giannone's passionate belief that Christianity is an intellectual and emotional gamble worth taking (a belief he credits O'Connor with instilling in him) and not a set of pious platitudes designed to comfort the afflicted. In Giannone, O'Connor has as good a defender as she might ever want.

JOHN A. DALLY

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary Evanston, Illinois

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