Book Review: Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Conner by Brad Gooch

From square one, my interactions with this biography of Miss Mary Flannery O'Connor were fraught with drama. I walked into my local Borders with the intent, nay the need, to pick a memoir that would define my own self. I had to know my mentor or else I felt surely that I had lost myself. What would be my ambitions? Who's footsteps would I tread in, like a child hopping through boot tracks left in heavy snow. I felt, oddly, as if this choice would map all subsequent choices, as if this decision would reveal "the figure in the carpet" of my life as I began to weave it.
Well, anyways, after a bought with horrific doubt as I decided that Susan Sontag was not the woman I aimed to be (she was all intellect without the grounding forces of faith and hope) I considered Edith Wharton but felt my own upbringing was too unlike hers (and I ached at the thought of reading 700 pages of life story, no matter who the writer was behind the words)so I nearly walked out. And then I spied it... the wall of new biographies standing along a far wall. And there it was" "Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor" by Brad Gooch.


I chose O'Connor to serve as my mentor figure simply because she was so glaringly unlike the other female figures I considered. She seemed to be the only woman in the room who matched success with simplicity, and a depth of mind with a depth of character that did not require illicit love affairs and bouts of alcoholism and madness to add spice to her life and her work. That, and I felt a warm and happy resolve at picking a fellow, humble Georgia native (not to mention I was drawn to those darn peacock feathers on the cover, as I was--you all know--Mrs. Peacock for Halloween). In short, our meeting seemed predestined. The figure in the carpet was becoming clear.
Now, there are three things that y'all ought to know about this book, and this woman. First, Flannery's best work appeared after she was forced to go back home following her Lupus diagnosis. This should be a message to us all that we will thrive when we stay true to our selves and do not try to replicate the incidences in the lives of others (i.e. we don't all have to live in NYC to be artists). A strange lesson indeed when considering this month to be wrapped up so completely in our attempt to find a mentor to emulate.
Second, she worked her whole life toward coming closer to her sense of the spiritual world. I never expected to take this lesson away from the book but she displayed a humility and patience in her study of theology that reminds me of images of Buddhist monks, and acetic hermits. There is a poise to her spirituality that I'm drawn to, wanting to harbor a similar meditation in my own life. I can't help but believe that we all have a spiritual self that needs nurtured in order to maintain our grasp on those things that truly matter in this world. This seemed to be a sense of inner power for her. I can only hope to grasp something of that for myself, a church of thought and being far removed from the material and trivial.
And finally, Gooch's book was by no means a perfect one. It played out too chronologically, and seemed so hands-off as if he was somewhat afraid to grasp the fabric of this life too tightly. But all is forgiven, as Flannery herself is left to emerge from the words. Again, that figure in the carpet is sought after and seen without the magnifying glass of our biographer. No wonder he titled the book "A" biography instead of "the" biography of Flannery O'Connor.
So, in short, I quite enjoyed reading this book, and feel so sure that I have made the right choice of mentor in the end. My life can now unfurl without regret. Mmm-mmm. :)