Illustrating Flannery
Flannery O’Connor is a name that, fortunately, I see and hear often. When leafing through the latest ‘definitive’ Greatest Books of All Time lists in the culture sections of newspapers or thumbing the pages of literary magazines dedicated to the art of fiction, O’Connor’s name is always there, steady and solid in black and white. A reassuring certainty in articles of the sort, where women are all too often absent.
Though interest in O’Connor’s work has arguably never waned in the 50 years since her death, the Georgia born author has lately been the subject of much attention. A deeply religious woman, her devout Catholicism present in all her work, last year O’Connor’s prayer journal was published to much clamour. And just last week O’Connor was included amongst the literary legends honoured at The American Poets Corner in the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City.
Mary Flannery O’Connor born in Savannah, and long-time resident of her Mother’s farm Andalusia in Milledgeville, Georgia, penned two novels, thirty two short stories and numerous essays in her lifetime, which was cut tragically short by her death from lupus aged 39.
O’Connor’s blend of dark humour along with the more grotesque elements of the human condition secured her spot among not only the greats of the Southern- Gothic tradition, but alongside the most accomplished of American writers also.
Perhaps the most famous of her works is A Good Man is Hard to Find, the tale of a Southern family’s encounter with a murderous criminal known as The Misfit. This story, an example of O’Connor’s trademark narrative style – she teases the reader early on with hints of the horror that awaits, is often cited as mastery of the short story form. It also displays the theme that characterises the majority of her writing, that of divine grace.
"All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and change is painful." O’Connor once wrote. In A Good Man is Hard to Find the character most representative of this theme is the Grandmother, a foolish, selfish, self-centred woman who meets a horrific end at the hands of the Misfit, who comments:
“She would have been a good woman… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”
O’Connor’s collection of characters, her grotesques – misshapen in both body and mind have intrigued the imaginations of many. Deep South Magazine ran a list of Flannery O’Connor’s Top 8 Freaks, aware that self-conjured images of The Misfit, mean and unwavering; of ruthless con-man Tom T. Shiftlet; of ghostly Confederate General George Poker Sash and others appear unbidden in the mind’s eye, long after reading.
Despite being an accomplished artist herself - O’Connor drew sketches and cartoons for her university newspaper, she did not provide images of her characters in her books. Websites like The Composites, a site that creates images of literary characters with sketch software used by the police attempt to answer our curiosity with offerings such as their take on The Misfit.
Back last year however, The Folio Society published its first collection of O’Connor stories, the beautifully bound and illustrated A Circle in the Fire and Other Stories. Carrying wonderful artwork by Deanna Staffo, jagged pencil sketches stare out from the page all mean-eyed, dark and brooding.
Finally (or not, depending on your disposition) readers of O’Connor can drink in the author’s creations in all their grotesque glory; Staffo’s expert re-creation of O’Connor’s words in pictures is perhaps the most beautifully haunting volume of her work published to date.
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it” Flannery O’Connor once noted of the difficult subject matter of her work. Those who understand her meaning will certainly enjoy this latest addition to her published works.
Picture credit The Folio Society
