The Violent Bear It Away : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Good on so many levels
Review: This is not a light, entertaining read, but it is one that made me think long after I was done. It can be taken in so many ways, the obvious being as a cautionary tale against religious fanaticism, but there is much more going on. Rayber's heart-breaking struggle against feeling anything, even love; Francis Tarwater's angry struggle against both his great-uncle's religion and Rayber's resolute refusal of religion, in an attempt to have some say in forming his own life; and the pitiful portrayal of Bishop, the mentally handicapped son of Rayber, who is the most mentally healthy character in the book, and the only one capable of love--all of this makes the novel transcend just the surface subject of religious fanaticism.

It's amazing to think O'Connor was only 30 when this book was published. I wouldn't rate it her absolute best (that I'd save for her short stories), but, like pizza and sex, even "just OK" Flannery O'Connor is still great. It's so Southern lit, twisted and bizarre, and she recounts it all sparely and without telling us how to feel about the characters or their actions, yet they evoke our feelings. When Rayber thinks back on the day he learned about his son Bishop's disabilities from the doctor:

[The doctor] said, "You should be grateful his health is good. In addition to this, I've seen them born blind, some without arms and legs, and one with a heart outside."
[Rayber] had lurched up, almost ready to strike the man. "How can I be grateful," he had hissed, "when one--just one--is born with a heart outside?"
"You'd better try," the doctor had said.

Beautiful, understated, awful--isn't that life?


Rating:
Summary: ...all good children go to heaven...
Review: This novel is about the way people (children and adults) are trying to cope with religious fanaticism. Above all it shows how the credulity of children is exploited by parents and other family members for the sake of their own fanatic ideas.
The main characters are Tarwater, a fourteen year old boy, who lives with his great-uncle in a cottage in the woods. There is Rayber, the schoolteacher, who's Tarwater's uncle. Bishop, the severe mentally disabled son of Rayber, is one of the most touching characters of the novel.
When the great-uncle dies of old age at the breakfast table, the boy puts the cottage on fire and runs off. After a while he decides to go to his uncle Rayber who tries to win the friendship of his nephew.
Though the intrigue is fairly simple it's sometimes a tragedy so dense that - at certain moments - it's almost unbearable to read further. It leaves the reader almost with a feeling that all the misery of the world has landed upon his shoulders. Only after a few moments he can fool himself by saying that it's only fiction, so why worry.