I had a very eerie sense of deja-vu as I dug into the first few chapters of Wise Blood, and I finally realized that I had read them before, or at least slightly different versions of them, in The Collected Stories of Flannery O'Connor, which I read last summer. Those familiar with her short stories will recognize 'The Train' and 'The Peeler' as the first two chapters of the book. It was really creeping my out until I realized why the chapter were so familiar, and then the book continued to creep me out as I delved into the new material. It is just a creepy book.
Read moreWhat I'm Reading: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Reading this novel has been an exhausting, draining experience. It very slowly sneaks up on you and then punches you in the stomach, metaphorically speaking. I found myself growing increasingly tense the longer I read, until I finally reached an important moment in the plot and burst into nervous, exhausted tears. That makes it sound like a really awful experience, but it was so beautiful and spare and lovely and heartbreaking, I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
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