The Violent Bear It Away: Amazon.ca: Flannery O'Connor: Books

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Review

"I am sure her books will live on and on in American Literature" --Elizabeth Bishop
"There is very little contemporary fiction which touches the level of Flannery O'Connor at her best." --Alan Pryce-Jones, "New York Herald Tribune"

Review

"I am sure her books will live on and on in American Literature" --Elizabeth Bishop

"There is very little contemporary fiction which touches the level of Flannery O'Connor at her best." --Alan Pryce-Jones, New York Herald Tribune

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars oh, fanaticism, Jul 16 2004

By	Ann Lewis (CA) - See all my reviews

A great introspective look on the effect of fanaticism on children. The main character, Tarwater, was kidnapped as a baby from his crazy great-uncle who thinks he is a prophet and that he must save the boy. They live, isolotaed, in the middle of the southern backwoods until the great-uncle suddenly dies, leaving the boy, now 14, to his own devices. The boy finds himself alone is a world he barely knows, having learned almost exclusively about his uncle's version of religious history and the supposed evils of the Tarwater's other living family members. To survive, the boy sets out to find his other uncle, a schoolteacher, who the great-uncle hated with a passion. Weighted down with both pride and fear, Tarwater begins to explore the real world for the first time.

A great read for anyone with an interest and perhaps mild distaste for modern religion.

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5.0 out of 5 stars ...all good children go to heaven..., Jul 2 2004

By	Jan Dierckx (Belgium, Turnhout) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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3.0 out of 5 stars A Far-fetched Tale, May 20 2004

By	Justin Baas (Newburgh, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews

Many of the themes in this book were just to difficult for me to focus on without stepping back to question whether anything like this could really happen....at least in this way. For instance, the lack of emphasis on the drowing death of Bishop is just hard to understand. What about Tarwater's moral accountability for Bishop's death?? Tarwater was also a heavy drinker....which is not very likely in the time eriod this is writen, especially for his age. It was a good moral message, but i think ia little overdone.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The virus of religious fanaticism
It was predicted by Francis Tarwater's great-uncle that young Tarwater would become a prophet and would baptize the son of the great-uncle's other nephew, Rayber. Read more

Published on April 21 2004 by IRA Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Grotesque?
O'Connor defended the grotesque element in her fiction this way:

"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his... Read more

Published on Aug 21 2003 by John Green

5.0 out of 5 stars Who is the prophet and who is the walking obscenity?
Grim determinism pervades the lives of an emotionally troubled family in the American South in this gripping novel by Flannery O'Connor. Read more

Published on April 20 2002 by Dave Deubler

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Southern Gothic
The Violent Bear it Away is a disturbing example of the unique gothic tradition of America's Southern writers. Read more

Published on Nov 7 2001 by Winston Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars undeniably affecting
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent bear it away. Read more

Published on Nov 4 2001 by Orrin C. Judd

5.0 out of 5 stars Grotesquerie and Fanaticism -- perfect O'Connor
O'Connor characters are either complacent believers or condescending rationalists, and she takes great bloody fun in showing them up. Read more

Published on Jul 28 2001 by jatag

5.0 out of 5 stars Finest work
This book is probably O'Connor's finest work of fiction. The story itself is much stronger than the more highly acclaimed Wise Blood, as are its characters. Read more

Published on Jun 14 2000 by Jonathan Emerson

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing....
This is a quality book. If you are debating on whether or not to buy it -- take the chance, buy it. The ending is great.

Not as commonly known as F. Read more

Published on Jan 19 2000 by meph

5.0 out of 5 stars i haven't seen it all yet?
sorry but i havn't seen this boo

Published on Aug 17 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A dark book that shines through with the light of wisdom.
I can agree with almost any reader who disliked this work. I can understand why people would not like it; this is a terrible book, but it is a wonderfully terribly book. Read more

Published on Aug 10 1999

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The Violent Bear It Away (Paperback)

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	64% buy the item featured on this page: The Violent Bear It Away 4.3 out of 5 stars (15)
	29% buy Wise Blood 4.3 out of 5 stars (36) CDN$ 12.78
	7% buy Complete Stories F O'connor 4.7 out of 5 stars (29) CDN$ 16.43