The wit, the sadness, and mortification in O'Connor's Wise Blood

Reactions as usual pretty much across the board on Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood," as book-group views ranged from repulsion to awe. Joan said she hated Wise Blood because she could not stomach the idea of the author's manipulating the characters for her own ends, that she had no sympathy for or even understanding of the trauma of a young man returning from war alone in the world and trying to make sense of his life (O'Connor would probably heartily agree with Joan) - in other words, Joan wanted the book to be a more traditional coming-of-age novel, which it could be but isn't. Margot & Theo in particular loved the beautiful writing, Margot annotating descriptions of faces. I would add: the funny writing, her wit is sharp as nails. Mostly, we wrestled with the religious thematic, or even allegorical, elements, so clearly O'Connor's claim and aim in this novel. General sympathy with my view that though the novel is imbued with religious themes and symbols, it is by no means the kind of story one would expect to read if embarking on a novel about sin and redemption. There's sin all right, but the redemption is really more a mortification of the flesh - if in fact Hazel undergoes a conversion a la Paul (I think he does), he never confesses to sin or does anything to rectify the suffering in the world, he just adds to it by increasing his own suffering. That may be O'Connor's view of Catholicism, but it seems a far cry from the practice of Christianity - he's not much of a saint. We also noted an often-overlooked element, the incredible sadness of the book, esp Enoch's loneliness. Pretty amazing for a first novel, but general agreement that it's not really opened enough and feels like a series of related stories - stories being O'Connor's true accomplishment.