The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery OConnor
The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery OConnor
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The Violent Bear It Away

Author: Flannery O'Connor

Narrator: Mark Bramhall

Unabridged: 6 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/26/2010


Synopsis

First published in 1955, The Violent Bear It Away is now a landmark in American literature. It is a dark and absorbing example of the Gothic sensibility and bracing satirical voice that are united in Flannery O'Conner's work. In it, the orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead unclethat Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more reasonable modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul. O'Connor observes all this with an astonishing combination of irony and compassion, humor and pathos. The result is a novel whose range and depth reveal a brilliant and innovative writer acutely alert to where the sacred lives and where it does not.

About Flannery O'Connor

FLANNERY O’CONNOR (1925–1964) was born in Savannah, Georgia. She earned her MFA at the University of Iowa, but lived most of her life in the South, where she became an anomaly among post–World War II authors: a Roman Catholic woman whose stated purpose was to reveal the mystery of God’s grace in everyday life. Her work—novels, short stories, letters, and criticism—received a number of awards, including the National Book Award. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit on May 12, 2025

Ignorance and fanaticism are blood kin… He had been called in his early youth and had set out for the city to proclaim the destruction awaiting a world that had abandoned its Saviour. He proclaimed from the midst of his fury that the world would see the sun burst in blood and fire and while he raged......more

Goodreads review by s.penkevich on April 17, 2024

For those not learned in the wizened and wise philosophy of *checks notes* Kung Fu Panda, the old turtle advises ‘One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.’ Okay, sure, this was lifted from French fabulist Jean de la Fontaine but who doesn’t want advice from a sagacious turtle? E......more

Goodreads review by William2 on November 22, 2019

Religious fanaticism in the American sticks. An old man, a soi-disant prophet of Christ, a fanatic, a nut job, steals an orphan named Tarwater from his citified nephew's home and bolts to the backwoods to raise him in the way of the Lord -- and to make moonshine. The boy receives a highly selective......more