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This documentary tells the story of the life of Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor in mostly glowing terms by people who either knew her personally, or more recently made it their business to study her work as professional authors and film makers. It was interesting to know that Alice Walker of The Color Purple fame was her neighbor as a child. There is also a nice broad introduction to interpretations of her work, including two films from the 1970s I can't wait to check out, and images of her college political cartoons.

However, the criticism is perhaps too light in the face of such a great American writer who died at an unfortunately young age, through no fault of her own, of a genetic disease that also took her father. There's a general sense of not wanting to speak ill of the dead, which ironically is not something O'Connor herself would have tippy-toed around in her own subversive, violent and sometimes offensive literary musings. While most regard her as a champion of race relations, there actually is some question to how clear-cut the issue is, and it gets a bit tiring of people condescendingly saying "but you see, the violence in her stories is transformative, it's SYMBOLIC of a greater faith..."

I have to say that as a teenager Flannery O'Connor's stories "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" made an impression on me, and in fact stuck with me - but it's a bit galling to listen to people with Masters or PhD levels of education in literature or devout Catholic priests condescend about how supposedly OBVIOUS it is that O'Connors stories are really about grace and faith. As someone who is now a college grad who minored in lit, I can appreciate their view point but it does the average reader a gross disservice (especially high school students or early college non-religious readers) to stick to this one harping interpretation of every single freaking story.

I also wanted to know more about Flannery's unfortunate involvement in the Red Scare. For someone so insightful and wise beyond her years from her shy, watchful perch as a reflective introvert it strikes me as a bit odd that she just kind of fell into temporarily being a fascist because she had a crush on a guy.

This bio-pic, which details Flannery's deep religious faith, as well as her painful loneliness and eventual debilitating illness, offers a better understanding of the twisted weirdness, violence, and grotesque in her works.

In many of these works, the violence and grotesque spark an inwardly mysterious revelatory connection to revelation and salvation and the divine, if viewed correctly through O'Connor's perspective.

If you have read some of O'Connor's work and found it compelling but often too off-putting and weird, this film should make you think again and reconsider the deeper meaning of her compelling but very unusual and seemingly dark or "twisted" themes.

It's also great to learn about the flesh and blood person behind the iconic stories.

Highly recommended.