The Terrible Speed of Mercy

Host of The Habit: Conversations with Writers about Writing podcast, Jonathan Rogers uses Flannery O'Connor's letters to prove that she wasn't only a Southern Gothic, but also full of wit. This will make you want to revisit her writings or pick them up for the first time. From the publisher: "Flannery O'Connor's work has been described as 'profane, blasphemous, and outrageous.' Her world—our world—is the stage whereon the divine comedy plays out; the freakishness and violence in O'Connor's stories, so often mistaken for a kind of misanthropy or even nihilism, turn out to be a call to mercy. In this biography, Jonathan Rogers gets at the heart of O'Connor's work. He traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy and even hilarity."