Wiser Blood

Okay, I am up to three stars for Wise Blood. I know I shall get to four, because it IS a four star book. I have read some on what is going on in the book and have spent some more time thinking about it. I can't say that I am in any hurry to read it again but know that I will do so in the future and also know immediately that it is a three star book. I will only have to work up one more star to get that inner peace in my soul. Then I'll be able to leave it alone.

As I have thought about the book, I realize that Hazel Motes declared himself clean, knowing that he was dirty. Becasue he cannot shake the world that God has made, particularly the redemption purchased by Christ, he eventually is shaken to the ground of his rebellion and agrees with God that he is unclean. His automobile, his cruddy rat-colored automobile is ruined, the engine bouncing out. He did not have the engine to run from God. His self-propelled attempt to rid himself of the reality of Christ, failed. His car failed because he, Hazel Motes, failed.

Enoch Emery, on the other hand, was dirty and knew it. But he still judged others who were dirty because he did not have the ability to consider his own condition. He was really nothing more than a beast, living moment to moment. In the end of the book, he does become a beast and is therefore finally free to be dirty.

Or so I see it. And this is why O'Connor is so great. You think about what she is doing. Her books won't leave you alone.

I'm still not giving her four stars for Wise Blood, at least not today. I suppose it is inevitable and I shall. But not today.