Good Things Out of Nazareth is an epistolary look at how O'Connor interacted with those close to her, how those people interacted with her, and how they felt about her person and talent. The social commentary observations and a real look at just how must O'Connor's religious beliefs influenced her made this read truly worthwhile. Any fan of her work and those seeking another way to study the time period will find this a great read.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher.

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Whew. It took me awhile to get through this due to a busy schedule, but luckily, the epistolary format makes things easy to jump right back in.

If you are a hardcore fan of Flannery O'Connor, I highly recommend this collection of letters written by, to, and about her. It is a special insight into her development as a writer and what her friends/instructors thought of her and her work.

O'Connor is a brilliant writer. If you haven't read her short stories, please give them a try.

The only thing that almost turns me off from her is her huge religious influences, but her stories are so nuanced that the religious aspect doesn't feel preachy or holier-than-thou. Her writing feels special and meaningful, yet very brutal. Of course, those things go hand in hand when you have a talent such as Flannery O'Connor. Her early death makes me wonder what more she had to say.

This is an important contribution to the understanding of Flannery O'Connor's works. Ben Alexander's head-notes (providing context for the letters) is a nice touch. This, along with the recent collection of letters between O'Connor and Caroline Gordan are welcome additions to the previous published letters in Habit of Being.

My senior thesis for my undergraduate literature degree was on Flannery O'Connor, so I had read all of her previously published correspondence as part of my research. I jumped at the chance to get my hands on even more of her letters with Good Things Out of Nazareth. My one regret about this book truly is that there isn't more of it, in particular of O'Connor's writings. While I enjoyed reading from her contemporaries and colleagues, I had hoped for a much larger percentage of the book to be from O'Connor. That aside, this is a terrific read for fans of Flannery O'Connor and the period in which she wrote.

Good Things out of Nazareth is a lost treasure, which focuses on the writing career of Flannery O’Connor and her circle of literary friends. The book collects 100 letters written between O’Connor and between reviewers of her books, and her close circle of friends over a period of perhaps 20 years. Flannery herself is a renowned southern writer, often compared with the likes of Hemingway and Faulkner.

The book is an epistolary account, as it’s told entirely within letters. Readers are let into the intimate world of O’conner, while she writes master pieces like “Wise Blood” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” It’s not often that readers are allowed into such an intimate account of an author’s life, criticism of her own work, and criticism of editors towards that work. Writers, in particular, can learn tricks of the trade as O’Connor discusses using the environment to influence mood in her stories, and shares other tricks of the trade.

Writers and fans of Flannery O’Connor should pick up this amazing lost treasure on the life of Flannery O’Connor (and perhaps a copy of Wise Blood too!)

Hardcore Flannery O'Connor fans will enjoy this collection of letters. I found the collection to be a little lacking, most of the people I did not know, and I was at a loss as to why some letters were included. Most of the annotations were more informative than the actual letters. I wanted to like this since I read a lot of short stories but I did not find it illuminating.

Good Things Out of Nazareth
The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Friends

by Flannery O’Connor

Crown Publishing

Convergent Books

Biographies & Memoirs

Pub Date 15 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Good Things Come Out of Nazareth: The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O’ Connor and Friends through Crown Publishing/Convergent Books and Netgalley:

Flannery O’Connor born Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925, in Savannah Georgia and Sadly died before she was forty, in 1964 she died. She was the master of twentieth century short fiction. joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith that informed all she wrote and did.

Flannery lived most of her life on a dairy farm in Milledgeville Georgia where she raised Peacocks. She practiced her craft in a modest room near an ample front porch. She received many visitors, used an old typewriter with a bookshelf full of modern books nearby, she read modern fiction, theology, philosophy! She read everything from William Faulkner to Thomas Aquinas.

In 1949 a promising writer from Georgia was residing in a sparse in New York City. In 1949 Flannery O’Connor gladly accepted Robert and Sally Fitzgerald offer to live with them so she could finish Wise Blood!

In the Uncollected Letters Of Flannery O’Connor and friends we get a better idea of how her Catholic Faith influenced her writing as well as as her opinions against Communism though she was not very vocal about it she did from time to time express those feelings in letters.

We learn by 1964 Flannery O’Connor was very aware that her time on the earth was not long, and by the winter she would loose her battle with Lupus, dying before she turned forty.

I found that Good Things Come Out of Nazareth: The Uncollected Letters Of Flannery O’Connor and Friends to be well written and researched and to be both educational and entertaining making it worthy of five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

For fans of Flannery O’conner these letters are a treasure trove.Reading her words her actual thoughts fact not fiction gives us a wonderful glimpse at the authors r3l personality idea .Highky recommend #netgalley #crownbooks

For those who savor the words of Flannery O'Connor, Crown Publishing shares this collection of letters and correspondence. Through these writings, we can gather more details about the life and views of a seminal and profound literary voice.

Having spent time with Flannery O'Connor's stories, as well as having visited her Savannah home, I found this book to be a welcome invitation back to an author I greatly enjoy and gladly share with others.