Alexander, a Franciscan University of Steubenville English and humanities professor, presents a fascinating set of Flannery O'Connor's correspondence. Beyond recreating the flavor of the Southern Catholic intellectual subculture which O'Connor inhabited, the compilation is highlighted by gems from O'Connor's writing mentor, Caroline Gordon. Recognizing O'Connor's talent early on, Gordon sets about pushing O'Connor to sharpen her prose, study James Joyce, and develop an "elevated" tone to complement her regional dialect. O'Connor fans will especially prize Gordon's detailed critiques of such celebrated works as the novel Wise Blood and short story "Good Country People." While O'Connor's milieu can seem intimidatingly insular, the volume allows readers to feel closer to the writer, by glimpsing O'Connor's struggles with lupus, which sometimes leaves her bedridden or walking on crutches, and by hearing her famously strong Georgian accent in the colloquialisms she sprinkles throughout the letters--congratulating author Thomas F. Gossett on receiving a positive Time review, she comments "better to have those people for you than agin ." Alexander makes a few odd editing choices, such as including a surprising amount of material about O'Connor's fellow Southern Catholic author, and Caroline Gordon mentee, Walker Percy. On the whole, however, this is an important addition to the knowledge of O'Connor, her world, and her writing. (Oct.)

The title of this collection, edited by Alexander (English & humanities, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville, OH), alludes to the concept that important ideas can come from relatively obscure places, such as the hometown of Jesus and National Book Award-winning author O'Connor (Milledgeville, GA). The work contains letters from, to, and about O'Connor, written during the final decades of her brief life (1925--64)--she was diagnosed with lupus at age 25--and beyond her death, as well as commentary by the compiler. Correspondents include her longtime mentor Caroline Gordon, Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, Walker Percy, Katharine Anne Porter, Thomas Merton, and several priest friends. Many are Southerners who offer a regional perspective on American history and life. These writers constitute a support group of sorts, offering praise, critiques, and suggestions on ways to improve one another's works. O'Connor was unusual in that she was a Catholic writer from the South, and a focus here is on the importance of religion in her life as she dealt with her terminal illness. Often preoccupied with the grotesque, her works are described as combining violence with sacramental conviction in an effort to guide unbelievers toward the author's view of truth. VERDICT Of interest to students of O'Connor and American, especially Southern, mid-20th-century literature.--Denise J. Stankovics, Vernon, CT

Flannery O'Connor's posthumous letter collection, The Habit of Being, has been cherished by booklovers and would-be writers. Now Good Things Out of Nazareth presents a whole new perspective on this audacious, compassionate, piercing young writer out of Georgia, coping with a disease that severely restricted and shortened her life, yet who lived vibrantly on the page with cosmic humor and compassion. These letters by O'Connor and her circle bring to light the impact her genius had on other writers, including Paul Engle, then director of the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop; Walker Percy, and critic and writer Caroline Gordon. A devout, wryly witty Catholic, O'Connor confides to Gordon, a convert, that she has been examining her conscience on the business of writing about freaks. O'Connor acknowledges her rootedness in Dante as the collection's editor, Benjamin Alexander, puts it, and describes her adventures raising peacocks, her response to reading Henry James, her thoughts on prayer, and how crucial letters are as her illness isolates her. This edifying and entertaining gathering offers a new portal onto a playful, spiritual, courageous, and indelible American master.--Donna Seaman Copyright 2019 Booklist