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« A possible change | Main | Fall in One Day »
Wednesday
Jun012011

1952 was a year

DateWednesday, June 1, 2011 at 12:26PM

I have always loved Flannery O'Connor's stories - last night I finished her first novel, first published book actually, Wise Blood.

It is complex, strange, beautifully written and so damn good it hurts.
I am also reading her biography by Brad Gooch. One thing that struck me, when wondering why maybe Wise Blood didn't stand out as a literary classic when first published in 1952 (reviews were mixed - though, some reviewers were prescient in naming the brilliance of it)... well it turns out that a few other notable books came out that year:

Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
East of Eden (Steinbeck)
Invisible Man (Ellison - won National Book Award)
and the year before a little book about Holden Caulfield came out.

What was in the water that year? Holy crap - talk about competition. I found that list in O Connor's bio, but I went and googled 1952 and also found:

Charlotte's Web
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Waiting for Godot
The Power of Positive Thinking (!)
The Natural
Rashomon
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

To name a few of the more notables.
Again - wow.

AuthorCraig Terlson | CommentPost a Comment |

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