Loved the metaphors in her writing. Though I am a fan of Flannery o’conner’s short stories but couldn’t find relatability with her character as if it needed more development of her character. ( )

This well-written historical fiction covers the last five years of Flannery O'Connor's too-short life after her return to Milledgeville, Georgia from New York. There are two story lines that segue into each other.

Cookie and Melvin are recently married. He is a New Yorker from a wealthy family who moved to Milledgeville so his wife could be close to her family. Cookie has harbored a deep resentment of Flannery since they were children, and her hatred is exacerbated when she reads one of Flannery's books and finds herself and other members of the community portrayed in unsympathetic prose under the guise of different names. She absolutely refuses to allow Melvin to have any contact with Flannery; however, he finds her brutal honesty and interesting thoughts so refreshing that he ignores Cookie. This interaction has devastating results that could not have been predicted. Lona is a seamstress married to a policeman. She has an affair with a teenager who is the same age as her daughter with stunning consequences.

Flannery's forty peacocks figure prominently in this novel, as does the small town of Milledgeville. Ann Napolitano has done a masterful job of tying these disparate lives together with Flannery, her farm and her mother at the center. My Atlanta book club was able to visit Milledgeville and the O'Connor farm some years ago, and it was like stepping back into the 1950's. ( )

An intense book about a small town in the South. Set in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s. It is a story about a married couple a very sick author, an unhappy couple. The hero’s are the amazing children. The birds are not a comic relief. Crazy things happen. ( )

The audio book, as read by outstanding narrator Debra Monk, is an incredible fictional saga featuring a non-fictional person, the renowned author Flannery O'Connor. Based primarily in the then-small town of Milledgeville, GA in the early 1960's, two couples are the focus: Cookie, a hometown beauty resentful of Flannery's literary success and frightened by the feelings evoked by her novel and stories; her husband Melvin, a transplanted NYC native who is fascinated by Flannery, her devotion to Catholicism and faith and her flock of noisy peacocks; Lona Waters, a local seamstress who falls in love with her high school senior helper Joe; and all the parents and friends who make Milledgeville a cauldron of underlying drama for the reader. Flannery is just one of the characters that make this study of the mysterious lives of the famous and humble so riveting and such essential reading. ( )

Redemption