Archives for January 25, 2009

Brad Gooch, Flannery: A Life (Little, Brown, $30, out Feb. 25). The first full-length biography of Flannery O’Connor is now available for pre-ordering. Flannery is lucidly written, sympathetic yet detached, thorough but not overly detailed. Among Gooch’s more startling revelations: “Good Country People” is autobiographical, more or less. Don’t expect too, many shockers, but don’t worry about it, either. Surprising or not, this is the book O’Connor’s admirers have been waiting for, and it does her justice (TT).