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Edmondson shows that O'Connor shocked with a purpose, though to her consternation, most reviewers got "hold of the wrong horror." She was no light provoker of sensibilities, but with individual souls at stake, she deemed nothing less would do. In her most famous statement about her work, she explained that "to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."

And where (or what) would O'Connor's characters be without that primordial adversary, the Devil, who is shown to be not only a tempter but also God's unwitting accomplice? Again and again in her fiction, the Devil leads his prey into one prideful grotesquerie or another, only to bring into the foreground the divine grace that O'Connor meant for us to ponder above all. "All my stories," she wrote, "are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it."

For the newcomer, Edmondson's book offers a primer on O'Connor's wit and wisdom. For the seasoned reader, Return to Good and Evil offers a highly readable exposition of the philosophical and theological engagement of her stories. O'Connor once wrote that "more than ever now it seems that the kingdom of heaven has to be taken by violence, or not at all. You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you." Return to Good and Evil returns us to O'Connor's stories with a heightened awareness of the stakes for which we mortals are playing in a world increasingly given to moral relativism. As the title of one of her best stories put it, "The life you save may be your own."

Lucas E. Morel is associate professor of politics at Washington and Lee University, and editor of the forthcoming book, Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to Invisible Man.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today.Click for reprint information.

Return to Good and Evil is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

Books & Culture Corner appears every Monday. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week include:

Moody, the Media, and the Birth of Modern Evangelism | A cautionary tale. (Jan. 05, 2004)

A Few Coming Attractions from 2004 | Plus: What to buy with those gift cards, and some of the books in my to-read stacks. (Dec. 29, 2003)

The Top Ten Books of 2003 | Plus: The Worst Book of the Year, more good reading, digital books, and a little Christmas music. (Dec. 22, 2003)

Books at Warp Speed | We continue our annual roundup of noteworthy books. (Dec. 15, 2003)

Is "Sensual Orthodoxy" a Contradiction in Terms? | Read this unconventional collection of sermons and judge for yourself. (Dec. 8, 2003)

Books, Books, Books! | We begin our annual roundup. (Dec. 8, 2003)

Urban Eden | In City: Urbanism and Its End, a new history of New Haven, Connecticut, the city (in its late 19th-century form) is an ambiguous heaven-and the suburbs that relentlessly followed are hell. Which leaves us where, exactly? (Dec. 01, 2003)

Cool Drink of Water | A poet's voice in the evangelical wilderness.

Faith, Hope, and Charity in North Carolina | New novels by Michael Morris—whose first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass, was a word-of-mouth hit— and Jan Karon, who continues her beloved Mitford saga. (Nov. 17, 2003)

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January (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48