Sinners and freaks populate the novels and short stories of Flannery O’Connor, making for disturbing reading. Her characters, drawn largely from the rural Georgia culture of her upbringing and sadly-abbreviated adulthood, do beastly things to one another—up to and including violent murder. Where’s the “Christian” significance in all this? Biographer Jonathan Rogers, walking us chronologically through O’Connor’s life and literary career, shows that rays of grace indeed pierce through the terrifying imagery. Confronted with scenes of scandalous evil from everyday life, we confront the scandalous, cruciform shape of gospel reality itself.
