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Impossible to Say Representing Religious Mystery in Fiction by Malamud, Percy, Ozick, and O'Connor
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L. Lamar Nisly
Book Code: GM2060
ISBN: 0-313-32060-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-32060-6
164 pages
Greenwood Press
Publication: 6/30/2002
List Price: $91.95 (UK Sterling Price: £51.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Series Title: Contributions to the Study of American Literature
Series Number: 12
Reviews:
  • [R]aises interesting questions about how much of the impossible O'Connor was able to do as an artist....While O'Connor scholars will not find in this book radically new reding of the four o'Connor stories Nisly analyses, they will see interesting questions about the extent to which O'Connor's writing techniques can be considered inherently and specifically Catholic....The major virtue of this book is in what it suggests for future investigations about religious writers of contrasting religious commitments.
    —Flannery O'Connor Review     2005
Description: Although Judaism and Catholicism have important differences, both religions contain elements of religious mystery, aspects of belief that transcend the rational. Each religion additionally provides believers a concrete method for encountering the numinous: following the commandments in Judaism or partaking of the sacraments in Catholicism. This book studies how Jewish and Catholic practices of giving structure to religious mystery are embodied in the works of Bernard Malamud, Walker Percy, Cynthia Ozick, and Flannery O'Connor. The volume links Malamud with Percy and Ozick with O'Connor because these Jewish and Catholic authors depict religious mystery in similar ways. Percy and Malamud use the quest form to give shape to mystery. In doing so, they show their characters moving toward a religious commitment. In contrast, O'Connor and Ozick use the grotesque and fantastic to evoke the numinous. Thus they embody the religious mystery that Malamud's and Percy's characters seek to encounter. Whether presenting a movement toward mystery or serving to evoke it, these four authors explore an ineffable dimension that readers need to sense in order to gain a better understanding of their works.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Making Physical the Mystery: Jewish Mitzvot and Catholic Sacraments
  • "Impossible to Say": Malamud's and Percy's Quests for Commitment
  • Throwing Everything Off Balance: Ozick's Fantastic and O'Connor's Grotesque Portrayals of Mystery
  • Conclusion
  • Works Cited
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