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    A Good Hard Look: A Novel
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    A Good Hard Look: A Novel
    Unavailable
    A Good Hard Look: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    A Good Hard Look: A Novel

    Written by Ann Napolitano

    Narrated by Debra Monk

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In Flannery O'Connor's hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, reckless relationships lead to a tragedy that forever alters the town and the author herself.

    Crippled by lupus at twenty-five, celebrated author Flannery O'Connor was forced to leave New York City and return home to Andalusia, her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Years later, as Flannery is finishing a novel and tending to her menagerie of peacocks, her mother drags her to the wedding of a family friend.

    Cookie Himmel embodies every facet of Southern womanhood that Flannery lacks: she is revered for her beauty and grace; she is at the helm of every ladies' organization in town; and she has returned from her time in Manhattan with a rich fiancé, Melvin Whiteson. Melvin has come to Milledgeville to begin a new chapter in his life, but it is not until he meets Flannery that he starts to take a good hard look at the choices he has made. Despite the limitations of her disease, Flannery seems to be more alive than other people, and Melvin is drawn to her like a moth to a candle flame.

    Melvin is not the only person in Milledgeville who starts to feel that life is passing him by. Lona Waters, the dutiful wife of a local policeman, is hired by Cookie to help create a perfect home. As Lona spends her days sewing curtains, she is given an opportunity to remember what it feels like to be truly alive, and she seizes it with both hands.

    Heartbreakingly beautiful and inescapably human, these ordinary and extraordinary people chart their own courses through life. In the aftermath of one tragic afternoon, they are all forced to look at themselves and face up to Flannery's observation that "the truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 7, 2011
    ISBN9781101494103
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for A Good Hard Look

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Not gonna lie, I picked up this book solely for the peacock that adorns the cover.
    • 5/5
      A Good Hard Look is the fascinating, fictional account of Flannery O'Connor's last years, settled in her farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. O'Connor suffered from lupus, and she fled home to her family's farm to write and raise a menagarie of birds, including peacocks. While the reader is treated to a wonderful portrayal of O'Connor, Ann Napolitano creates a moving story featuring other memorable characters: Cookie, the hometown queen who despised Flannery; her husband, Melvin, a New Yorker trying to navigate small town Georgia; Lona, a seamstress who falls in love with a boy more than half her age; and Gigi, Lona's daughter who pays the price for it all.While I haven't read much by Flannery O'Connor (side note: something to be rectified!), the story line of A Good Hard Look reminds me of the stories I have read by O'Connor. Each character makes a decision, knowing the consequences, and as the story evolves, tragedy strikes. The tragedies open up new lives and new decisions for the characters, and you hope they learn from their past and move on to happier times.A Good Hard Look is divided into two concurrent stories. First, there's the story of Cookie, Melvin and Flannery. Cookie and Melvin are recently married and settled into Milledgeville. Melvin is a New Yorker at heart, and despite his wife's wishes, he strikes up a secret friendship with Flannery. For Melvin, Flannery is like the city - spontaneous, honest and forthright. Second, there's the story of Lona and Joe. Lona is a lonely, pot-smoking seamstress who agrees to take on her friend's 17-year-old son, Joe, as an assistant. As they spend time together, they become attracted to each other. Their romance culminates until a a fateful afternoon begins a chain reaction of tragedies for their families - as well as the lives of Cookie, Melvin and Flannery.Expertly written and beautifully rendered, Ann Napolitano draws the reader into the lives of these characters and creates a story of love and loss. Equally important, she sheds light on one of American's most talented, and perhaps unsung, writers. I highly recommend A Good Hard Look to readers who enjoy literary fiction and stories about the American South.
    • 5/5
      Forced by illness to leave behind a successful life as a writer in New York, Flannery O'Connor has returned to her family home in Milledgeville, Georgia. She desires a quiet, solitary existence, but her mother, Regina, insists that she engage with the life of their small town and she drags Flannery to the wedding of a family friend.Cookie Himmel embodies every facet of Southern womanhood that Flannery lacks. She is revered for her beauty and grace and she is at the helm of every ladies' organization in town. She has returned from hertime in Manhatten with a rich fiance.
    • 5/5
      At the young age of 39, Flannery O'Connor's life ended when systemic lupus claimed her body. This novel weaves a tale of the last five years of Flannery's life.A friend who shares similar reading tastes recommended this book. I owe her a big thanks! This book is brilliantly, powerfully written.Anyone who appreciates the writings of Flannery O'Connor will find a home when reading this book. It is obvious the writer researched the life of O'Connor and, it is amazing that like O'Connor, the author fascinatingly depicts characters who make choices that set a path of destruction in motion, never able to return and resew the fabric once it is unraveled.Set in the home town in Milledgeville, Georgia, the home of Flannery and her mother Regina, the backdrop of Flannery's beloved Peacocks provide the framework of a screaming, screeching set of 40 birds who, while fascinatingly beautiful, are disturbingly obnoxious.On their honeymoon eve, Melvin, a NY transplant and Cookie, his society soon to be bride make frantic love while hearing the cacophony of the bellowing and hollering birds. Setting the tone for dark events to follow, Cookie falls out of bed and blackens her eye.Pot smoking, lonely wife of the town Police Chief, Lona sews curtains for the residents of the town. When she falls in love with a 17 year old young man, her choices have grave consequences.NY transplant Melvin soon discovers a soul mate in Flannery and, while he travels thoughout town with a lovely wife, he is drawn to Flannery and her uncompromising, blunt honesty. Against the admonitions of his wife, he continues to visit Flannery. He eventually pays a very heavy price for his emotional indiscretion.In this stunningly beautiful book, Napolitano allows the reader to peer into the souls of complicated, anguished people who. like those in an O'Connor novel long for redemption and grace.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      From the beginning of this book there is a sense of tension and forboding, a wedding and the screams of peacocks. Beautifully written love the words and this fictional portrayal of Flannery O'Conner and the twon she lived in. I have to say that I have never read anything by her but just as with The Parils Wife, everyone wanted to read Moveable Feast, I now want to read Flannery.
    • 5/5
      Ann Napolitano has written a novel that is as good and as uncomfortable as one of Flannery O’Connor’s stories. A Good Hard Look recreates Flannery’s hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia in the 1960’s. The story starts the night before the wedding of the town’s most beautiful Southern Bell, Cookie Himmel and her wealthy fiancé Melvin Whiteson. Cookie has everything planned; she knows what she wants in life, and Melvin thinks he is ready to start over in her world. Until he meets Flannery O’Connor, whose brutal honesty and her revealing descriptions of the people around her, has always upset Cookie. At the time of the wedding, Flannery, who suffered from lupus, is home and recuperating on her family farm, Andalusia. She is under the care of her mother Regina, and surrounded by her beloved peacocks. That night, the peacocks’ unearthly cries start a ruckus upsetting the town and the wedding guests. They are an important element of this tale, their voices do more than disturb the peace; they set up the underlying emotional current that leads them all to tragedy. Ann’s book is an unflinching look at human nature and why it’s so hard to change. It’s true to life characters stayed in my thoughts long after I finished the last page. Caution: there are adult situations and one character smokes marijuana. I read an advanced uncorrected copy so I can’t quote any of the fabulous lines Ann wrote, but her imagery grabs your heart. I received this book through Amazon Vine.
    • 4/5
      Flannery O'Connor's last years at her farm in Milledgeville, Ga during the 60's is at the core of this emotionally charged novel that will stay with me for a long time. I don't remember the last time I've read a novel that touched me so much. The tragic lives of Ann Napolitano's characters made me that much more intersted in them. But with the tragedy comes moments of comedy that add to the richness of the novel. This should make a great book for reading groups.