Reviews for The Christ-Haunted Landscape

The average rating for The Christ-Haunted Landscape based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-06 00:00:00 Devin Hister Flannery O'Connor said "I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted." From these words, the title of The Christ-Haunted Landscape: Faith and Doubt in Southern Fiction was born. The book consists of twelve interviews Susan Ketchin conducted with Southern authors about the roles played by faith and doubt in their lives and their writing. Each interview was preceded by a brief biography and either a short story or an excerpt from a book by the writer. This book came highly recommended by a friend with whom I have a shared Southern and religious background. It is not a subject about which I have thought often in such a direct manner, but it is one which struck a chord with me, and this was one of the finest works of non-fiction I have read. The role of these twin subjects in the life of the South is unmistakable to one who has lived there, and the way in which they must be wrestled by these writers rings true. If I have a complaint, it is that there was no representation of authors who are now atheistic.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-09-25 00:00:00 Rogelio Placencia Jr A series of excerpts and interviews with 12 Southern writers focusing on the subject of the influence of religious/Christian faith on their writing/as subject. I dipped into this over a period of weeks and grew to like it as a whole. I'd read some of the writers before, some I had resisted and was curious about others. The excerpts were interesting selections for the most part -- the interviews were pretty interesting though I felt the interviewer had a tendency to fawn over the writers. Frankly, I could have used more indepth interviewing even at the expense of the writing samples. A number of highlights but the rambling, free associating responses of Harry Crews were tops for me. The book is listed at $35.00 on Amazon - which I'd never pay and wouldn't recommend at that price. But a good read. After reading the interview, I'm inclined to give Lee Smith another try.