Monday, March 30, 2009

"My my I do like to work"

An amazing phrase in Joyce Carol Oates's NYRB piece on Flannery O'Connor:
As her lupus steadily worsened, O'Connor remained an unfailingly devout Catholic waking each morning, "as soon as the first chicken cackles," with a ritual reading of prayers from a breviary before being driven into Milledgeville by Regina to attend 7:00 AM mass at Sacred Heart Church; her writing life was compressed into just a few hours, but these hours were precious to her, under the protection of her mother. On her very deathbed O'Connor was determined to work—"My my I do like to work.... I et up that one hour like it was filet mignon."

1 comment:

  1. JCO has a serious talent with essay. Many novelists write essays but only a few ( Updike being one I love ) can really burn it up.

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