Flannery at the Grammys

This astute study by Streight (coeditor, Reading the Boss), an English professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, traces Flannery O’Connor’s influence on Bruce Springsteen, U2, Lucinda Williams, and other musicians. He argues that Springsteen modeled the bleak and violent narratives of his album Nebraska on O’Connor’s Southern gothic short stories, which he discovered in the late 1970s and has acknowledged as a major influence. Some musicians are drawn to the “conflicted religiosity” of O’Connor’s work, Streight contends, suggesting that the curdled Christianity of Hazel Motes, the “blaspheming preacher-gone-wrong” protagonist of Wise Blood, echoes in the many Nick Cave songs that attempt “to make sense of the fallen world.” Elsewhere, Streight compares O’Connor’s and gospel singer Kate Campbell’s “send-ups of southern manners” and asserts that singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens shares O’Connor’s interest in “the subtle ways in which people are moved by the motions of grace.” The connections that Streight unearths intrigue, though he sometimes struggles to explain their significance. For instance, he provides a close reading of how PJ Harvey’s song “Joy” retells the narrative of O’Connor’s story “Good Country People,” but he doesn’t say much about what the homage reveals about either artist. Nevertheless, this will entrance music lovers with a literary bent. (July)