The title was our first object of fascination. Apparently, it quotes a Bible verse, but none of us, being fairly well-versed in the Bible, recognized it. We discovered that it is taken from a verse of the Douay Bible:
This cryptic known verse from a little-known translation was enough to suck me in.
O'Conner is a devout Catholic and so the story has religious overtones, but is in no way preachy. She begins her tale with the kidnapping of a young boy by his religious fanatic uncle. He styles himself a prophet and endeavors for the boy to take up his mantle when he's gone. At the same time, he charges the youngster, Francis Tarwater, to baptize the disable child of an atheist nephew. Upon the death of the uncle, Francis rejects his uncle's prophetic charge and winds up with the atheist and his son. While hearing voices from the devil, Francis "baptizes" his cousin by drowning him. The boy's father realizes that he feels nothing at the loss of his son. Francis eventually returns to his old uncle's farm after encountering an embodied devil on the road. After his many adventures and after seeing the deadening result of extreme intellectualism in the atheist, he picks up the mantle thrown down by his uncle. He is last seen heading off to town to "warn the children of God of the terrible speed of mercy."
It's a confusing book. It's hard to know who to root for. It appears the message is to avoid pure fanatical religion and pure fanatical intellectualism. Both will eat you up. The devil is real. Evil exists. We cannot reason it away. We have a calling and no matter how hard we try to escape it, we cannot. All interesting themes.
I recommend the book, but be forewarned. It's not your typical "Christian" book. It is as cryptic as the verse in its title.
