Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction “Surprise Me”: Going Inside the “Black Box” of Catholic Fiction 1
4. 1. The “Blasting Annihilating Light” of Flannery O’Connor’s Art 17
5. 2. Disorientation and Reorientation in J. F. Powers’s Fiction 34
6. 3. Walker Percy and the End of the Modern World 53
7. 4. Tim Gautreaux and a Postconciliar Approach to Violence 73
8. 5. Belief and Ambiguity in the Fiction of Alice McDermott 92
9. 6. “Life Is Rough and Death Is Coming”: George Saunders and the Catholic Literary Tradition 112
10. Epilogue: Phil Klay, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and the State of Contemporary Catholic Literature 133
11. Acknowledgments 147
12. Notes 151
13. Works Cited 165
14. Index 173