This is the story of Hazel Motes, who is desperately running from Jesus, running to cure himself of belief. He founds the Church of Christ Without Christ and preaches his message of non-redemption from the hood of his "rat-colored" car. In the course of his flight he meets a cynical "blind" preacher and his corrupted 15-year-old daughter, a grifter who wants to use him to make money, and Enoch Emory, a young man with "wise blood," who provides him with a mummified child to serve as his new Jesus. His struggles end as he punishes himself for his failure to destroy his belief. (Anyway, that's how I interpreted it.)
In an Author's Note at the beginning of the book, she describes the book as a "comic" novel, but I did not find it comic at all--the irrational and often seemingly meaningless actions of the characters had a grotesque quality that was not amusing, but instead disturbing.
This is a profoundly religious book, though it would not seem so from the description. Wise Blood will stay in my mind for a long time, and I plan to read it again in a while after I have thought about it some more. It would be worth reading again just to notice O'Connor's use of symbolism and her unique descriptive language.
Just a thought: I guess this could be classified, along with most Faulkner novels, as Southern Gothic. Is it any wonder that many Yankees think of Southerners as deranged degenerates?
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