Flannery O’Connor – Cannonball Read 17

Terrifying Faith

The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor

September 9, 2023 by jeverett15 Leave a Comment

Frances Marion Tarwater, 14, has been raised by his great-uncle Mason. Frances was “born from a wreck” as his mother was injured in a car crash and lived just long enough to deliver her son. Originally, the boy was sent to live with his uncle Rayber, a schoolteacher. But Mason, a religious fanatic who lives out in the woods and sells homemade hooch, kidnaps the baby so he can raise him to be a prophet like himself. As the novel begins, Mason dies, leaving young […]

Grab Bag

In Pharoah's Army by Tobias Wolff

Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka

Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

The Collected Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Breece Pancake

Child of God by Cormac Mccarthy

Candide by Voltaire

A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman

On Animals by Susan Orlean

The Facts by Philip Roth

July 7, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

In Pharoah’s Army -4/5 The second memoir by Tobias Wolff (known for A Boy’s Life too) but covering his time in Vietnam. This memoir reads a lot like a Vietnam novel — faint with memories, covering topics, and episodic. It’s hard not to compare it to Tim O’Brien’s The Things they Carried (a “novel”) and If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship me Home (a memoir). In those two books Tim O’Brien likes to hide. There’s a few moments where […]

Some stuff

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski

Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe

Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor

March 17, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Season of Storms – 4/5 Stars If I haven’t said it before, I really like the sidequests more than the main quest. So far I have read the first two main novels, this novel which is a bit of a prequel, and the two story collections, but of which tell of previous adventures and previous meetings. I would gladly read many more novels and collections that move away from the main story for a few reasons. One, the main story is often focused on political […]

He sensed a strangeness about the place.

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor

December 9, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Somehow I didn’t really know this novel existed until recent years. I knew a book called The Violent Bear It Away existed and I knew Flannery O’Connor had written it, but I figured it was a collection of short stories, and having read all her short stories, I kind of figured I had read this already. She wrote this novel and one other Wise Blood and I honestly feel like those two novels couldn’t be much different from one another. In Wise Blood I feel the absolute distillation […]

“She would’ve been a good woman,” said The Misfit, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” (Bingo!)

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

October 30, 2019 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

This is my first O’Connor, which seems strange as a Catholic raised in the American South (maybe if I had gone to a catholic school?) and it is both fascinating and darkly comic, which I don’t know that I was ready for. O’Connor is asking the reader what does it mean to be good? What does it mean to be moral? Those questions are the heart of A Good Man is Hard to Find, and then doubled down by making it the title piece of […]

Almost finished

A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

April 2, 2019 by Sophia Leave a Comment

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955) by Flannery O’Connor was one of the last books on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. I previously knew neither the author nor the book, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. And to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what to think now that I’m done. I’m impressed by O’Connor’s writing, disturbed by the content, disturbed by the pervasive racism, and once again impressed that I had such a […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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