If you are or were an English major in college, then chances are that you have read a Flannery O’Connor short story, and double chances are that the short story in question was “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” arguably one of her finest (and I defend that argument, by the way). I’d also read “The River” and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” (seriously, nobody does titles better than Flannery), but I knew she had a whole collection. I requested it […]
Wise Blood
I am pretty sure that re-reading this about 15 years after first reading it, I definitely thought I understood it more than I definitely actually understood it. This novel is a few things: Southern, dark, crass, and Religious. Flannery O’Connor does not like fakers. Not at all. There’s obviously the Yeats quote that gets thrown around a lot about…well, here: The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Well ok, but there are no best. Flannery O’Connor’s writing does not […]
I am the only person on the place who is willing to underwrite, with something more than tolerance, the presence of the peafowl.
As with everything else she wrote, there isn’t enough of it. This short collection of essays covers a variety of topics mostly about writing, religion, The South, but also, and delightfully, peafowl. Here’s a great snippet: “Over the years their attitude toward me has not grown more generous. If I appear with food, they condescend, when no other way can be found, to eat it from my hand; if I appear without food, I am just another object. If I refer to them as ‘my’ […]
It was an ugly mystery
Things you need to know about Flannery O’Connor: She died young of Lupus. She was a devout Catholic. She was Southern as hell. She lived with her mother and chose a writer’s life instead of anything personally intimate. So that said, here’s some thoughts of her stories in this collection. “Everything that Rises Must Converge” Flannery O’Connor is fascinated by the relationship between sons and mothers, especially liberal-minded sons who hold the vulgarities of the world against their poor mothers. In this story, among […]
Southern Gothic
I pulled this up on Goodreads in preparation to write my review, I saw that Narfna had said (back in 09): “Four stars for talent, three stars for enjoyment.” That’s pretty much spot on. Beyond A Good Man is Hard to Find, which I liked in high school and liked 12 (gulp) years later upon rereading, most of these short stories are pretty miserable. But that doesn’t detract from how obviously talented O’Connor was, and what a shame it is that she died so very young. “She would’ve […]