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Everything That Rises Must Converge

by Flannery O'Connor, Robert Fitzgerald (Introduction)

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 · rating details · 9,067 ratings · 473 reviews

Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly indivi...more

Paperback, 269 pages

Published January 1st 1996 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (first published 1965)

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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Best Southern Literature

33rd out of 604 books — 1,429 voters

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

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Collections of Short Stories

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Jul 26, 2011 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, literature

Sometimes Flannery O'Connor feels like a verbally abusive boyfriend that you just keep going back to. You sigh a bit deeper at the end of each tale, feeling a little more defeated by the uglier sides of existence, the weaknesses of human beings, and the general cruelty masked within the humdrum buzzing of life. Her view is grim, you never hope for a Hollywood ending, you sense it building page by page, the inevitable dagger to the gut that will be dealt by the final paragraph, and then that last...more

62 likes · like · see review

Jun 25, 2010 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, short-stories

Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog

There is no doubt. I am a Flannery O’ Connor junkie. I can’t think of anything she’s written I haven’t loved. Even her letters and essays ring true. She is, to some degree, a product of her environment, and her use of certain words can grate on our 21st-century ears, but a toned-down O’Connor would not be O’Connor. Everything That Rises Must Converge may be her best collection of short stories, including, among others, the title story, “Parker...more

32 likes · like · see review

Mar 29, 2013 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, shortlist, true-grit, girls-girls-girls

and she observed that the more education they got, the less they could do.

A descriptive title of Flannery O'Connor's short story collection could be, This Aint Gonna End Well.

This collection is like a crescendo of awfulness, brutality and despair. Physically it's sort of akin to getting kicked in the stomach, and then when your down getting stomped on the back, then for the next story getting kicked in the face, and then getting a nice solid shot to the liver when you try to stand up again, and...more

34 likes · like · see review

Jul 23, 2012 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, january-2012-reading-list, short-stories, audio-book, best-reads

Well I tell you one thing she can write. This woman was of exceptional cleverness and writes of characters of her era and ones that live around us now. She rights of the human condition and the darkness of the heart. These story have humour thrown in she tries to give us a view of how we behave and how insanely stupid and careless we can be. How love blinds and evil destroys, how good can only prosper.
She writes of parenthood, guilt, obsession, control freaks, the sick, the despondent, vengeance...more

13 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2013 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bitchin

So, there's this big Jorge Luis Borges fan, and, get this, he hates short stories, like, criticizes the form all the time. He says that they are too unsatisfying, too blink-and-you've-missed-it, too frustrating, and yet he wants to give Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge 5 stars. Seriously, you shittin' me? Everything That Rises is a short story collection, dude. And Borges? He's the epitome of blink-and-you've-missed it writing; his stories are all like, uh, one page in len...more So, there's this big Jorge Luis Borges fan, and, get this, he hates short stories, like, criticizes the form all the time. He says that they are too unsatisfying, too blink-and-you've-missed-it, too frustrating, and yet he wants to give Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge 5 stars. Seriously, you shittin' me? Everything That Rises is a short story collection, dude. And Borges? He's the epitome of blink-and-you've-missed it writing; his stories are all like, uh, one page in length; I've had coughing fits longer than his complete works. And I told him this, I told him that he was contradicting himself, that there was no way he could go around giving short story collections 5 stars and yet continue to criticize the form, not without coming across as a man who don't know his own mind, and he said: 'are you following me?' which is a pretty low blow. But then he said 'look, the thing is, Everything That Rises works as a complete piece, as a unified vision. The stories, with perhaps one exception, are bound together by shared themes and ideas, and this meant that it satisfied that part of my brain that strives for completeness, for connections.' I wanted to point out that he was openly declaring that he likes the book due to the repetition in it, which he dissed The Violent Bear It Away for. Oh, I'da loved to know how he likes them apples. But I didn't want to upset him; it seems pretty easy to make this sissy cry. Instead, I asked him, 'what themes?' And he said, 'the tension between generations, parents and children specifically, but also the tensions between different cultures and races. Flannery seems preoccupied with the conflict between bourgeois intellectualism and fuzzy-minded liberalism and the reality of the world we live in. For example, in the first story the boy wants to prove that he is on-side with the black people on the bus, that he sees them as equal, but the black people want none of him; at the same time his mother affects, on the surface, a different attitude, as she sees them as inferior, as something to humour or help; and yet the outcome is the same: both boy and mother are patronizing to them, they are treating the black people as something other. That's great stuff. We see this again, later, in a story about a 'dying' boy who wants to smoke cigarettes with the black workers on his mother's farm, but here it is the black people who are merely humouring him, they want to be left alone to get on with their work, not have to satisfy the rebellious impulses of a middle-class white man. That reminded me of Native Son by Richard Wright.' 'What about all the death and shit, all the southern gothic business?' I said, hopefully. 'Oh, it's there in spades. Lots of death and child murder and agony and religious weirdness.' 'That sounds awesome,' I said. 'It is. The book is awesome, you should read it.' 'I will, Mister. Say, you wanna go get a coffee or something?' He looked at me intently for a long time, stared even. 'Go fuck yourself,' he replied at last. (less)

21 likes · like · see review

Jul 26, 2010 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, read-in-2010

(this review kind of takes in 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' as well)

...been wallowing in Flannery O'Connor's world for a few days now, and in some ways that has worked against the effectiveness of these great stories. Because it's a library book that's got to go back I was reading two or three stories a day and I think I will buy the collected stories and read them slowly, probably over a year or more and far apart again to fully savour O'Connordom. Complete mad worlds tilted with subtle heirarch...more (this review kind of takes in 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' as well)

...been wallowing in Flannery O'Connor's world for a few days now, and in some ways that has worked against the effectiveness of these great stories. Because it's a library book that's got to go back I was reading two or three stories a day and I think I will buy the collected stories and read them slowly, probably over a year or more and far apart again to fully savour O'Connordom. Complete mad worlds tilted with subtle heirarchies, an obsession with nearly all the characters to know where they stand, who is before whom on the road to heaven. Dominated overall by race, 'nigger' everywhere, and how to control them, get them to contribute/work for the white world, but prejudice and fear doesn't stop there, is extended to cover all foreigners, eg Polish refugees from WW2 (Europeans are 'full of crooked ways. They never have advanced or reformed. They got the same religion as a thousand years ago.' The Displaced Person).

After a while I knew in every story there'd be a woman in face cream and curlers or a seemingly well meaning patriarch who ignores his own child in favour of others, sometimes complete strangers. The Biblical themes are legion. I knew there would be some kind of physical attack, some - bull, gun, tractor - fatal, others life changing in other ways. The landscape would be the same - woods and water, a barn and a dusty road. All the characters would be deluded to some extent, nasty often, harshly listing the faults and flaws of the world and the people in it, or finding perfection where it doesn't exist. They're ratty, contradictory, crawling with desires or resentments, often in search of tenderness and connection (though they would deny it) but not getting it. A fine cruelty throughout.

But, no matter, truly rich stories, packed with memorable images that jump out - the eyes on Parker's back, the spectacles whittled in wood (brought to mind the billboard in Great Gatsby). A lot on eyes reflecting, or showing soemthing deeper. The other big motif throughout both books is the sun - always the stand in for God in the stories, relentless and powerful, making us see, or blinding us, adding beauty and mystery as it sets or rises. I'll never forget the glorious path to heaven that is shown in 'Revelation' She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven. Or just before that when she shakes her fist with the hose in it and a watery snake appeared momentarily in the air. I'll never forget the horn garlanded bull in the moonlight, the tractor going into the tree, the shots in the woods.

None though seem as strong and cruel and shocking as A Good Man is Hard to Find, the first and still the best story of her's I've read. But I'm looking forward to the re-reading, the finding out if that will still be true when I can see them from more of a distance.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Jul 25, 2011 Stephen M rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: overrated, lifes-too-short-for-novels, i-am-moving-to-the-south

Prose style: 2
Plot: 3
Depth of characters: 3
Overall sense of aesthetic: 2
Originality: 3
Entertaining: 1
Emotional Reaction: 2
Intellectual Stimulation: 4
Social Relevance: 4
Writerly Inspiration: 1

Average = 2.5
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There were some stories that I thought were very strong, the first two especially. On their own, those were hands down five stars. 'The Comforts of Home' and 'The Lame Shall Enter First' I also thought worked very well. But my grippes all come from her writing style. She has a ver...more Prose style: 2
Plot: 3
Depth of characters: 3
Overall sense of aesthetic: 2
Originality: 3
Entertaining: 1
Emotional Reaction: 2
Intellectual Stimulation: 4
Social Relevance: 4
Writerly Inspiration: 1

Average = 2.5
Click here

There were some stories that I thought were very strong, the first two especially. On their own, those were hands down five stars. 'The Comforts of Home' and 'The Lame Shall Enter First' I also thought worked very well. But my grippes all come from her writing style. She has a very stripped down method of writing, think Hemingway without the macho-ness. But with the 'less is more' mantra, the writer should be taking out extraneous detail, adjectives, adverbs, etc. It seems that Flannery O'Connor's writing is devoid of detail. You know, the good stuff. The small minor details that give a new world life. When it comes down to it, her writing comes across as summary. Which sucks. If I wanted summaries of stories, then I wouldn't read books. I would only read spark notes, wiki summaries and Goodreads reviews!

My other major problem is characters. Most of these characters have the emotional complexity of a street sign. I felt like taking out a red and green highlighter and coloring each character's name. This one is bad. This one is good. Oh no! Look how tragic it is when bad things happen to good people! Oh no! Look at the wrath of God getting retribution on those bad people too! Plus, the characters felt so reused that not many of them stood out to me. They all seemed to stew into a single protagonist and antagonist dichotomy that hung over every story.

Gosh, reading back on this review, it seems like I hate it. But maybe I'm just venting a little. Because there were many things I really enjoyed about the stories. If you can consider the simple prose and stockish characters more as a vehicle for her musing on ethical dilemmas, then you know, it is not too bad. It seems that that was her intention. She less of a writer trying to achieve any typical character/plot realizations, more of a philosopher "testing" out human paradigms within the context of fiction.

That being said, it didn't make me love every sentence.(less)

10 likes · like · see review

Aug 29, 2009 Charles Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Behind the newspaper Julian was withdrawing into the inner compartment of his mind where he spent most of his time. This was a kind of mental bubble in which he established himself when he could not bear to be a part of what was going on around him. From it he could see out and judge but in it he was safe from any kind of penetration from without."

Many of the stories deal with issues of race in a post-Civil War South that was changing, particularly the title story and "Judgement Day."

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 05, 2012 Dominic rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-literature, short-stories

Gruesome, dark, wickedly funny, yet particularly spiritual, these short stories stand as some of the best of the genre. The characters here are across the board pretty revolting and rarely evoke pity (O'Connor despised pity), yet they are wonderful examinations of the ridiculously painful and the painfully ridiculous facts of human existence. These stories are fascinating case studies, and some of them are just perfectly written down to the last word.

The showpiece here is "Greenleaf" (if you rea...more

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Jun 25, 2007 Jocelyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

With her previous collection of short stories, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor announced herself as a promising and unique literary talent. That collection, while containing some truly powerful moments, was also uneven, as if the writer were still struggling to find her voice. In Everything That Rises Must Converge, O'Connor shows her growth as a writer and delivers a more focused, taut and compelling product. Though she still struggled with consistency -- the stories at the end of...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 14, 2007 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best lines of dialogue in the English language: "I wouldn't milk a cow to save your soul from hell." Her characters are larger-than-life bastards and I love them all.

4 likes · like · see review

Dec 26, 2009 Karina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, short-stories, 1001

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Our parish priest read an excerpt from the short story "Revelation".

==Everything that Rises Must Converge==
I just read the first story... It's very powerful. At first, when it was still unclear exactly what was bothering Julian, I thought I can relate to him. I could sort of see myself. I didn't approve of his sulking, but sometimes you just don't see things as clearly in yourself as in other people from aside. I should do better!

What exactly is the meaning of the phrase "meet self coming and go...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 01, 2010 Christina Stind rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books-2006-edition, 2010, fiction, short-stories, 1001-books-2008-edition, 1001-books-2010-edition, 1294-books-all-3-lists, library

Everything that rises must converge
The actual event part of this short story is very brief. Julian takes his mother to the gym for her weight loss class. They go on the bus and talk to other people on the bus and have a brief encounter with an African-American woman and her child.
But below the surface it's a story about accepting the way things change and how hard it is for children to accept that their parents get old and can have trouble with accepting the new times. And even more than that, i...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Cait rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: lost-lit, owned, 1001, favorites, read-in-2009, short-stories, bloom-canon, covers-i-love, titles-i-love, bookish-convergent-reads, ucked-fay-up-way, read-in-2011, southern-lit

Reading this for the second time! March, 2011
So. I'm done - still love it, still one of my favorites. But I noticed this time around that reading these stories actually made me feel cheerful. WTF does that say about my state of mind right now???

*Read Aug. 6, 2009*
I've never been a big fan of short stories. Maybe it's just that I hadn't read Flannery O'Connor. Thanks to Lost, that's no longer the case. I freaking loved this book! Every single story was engrossing and I could not put it down. As I...more

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view all 7 comments

Cait Eric, that's the one. I'm neither Southern nor Catholic (or any other religion, really), and consequently have always wondered if there were nuances t...more
Apr 25, 2011 10:29am

Eric Hendrixson A familiarity with Catholicism definitely helps when you're reading her. O'Connor was a Catholic living in the Bible Belt, so many of her characters a...more
Apr 25, 2011 10:54pm

Jun 06, 2008 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Flannery O'Connor was a master of little details that place the reader squarely in the story. One can even smell the smells in virtually any scene constructed in this collection. It doesn't take long to recognize a pattern of violence in these stories, and I came to dread the inevitable shock as I got closer to the climax of each one. O'Connor's main themes are all at work here, with nearly every story set against the backdrop of race relations in the South, populated largely by ugly characters,...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Mathew Shaw rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I see the story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" as a metaphor for the generational divide that occured in the 1960s between the Baby Boomers and the older generation, Julian representing the former and his mother representing the latter. It also represents arrogance at its worst. Julian possesses that juvenile arrogance, of thinking that he's so much better than his mother because he is so "progressive;" his mother represents the kind of arrogance of being old and set in one's ways.

I enjo...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Beth Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: favorites

this is one of my top five favorite books of all time. it's a collection of short stories. slice-of-life stores (again, my favorite kind). it's the first book i read that was like this...it gives you this quick peak into the lives of these people. one story, one day, one hour...

i think i read it in college the first time, but have read it probably 15 times since then. i love every story, every character, every word.

i advise anyone and everyone to read her storie collections. start with this one...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Susan Emmet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Flannery O'Connor is absolutely one of my favorite authors.
Taking small town life, expanding it to include things spiritual and deeply human, capturing the moment and the epiphany, and doing so with tragic humor and reverence - all pretty amazing.
I read this again in discarded library copy form; I've read all she wrote, time and again.
I think I keep coming back to her because she created worlds so small and large, so fundamental and horrible and spiritual, so just plain captured.
Things rise and...more

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Dec 17, 2012 C rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001

Flannery O'Connor: a perfect summer read. For the last couple of years I'd pick this book up in the summer and read a couple stories (especially if I was between books and couldn't pick something else to read. It's a constant problem.. because I want to read everything on my shelves.) This is good stuff, but dark & brutal. The stories are so memorable. I can still think of all the stories from this book I read years ago... and I'm half asleep right now. O'Connor's stories seem to have many o...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Cleo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, classics

After reading A Good Hard Look, I was motivated to try some Flannery O'Connor myself. And I loved it. Her writing is so amazing; not beautiful, but gripping. Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of short stories, each of which is about twenty or thirty pages. I never wanted them to end. They revealed a dark side of human nature in a very chilling way. Her characters are all very well portrayed; based, I'm sure, on real people that she knew. Flannery O'Connor is really a wonderful...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Marc L rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-literature

Beste verzameling korte verhalen sinds Hemingway. O'Connery is een nu uit het zicht verdwenen schrijfster uit het zuiden van de Verenigde Staten, met een kort maar (door ziekte) intens beleefd leven. Haar toonzetting is trefzeker, met precies die details die nodig zijn en met een verregaande psychologische diepte. De verhalen draaien bijna altijd om twee mensen (man-vrouw, zoon-moeder, grootvader-kleinkind, enz) die nauwe relatie hebben, maar daar absoluut niet tevreden mee zijn; maar het eigenl...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Aileen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: southern-y-all, provocative, beautiful, dark, gritty

My sister, as some of you may know (or may have figured out by now), is named after Flannery O'Connor. The name Flannery is more commonly used as a last name, and so the meanings that we've found are, well, interesting: a flat piece of metal or one with red eyebrows. But what's in a name? Neither my Flannery nor I had ever read anything by Flannery O'Connor before. Flannery, because she's worried that she won't like her namesake and me because I really haven't read a lot of classic literature at...more My sister, as some of you may know (or may have figured out by now), is named after Flannery O'Connor. The name Flannery is more commonly used as a last name, and so the meanings that we've found are, well, interesting: a flat piece of metal or one with red eyebrows. But what's in a name? Neither my Flannery nor I had ever read anything by Flannery O'Connor before. Flannery, because she's worried that she won't like her namesake and me because I really haven't read a lot of classic literature at all. So, aside from one short story skimmed in undergrad this is my first O'Connor experience.

O'Connor's style is dark and gritty. It presents life, specifically Southern life, in stark, unflattering detail. It is post-Antebellum South and O'Connor details the struggle with changing ideologies and practices. It's funny, but not in a laugh-out-loud way. It's funny in the painful way where you recognize some of yourself in these massively flawed characters. It's an uncomfortable glimpse into your own thoughts, speaking from the perspective of a white person.

O'Connor excels at calling out all the little hypocrisies and petty insults that white people did (and do) almost off-handedly. She never calls it out for what it is, but presents it in a way that is difficult to ignore. The book is uncomfortable in that way - it will make you realize things that you may not want to realize.

O'Connor excels at creating characters. Each voice is distinct and memorable in its way. There are a few character types she deals with, though. In particular, the character of the spoiled, pseudo-sophisticated son who is ashamed of his "backwards" mother shows up in several stories. Even with this repetition, though, she inserts different plot arcs so that each pair is distinguishable. Everyone is a little bit crazy in their own way, and everyone is doomed.

This book is beautiful, but is also very tragic. Each story is about a doomed character, and although that doom varies in its manifestation it is still nine stories about gloom and death and comeuppances. It's about the weakness of the human mind and the inability to change. It's extremely dark, but extremely well-written (Although some stories drag. "The Lame Shall Enter First" was my least favorite story.) I would recommend it for those who are in a contemplative mood or who would like to find some truly amazing character construction.(less)

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Jun 27, 2012 Janet rated it 3 of 5 stars

In honor of a friendly phone conversation yesterday, I picked up Everything that Rises Must Converge. O’Connor is so witty and humorous, at the moment that one is rolling on the floor and reveling in her precise usage of irony, she takes that moment to kick the reader in the pants. I understand that this collection of short stories were written during her final battle with lupus and published posthumously, which could explain their morbidity. (But that’s just her style.) O’Connor once said, “I p...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Flannery O'Connor combines an ear for dialect and dialog with racial and class ironies in the reforming South; at the heart
of her stories is a controlling sensibility like Mrs Turpin who asks God at the end how she is like a pig. The reader, placed by O'Connor
in a godlike position, knows. It's a Revelation. Perhaps the most revealing story, and the most prescient of things to come--that have now come--
is the story on tattoos, "Parker's Back." Parker, down on his own body, and hoping to impress...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Justin Evans rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

There's a mnemonic for Henry VIII's wives: divorced, beheaded, died; divorced beheaded, survived. You can do something similar for ETRMC, too: died, and died, and died, a fate worse than death, and died. Died, insane, broken and died. Notice a dominant theme there by any chance? As wonderful a writer as O'Connor was, and as good as it is that she was willing to strip the sugar-coating off absolutely everything, she tilled an incredibly narrow field.

No doubt a structuralist would enjoy tracing t...more

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Nov 13, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010fiction

Whatever Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor, Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Karen White, Mark Bramhall, Lorna Raver, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Nine short stories written by O’Connor but published posthumously. The Publisher’s note says it as well as anyone:
This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in
apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are...more

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Dec 21, 2009 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: southern-states, american-literature

Flannery O'Connor has written this collection of short stories short time before dying from lupus, and i can imagine this queer woman drinking her coke mixed with coffee and grinning grimly while penning these dark narrations populated with unlikable, racist, narrow-minded characters as ugly from the outside as from the inside. these narratives definitely haunted me after putting down the book, especially as they're psychologically perfectly comprehensible. i had the feeling i knew these people...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Tamsen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: lost-lit-list, short-stories, classics, book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 14, 2011 Vinny Haddad rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm slightly embarassed to say that I picked this collection of short stories up because a character in the TV show LOST, Jacob, was reading it on the beach in the final season. As I was reading, I understood immediately why that particular character was reading this book. Flannery O'Connor definitely makes clear distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil. Bad things happen to bad people. In this way, Flannery O'Connor's writing fits into the literature though of as realism (even though...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Jayme rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, anthology, audio

Really glad I read this so close to Gone With the Wind. Many of the stories were set in Georgia and dealt a lot with racism in a South vs. North way. It was interesting to see how little their views had changed between this and the Civil War. The major difference was the younger people from these stories often looked at their older relatives, and their fond remembrances of their grandparents with huge plantations, as dinosaurs, whose views were narrow-minded and prejudiced. Yet their own views c...more

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About Flannery O'Connor

Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. O'Connor's writing often reflected her own Roman Catholic faith, and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics.

Her The Complete Stories received the 1972 National Book Award for Fiction. In a 2009 online poll conducted by the National Book Foundation, the collection was named the best work to have won the...more

More about Flannery O'Connor...

Books by Flannery O'Connor

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Collected Works: Wise Blood / A Good Man is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear it Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays and Letters (Library of America #39)

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“He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery...” — 136 people liked it

“She had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and he could do anything.” — 31 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218659.Everything_That_Rises_Must_Converge?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312012845l/218659.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218659.Everything_That_Rises_Must_Converge?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor[/url]

Everything That Rises Must Converge

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