A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

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A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 · rating details · 15,869 ratings · 917 reviews

The collection that established O'Connor's reputation as one of the american masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive The Misfit, as well as "The Displaced Person" and eight other stories.

Hardcover, 252 pages

Published October 15th 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published 1953)

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Feb 12, 2008 matt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fictions-of-the-big-it, miniature, top-shelf, america-f-k-yeah, shattering, favorites, ladies-night

This stuff is twisted, sparse, clipped, dark, doomy, funny, dramatic, Southern, angry, sexy, super Catholic, death-haunted, maniacial, bizarre, possibly racist, apparently desperate, fatalistic, existential, dreary, ugly, fetid, frenzied, morbid, lax, stern, prepossessing, unforgiving, unrelenting, anti-everything, aged, "retro", haunting, parabolic, anecdotal, moral, redemptive, sublime, reasoned, feverish, dreamlike, unsparing, sparse, I said that one already, seductive, craftsmanlike, worried...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Jason and naysayers like Jason

Recommended to Jenn(ifer) by: Flannery told me in a dream

Shelves: short-shorts, summer-of-women-2012, 5-f-ing-stars, female-authors, read-in-2012, the-tops, you-should-read-this

A review in song form (thank you Sufjan): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlcrHE...

*****

The short story is quickly becoming my favorite fiction genre (unlike Jason here who “just [doesn’t] have time for [them] anymore"). Well, I hope everyone makes the time to read this collection, because every bit of it is outstanding. While her first shot at writing a novel was a bit sloppy, you’ll find that with short stories she is a master of her craft.

The title story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” is not a...more
A review in song form (thank you Sufjan): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlcrHE...

*****

The short story is quickly becoming my favorite fiction genre (unlike Jason here who “just [doesn’t] have time for [them] anymore"). Well, I hope everyone makes the time to read this collection, because every bit of it is outstanding. While her first shot at writing a novel was a bit sloppy, you’ll find that with short stories she is a master of her craft.

The title story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” is not at all what I expected. A family sets out for a vacation to Florida. Simple enough premise, right? Add a paranoid grandmother fearful of a mysterious murderer called The Misfit who is ‘on the loose’ and things just got a little more interesting. The story touches on themes of good vs. evil, religion, socioeconomic status, family dynamics.. and that’s just one story!

My favorite story in the collection is “Good Country People.” In this story, a self-righteous woman who happens to have an artificial leg meets a man whom she thinks is a simple bible salesman (salt of the earth!). She follows him to a barn, and they begin to do what two young people alone in a barn do… make out. This goes on for awhile and he asks her to tell him she loves him, to which she replies “(Love is) not a word I use. I don't have illusions. I'm one of those people who see through to nothing.” Shed ep ya condescending spinster! In the end we discover that people are not what they seem; even good country folks. Even good Christian boys.

In O’Connor’s stories, often what we find when we scratch the surface of the characters is not goodness, it is grotesque. Regarding her emphasis of the grotesque, O'Connor said: "anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic." Her characters are often depicted as dirty, disfigured, morally bankrupt, uneducated and ignorant. In other words, they’re real.

In closing, if you haven’t read this collection, read it. If you have, read it again (even you Jason).
(less)

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Jan 13, 2010 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, favorites

I have been stewing on this book all night...it was 1)terrific in every and 2)completely rotten in every way and 3)scary, scary, terrifying scary without trying too hard to be. O'Connor has said that she searches in the darkest, most hopeless little worlds for "god's grace" (or more specifically, "god's presence", be it dark or light). Seeing as I have no fear of the wrath of an angry god, why did this book affect me so deeply, leaving me with a stunned expression staring at a blank wall for sev...more

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Oct 31, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books (Modern Fiction)

Shelves: short-stories, race, religion, 501

So far, the best short story collection that I've read. Flannery O'Connor's prose can make you sing. However, the songs are predominantly dark, tragic and sad. The most appropriate image that I can think of is that scene in The Wizard of Oz when the tornado is ravaging the Kansas farm of Dorothy's parents and then picture her singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while the bicycle-riding wicked witch is smiling at her.

Quite an appropriate picture because Flannery O'Connor was born in Georgia and...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Vacillated between three and four stars -- almost rounded up for a few reasons but decided to go with my gut and rate it as I'd read it. It's clearly a canonical foundational model for the conventional, centrist, conservative short-story form. But still I heard echoes of Saunders and DFW, not to mention so much solid BASS-grade short fiction, but that's also the issue I think I had with it: for the most part I was over-aware these were stories, always aware of their form, their steadiness, sugge...more Vacillated between three and four stars -- almost rounded up for a few reasons but decided to go with my gut and rate it as I'd read it. It's clearly a canonical foundational model for the conventional, centrist, conservative short-story form. But still I heard echoes of Saunders and DFW, not to mention so much solid BASS-grade short fiction, but that's also the issue I think I had with it: for the most part I was over-aware these were stories, always aware of their form, their steadiness, suggestion of theme, inevitability (probability at least) of violence, a betrayal, or a reversal in the home stretch. I started to expect muddy eddying openings that, at best, clarified and streamed toward serious (often almost sensational) ends. After finishing the first two stories (the title story most likely provided The Misfits their name), I said something like "oooph" aloud to the uberpreggers wifey after the last words. I said aloud "Flannery's two for two," meaning the first two stories vividly pulled me along and ended viciously/awesomely. I was engaged! The third story worked the same way for me -- its ending was more open and it had this perfectly phrased, lucid, evocative, menacing line: "Deep in the sky a storm was preparing very slowly and without thunder as if it meant to drain every drop of air from the earth before it broke." But from there things dipped. It's possible I shouldn't have read most of these in one long evening sitting. Maybe I was getting tired, or maybe the middle stories lacked the vividness and heft of the first few? As a 21st century liberal arts educated yankee I admit to having a bit of trouble with the repeated use of "ninja," especially when used by a third-person narrator, not in dialogue etc. Whenever it came up it popped the reading-immersion bubble I was blowing. Things picked up for me toward the end with the one about the old general that echoes Faulkner's Nobel speech about the old verities and the one with the girl with the wooden leg and the "innocent" bible salesman. But still maybe felt like the repetition of taking advantage of a physically disadvantaged girl was sort of hokey? The long last story seemed to me to overextend the Poles versus WT/Ninjas conflict, and ended predictably for me. The language seemed balanced and steady, at times powerfully ordered and capable of real insight, but after a while I found it tidy in a way I appreciate but don't go apeshit over. I suppose the formal steadiness did nicely juxtapose the uncontrolled sinfulness she depicts. At times, things seemed to me stereotypically southern, with dust in the trees, the big red setting sun, pigs, Co'colas, kids named John Wesley, all of which might be spot on but which made me long a little for Faulkner. I liked how the ancient General story satirized Hollywood's vision of southern. I failed "A Circle in the Fire" -- couldn't stick with it and skimmed -- and otherwise after the first few stories was looking forward to reading something else. Maybe I'm not so much into stories right now, maybe I'm not into the whole rural Southern Christian jawn, maybe I'm corrupted these days by listening to 2666 every day for weeks and therefore didn't think these stories were comparatively all that dark (other than the first two and aspects of a few of the others)? Sorry, Flannery -- but nice to meet you and I'm sure to come back to you someday!(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Willowfaerie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book

This is an extremely well-written cache of disturbing short stories. Although I’m not quite sure I read them the same way O’Connor intended. I say that because I come from a different time and a different place. I’m not the devout Catholic that O’Connor obviously was. Consequently, I’m not sure I completely grasped the full light of God’s grace. I tended to read these stories with a skeptical eye. They unsettled me, the religious aspect never giving me peace.

O’Connor likes to zero in on people’...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-dirty-south

First things first, O’Connor did exactly what she intended to do here. It’s not a failure by any stretch (if, at times, close-cropped and uneven). Whatever she’s doing, cruel and unusual, she’s good at it. But dear God, it just happens to be the exact kind of thing that revolts something deep down in my gut. I’m usually all on board with the creepy, crazy, what-have-you, but the difference here is that nobody is even alive before they’re dead.

“Bleak,” “oppressive,” “macabre,” all of that applie...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of the written word

Shelves: fiction, favorites, book-club

The last book I read was also a collection of short stories, but that is where the comparison stops. Each and every one of the stories in A Good Man is Hard to Find is a gem, masterfully polished and displayed by Ms. O'Connor.

This is, I think, the third or fourth time I've read through this book, and I still can't decide what she thinks of the human experiment. On the one hand, she paints her characters with such exquisite detail, putting forth their quirks and foibles in such a way that you can...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Ken Moten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Bad men?

Shelves: short-story-stuff

"Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever." - John 12:25 (Common English Bible)

"The dragon is by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the Father of Souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon." - St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Quote at the beginning of the story)

This one required 2 quotes; my first Flannery O'Connor.
I will probably spoil but I won't tag this whole review; nor will...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Catie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Catie by: Flannery's parents, indirectly.

Shelves: classics, read-in-2013, short-stories

I enjoy all kinds of writing. I like the simple, breezy writing that’s entertaining and takes very little effort to understand. I like the dense, loaded writing that takes weeks of thought and discussion to fully unpack. The remarkable thing about the writing of Flannery O’Connor is that it somehow seems to encompass that entire spectrum.

Her writing is without a doubt easy to digest, but I would never in a million years call it simple. Reading her prose feels less like reading and more like hav...more

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Mar 01, 2013 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-read, favorites, own, short-stories, women, mouths-of-the-south

How do I explain my awe in the face of O'Connor's fiction when my literary worldview is so of a mind with Jamie's, as highlighted in her conflicted review? I would hate for it to be something as reductive as how bizarre O'Connor's writing is on a surface level (in tone, primarily), but that's certainly part of it. Another is my secular upbringing by an avowed atheist pa and a non-practicing Christian ma continuing to inform my intense fascination with how religion shapes and scars the pre-adoles...more

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Jun 25, 2010 Jana rated it 5 of 5 stars

One would say, Flannery is a nice Southern lady who wrote this little book with this cute name: 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find'. She was probably a lonely spinster, spent her life reading romances, swinging on her porch, drinking lemonade and making up lovely stories. A-a.

Big mistake from the beginning: I still have not read a book where USA South hasn't been portrayed as the devil's pit in a human form. She is sensational. I’ve never read a book like this. Her stories are completely dark and cree...more

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Oct 02, 2007 Rochelle Torke rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh good lord. Someone said she made the south seem even creepier than it already was and i agree with a shudder. And my experience is that you can never really shake off these stories. She can create a character in five words that you will recognize instantly way, way down in your cerebellum--or maybe somewhere in your gut--and it will live there inside you forever. I think she is the unmatched master of the short story form. And don't get me wrong, you will laugh at times while reading. But the...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Jeanette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, short-stories, america, classics, five-star-fiction

I don't aspire to write fiction. Knowing one's limitations is a gift. But oh, if I could only write short stories like Flannery. She shows you scenes so real it feels like voyeurism, and some so unsettling that you'll be glad it's fiction. These characters do not work and play well with others!

The longest story, "The Displaced Person," is a masterpiece about hypocrisy and prejudice. The imagery is perfect. In fact, the imagery in all of her stories is amazing.

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Sep 10, 2007 Joan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book haunts me. Her images and characters are so vivid, that I can recall them six years later as if I read this book yesterday says something of the power of masterfully crafted language.

Flannery O'Connor was devout Catholic, which made her a bit of an ousider in the Evangelical Protestant South. If I had to summarize her worldview is that she believes in God, but not so much in people.

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Jul 30, 2011 Kirby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

By golly, I cannot get enough of Southern Gothic literature-- I simply CANNOT!

Flannery O'Connor is fantastic. She has one of the most distinctive tones of any writer I've ever encountered, and she weaves these fascinating, tense, poignant and somewhat disturbing stories with a grace that is pretty freaking unparalleled. This collection is full of tales about seemingly simple rural folk, with a powerful sprinkle of ironic turns and shockingly abrupt twists. And although the book was first publis...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of my college professors once said that when you finish a story by Flannery O'Connor, you feel like you have been yelled at. I know exactly what he means. This is exhausting, heavy fiction, and as you finish most of these stories, your heart is racing and you need to sit and recover for a few minutes before you do anything else.

To be honest, I really didn't like this set of short stories at first. They tend to be morbid, violent, and (at times) simply weird. But after finishing the book, an...more

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May 16, 2010 Tumbleweed rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ocular-acid-trips, 2010, reviewed

Bad stuff first:
These stories are not at all what I expected. I'm adding this book to my "wtf reads" shelf, because that's the feeling I get when I'm reading these: WTF? That being said, I generally enjoy a little WTF quality in my novels - provided I can make sense of it at some point. I enjoy the confusion, provided I don't remain confused (if that makes sense). Stories like "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" just completely blew me out of the water and into another galaxy of pure mystificati...more Bad stuff first:
These stories are not at all what I expected. I'm adding this book to my "wtf reads" shelf, because that's the feeling I get when I'm reading these: WTF? That being said, I generally enjoy a little WTF quality in my novels - provided I can make sense of it at some point. I enjoy the confusion, provided I don't remain confused (if that makes sense). Stories like "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" just completely blew me out of the water and into another galaxy of pure mystification. It made sense starting out, and I was interesting in seeing where the story would end; having reread it twice, I still have NO FREAKING CLUE WHAT HAPPENED. This particular band of WTF-ness only serves to tick me off.

Good stuff: *SPOILERS*
Not all the stories were that way, though (thankfully). "Good Country People" was hilarious, in such a way that despite being relatively detached from the story, somewhere in the recesses of my soul, I was laughing uproariously (a very, very odd feeling). I devoured “The Displaced Person” and relished the demise of almost every character in it. “The River” left me feeling like I, too had been drowned, and oh, what a liberating feeling it was! “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” was my favorite. I was irresistibly drawn to the way O’Connor described the General’s overall memory loss, and the way his memory seemed to almost return to him before his death:
“…then a succession of places – Chickamauga, Shiloh, Marthasville – rushed at him as if the past were the only future now and he had to endure it. Then suddenly he saw that the black procession was almost on him. He recognized it, for it had been dogging all his days. He made such a desperate effort to see over it and find out what comes after the past that his hand clenched the sword until the blade touched bone.”
O’Connor hit me with a big walloping WOW with that one; not to mention the way it ended with a Boy Scout rolling the General’s wheelchair downhill and waiting in line with his corpse at a Coke machine. Snort. Giggle. Oh yes; O’Connor went there and I loved it.
*END SPOILERS*

General review:
All of the stories in A Good Man Is Hard To Find are very dark, most are pleasantly so – still, it felt more like a hit-and-miss with this collection of stories, and who wants that? Ultimately, it’s definitely worth a read, but don’t expect to be impressed by everything you find.(less)

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Aug 25, 2009 Evan Snyder rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bernstein

I wish I had gotten the addition with the "other stories" that I am seeing should have come with this from the other editions. I was not really looking for critical essays to read on it, but was more interested in O'Connor's content.

However, since this is the edition that I found in the library...

As with Wise Blood, the text to me very much demonstrates O'Connor's disillusionment with religion. The grandma continually tries to convince the Misfit to pray, and get Jesus to help him. Grandma, howe...more I wish I had gotten the addition with the "other stories" that I am seeing should have come with this from the other editions. I was not really looking for critical essays to read on it, but was more interested in O'Connor's content.

However, since this is the edition that I found in the library...

As with Wise Blood, the text to me very much demonstrates O'Connor's disillusionment with religion. The grandma continually tries to convince the Misfit to pray, and get Jesus to help him. Grandma, however, has no concern for the Misfit, but only her own self-preservation. This could be applied to organized religion (focusing on Christian religions, especially in the light of sects strongly persuing converts) in a wider context. When you press another person to be "good" and behave a certain way, you preserve youself by preventing them from threatening you. Convincing someone that doing you don't like will lead to their damnation is a great deal. You are guaranteed safety or comfort because you have eliminated the threat of said person's action. Whom does conversion save for certain but the missionary?

Also, the pig symbolism of Wise Blood crops up with Bobby Lee reminding June Star of a pig. (will touch upon this more in a moment)

At the end of the story, the Misfit says, "She would of been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." Looking back to the idea of missionary work simply as self-preservation for the missionary, and thinking of a "good" man or woman as one who tries to bring people to Jesus, the Grandma would only be a good woman in the case that she is threatened. When there is the danger of dying, she tries to act like a good woman to prevent others from harming her, either by telling them that what they wish to do will damn themselves or guilting them into not wanting to harm a good person.

Bobby Lee comments that shooting Grandma is "some fun." The Misfit contradicts him, however, and says "It's no real pleasure in life." Bobby Lee is the dirty character, the pig. The Misfit comes off as not so bad a man despite being the leader of a trio of bandits. I think the story questions what makes a good man or woman. Is a good man really hard to find, or does it all depend on our definition of a good man or woman? and can anyone objectively say what makes a good man, since it seems that inevitably, a good man is just someone who benefits us?(less)

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Aug 19, 2007 Fred rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

it's hard to know what to compare flannery o'connor's short stories to. the only thing that pops to mind and seems apt is the bible. these stories are biblical for a lot reasons -- for one, the prose, which is so masterfully written that it seems like the work of some unimpeachable deity. and also, the boldness of the stories. there are these massive, brutal, unavoidable moments of revelation that you never think to question. it all just seems so bizarre and yet inevitable. i dunno, i'm not doin...more

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Nov 21, 2008 M.L. rated it 4 of 5 stars

AGM is one of those books that I had once read (parts of) out of obligation (English class), but now can read with intentionality. I guess I can only say that my 15-year-old self was an illiterate little shit. Short stories so often hinge on just one sentence or just one paragraph, that it's no surprise if my pulp-fiction, page-turning pimple-self couldn't the point. Call me older and more patient, now.

FoC's stories are like the moments before a train wreck, recorded in slow motion, and returned...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Vanessa Sanchez rated it 3 of 5 stars

The short story "A good man is hard to find" by Flannery O'connor was very appealing to me. It was shocking and also in away made me mad because if the family would have listened they would have been okay, but their situation was crazy and very interesting. It starts out with the mother of bailey trying to get him to take his family to Tennessee instead of Florida because of something she read about a criminal named the Misfit, let loose and on his way to Florida. Of course the son doesn't list...more The short story "A good man is hard to find" by Flannery O'connor was very appealing to me. It was shocking and also in away made me mad because if the family would have listened they would have been okay, but their situation was crazy and very interesting. It starts out with the mother of bailey trying to get him to take his family to Tennessee instead of Florida because of something she read about a criminal named the Misfit, let loose and on his way to Florida. Of course the son doesn't listen and takes his family, including his mom to Florida. The mom couldn't do anything about it but I think it was hilarious that she hid her cat because she could never just leave the cat home alone for a long period of time. The whole way Baileys mother tried trailing them away from Florida by telling the kids about a childhood home of hers that has secret passages. The kids kept begging their father to take them for a visit and finally he gave in. Half way she tells Bailey the truth that the house is in Tennessee and not in Florida at the same time the cat jumps out and makes Bailey flip the car. Everyone is okay, but the mom pretends to be hurt really bad. When they see a car passing they call it down for help and when three men come out with guns, the mom recognizing that one of the men is The Misfit. He tells the other men to take Bailey and one of his sons into the forest and he shoots them. Leaving the other son and his wife, mom and baby to plead for their lives.

The mom is the main character and she has a great attitude and just wants to protect her family. Throughout everything, even till the end where she is pleading for her life she is confident. I think Bailey, her son, shouldn't have been so stubborn and should have just listened to her. In the end everyone knows the mom did everything she could to try to save the whole family but nobody listened. I think this is a good short story to read. Its pretty entertaining. Even though it is kind of sad i think the mother is quite amusing.But maybe this book will show people to listen to their family when they are trying to keep them safe and tell them that they might be headed towards something that will put them in danger. So just to teach people to maybe do a little bit more research on where they want to go, and what type of people are around.(less)

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Feb 14, 2013 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

O’Connor is often called the master of the short story and that moniker is well-earned. As I read this collection I recognized many of the stories. I’d read them as part of other collections, but they were just as powerful the second time around. They are vivid and eerie with just a tinge of moral lessons sprinkled in.

I tend to avoid short stories because they never seem to stick with me. Usually I can read a dozen of them and forget them by the next day, but this book was different. O’Connor’s...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Ricky German rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Flannery O'Connor so much! Her stories are not for the faint of heart, and that's probably why I like them.

I didn't really connect with them until I read Mystery and Manners. M & M sheds so much light on her writing. In the title story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," when you realize that she meant for the grandmother to be the heroine of the story, it sort of throws you for a loop because none of her characters are really that likable, let alone this crotchety, closed-minded woman. T...more I love Flannery O'Connor so much! Her stories are not for the faint of heart, and that's probably why I like them.

I didn't really connect with them until I read Mystery and Manners. M & M sheds so much light on her writing. In the title story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," when you realize that she meant for the grandmother to be the heroine of the story, it sort of throws you for a loop because none of her characters are really that likable, let alone this crotchety, closed-minded woman. Then I thought about it: does a protagonist have to be likable? Regardless of how much I like her, she actually does go through steps of the traditional character arch. She starts out oblivious to the world around her, then when she has a gun to her head, she is forced to see life for what it actually is thus having some sort of revelation. In a way, though, it's the inverse of the traditional western narrative's character arch. It's not a mostly good protagonist who has one fatal flaw that gets exposed after he encounters an obstacle. It's a slew of characters who all have terrible flaws that get the best of them while trudging through the obstacles of every day, until they come to a point where they could have a realization. Usually, they are juxtaposed with other characters who have dealt with the same issues in their own lives in a different way. Her protagonists don't necessarily get better, but they usually gain insight. I think this is the Southern Gothic Style: O'Connor emphasizes the bad, the grotesque, to make the choice of how to be good so much more important.

And despite the tone of all of these stories, she still found a way to be a devout Catholic. On a light read, you might think that someone who didn't have much faith in anything wrote these stories. I think lots of people see her as a pessimist, or a bitter person, but I think she's more of a realist. I'm not a religious person, but I like the broadness of her point of view. She doesn't just write about how being good is great, she writes about how hard it is to make good decisions every day. And that good comes in unlikely packages, and that it's not always so cut and dry. In AGMIHTF, there is a bit of compassion for the man putting the gun to the grandmother's head because he has just chosen the opposite route. It's no more righteous, but it begs the reader to ask how this situation could have been avoided. At first, you mistake the feeling you get when you reading O'Connor's writing for a bad one, but it's actually what living is supposed to feel like: challenging but worth while. In a very intense way, the stories are sort of inspirational.(less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Eraserhead rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hit or miss. I think O'Connor is incredibly overrated, really, in modern american letters.

All of her stories go as follows:
1)introduced to a character that seems Good but we know probably isn't
2)set up some cheeky moral conundrum that is a pretty heavy-metaphor for morality
3)include a clumsy discussion of theology to drive home the story's qualities of parable
4)reveal that the characters are in fact Bad by showing their misguided journey towards Good
5)if at all possible, end with a cutesy Grad...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Mikey Gee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Think the bloodiest scenes of the Old Testament set fifty to eighty years after the end of Gone with the Wind. It ought to chill your blood even if you believe the horror ultimately leads to salvation. I think it is necessary for readers to understand that what O'Connor is always depicting is some one's salvation and that this does not reduce the horror. Salvation (in the Christian view) is supposed to be horrific, earth shattering, destroying not pleasant or nice. Remember that it is brought ab...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Beautifully written short story, I am very impressed at how well the author managed to transfer the southern American accent to paper in her dialogues. This is something which I am gradually learning from my writing experiences is not always an easy thing to do. Many say the story is written in a way that leads the reader to dislike all of the characters and in the end sympathise with the killer. It is true I disliked all of the characters except the grandmother, I tho...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Michael Tucker rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the reasons we like to read it that reading takes us to a different place and a different time. And that is what this collection of short stories by southern noir writer Flannery O’Connor does. Mary Flannery O’Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) writes in a style that captures the voice of an era that is long gone and of a place that is no more. The truth of her stories touched me and brought back memories of my mother’s family in West Virginia. I felt like I knew the people Ms. O’Co...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Sergio rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just amazing. Some of the best short fiction I've ever read. Dark, darkly humorous at times, grim, and deeply moving stories of moral choices - often bad ones - under dire circumstances. O'Connor draws out the subtle, often entirely internal despair of her characters in a wsy that makes them feel palpable and real, which makes the stories quite scary at times. Her language is violent and shocking, but beautifully economical, and her resolutions are never easy or clean.

I get that she's labeled a...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The title story begins on a note of familial squabbling, a multi-generational disagreement about where to go on vacation. Some characters are named, others are not. But off they all go in the family car, traveling from Atlanta to Florida. At time this seems like a National Lampoon Vacation trip, a sort of bleak humor underlying the dialogue, everyone fussing with and annoying everyone else; even the grandmother’s cat has had to come along.

The grandmother suggests a side trip to the plantation sh...more The title story begins on a note of familial squabbling, a multi-generational disagreement about where to go on vacation. Some characters are named, others are not. But off they all go in the family car, traveling from Atlanta to Florida. At time this seems like a National Lampoon Vacation trip, a sort of bleak humor underlying the dialogue, everyone fussing with and annoying everyone else; even the grandmother’s cat has had to come along.

The grandmother suggests a side trip to the plantation she thinks she recall, too late remembering that it was in Tennessee rather than in Georgia. Traveling along an interminable dirt road, they have an accident in which the car turns over, causing minor injuries. Along come three men, one of whom the grandmother recognizes as an escaped prisoner. Called The Misfit, he is at first mannerly and differential in a Southern sort of way, then rambling off into bizarre theological musings about Jesus and the mystery of sin. First the father and son, then the mother with her daughter and baby are led off into the woods where gunshots are heard. Finally the grandmother, feeling compassion for the primary prisoner, suddenly addresses him with compassion, as if he were a child, and in a rage he kills her, too, leaving her lying in a pool of blood, smiling at the sky.

This is a searing story, the narrative shifting in the middle from one of simple family acrimony to one of menace and an increasing sense of dread. By the time the strangers are recognized as escaped prisoners, the dénouement is foretold, no other ending being possible. O’Connor writes with an ear for dialogue and description, her use of language and dialect being impeccable. And she writes with a sense of pessimism and fatalism that is unrelieved. The lives she portrays are almost without redemption, except insofar as they, in this case the grandmother, often have a brief insight of common humanity and compassion before a bleak end. Hers is a world that, if not abandoned by God, is one in which man has turned his back on God. Characters do more to irritate than support each other, and the picture is one of weariness, violence, and futility, often with glimmers of redemptive understanding and love. In the reading of her work, the reader is forced to reflect on the society within he finds himself, achieving greater insight and sensitivity to the dark lives often lived by those around him and into his own humanity.
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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

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Books by Flannery O'Connor

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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“She would of been a good woman," said The Misfit, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” — 175 people liked it

“All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.” — 58 people liked it

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