A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
Ratings39
Average rating4.2
Hadn't read this in a while and damn, forgot how much I really liked some of these stories.
A Good Man Is Hard To Find: 5 stars
The River: 3.5 stars
The Life You Save May Be Your Own: 5 stars
A Stroke Of Good Fortune: 3 stars
A Temple Of The Holy Ghost: 2 stars
The Artificial Nigger: 3 stars
A Circle In The Fire: 4 stars
A Late Encounter With The Enemy: 3.5 stars
Good Country People: 4.5 stars
The Displaced Person: 4 stars
I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this.
The characters in a Flannery O'Connor story are about as far from politically correct as you can get. The characters in her stories point out the perceived flaws and failings of every person they meet or know. And every person they meet or know has numerous flaws and failings - handicaps, limitations, problems with race or gender or ethnicity. And to make it even more uncomfortable, the characters rest in the certainty of the validity of their cruel judgments, and often openly note their adherence to Christianity.
Oh, but it's an uncomfortable read. You know that these people were real and common in their time (the book was published in 1955) and you suspect they are probably real and common today.
Short Review: It is clear why Flannery O'Connor is considered a master writer. These are masterfully written short stories. But I really wish there was more to them. They hint at greater things but always end right about the time that I fully engage. They are also tragic (often humorously tragic, but still very tragic) and end badly. If I were rating on how this is written, I would probably give it five stars. If I were rating at how I enjoyed it, I would probably give three stars.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find/
On the surface this seems like a relatively straightforward dark little story. I couldn't work out what it was really about but I also couldn't stop thinking about it.
That's a good short story.
While I only read the actual short story and some of the annotative essays, I know this one is going to stick with me for a long, long time. I'd like to find a recording of O'Connor reading it...