Flannery O'Connor writes brilliant stories.
Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 â August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She was born and lived in Georgia and often wrote in a sardonic Southern Gothic style, relying heavily, on regional settings and grotesque characters, often in violent situations. Her fiction is usually set in the South and features morally flawed protagonists who frequently interact with characters with disabilities or are disabled, themselves (O'Connor was afflicted by lupus). The issue of race is also prevalent in her writing.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories was first published in 1955 and with it, O'Connor is often praised as one of the most original and provocative writers of her generation. The majority of the stories include jarring violent scenes that make the characters undergo a spiritual change. I thought all of these stories were very praiseworthy even though they tended to show the darker side of the human experience.
The title story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is perhaps O'Connor's most famous story about a family driving to Florida on vacation who end up being slaughtered by a serial killer called "The Misfit." After shooting the grandmother, The Misfit says she "would've been a good woman if it were someone there to shoot her every minute of her life."
Other notable stories include "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" about a woman who marries her deaf-mute daughter off to a drifter in exchange for paying him money and a car; "The Artificial Ni**er" about a man who takes his grandson on a trip from the country to Atlanta and ends up getting lost there in a predominantly black neighborhood; "A Late Encounter with the Enemy" about a 104-year-old veteran of the Civil War who remembers little about it; "Good Country People" about a woman whose daughter is handicapped with only one leg and is taken advantage by a traveling Bible salesman; and "The Displaced Person" about a Polish refugee who is hired to work on a farm through the help of a Catholic Priest. He works hard but is eventually resented based on public opinion resulting in a tragedy.
This was really a great collection of short stories that I would highly recommend. They delve into the darker side of human nature as well as the conditions of life in the South shortly after WWII. The stories tend to show life as it was at the time including the prevalence of bigotry and racism. I will probably be seeking out more by O'Connor.
