A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: The irony just blew me away.
Review: Personally, I thought this book was pretty interesting. I don't see how most of it is comical with people dying and in a constant search for grace. However, each story had an ironic twist encorporated into it that made me cringe in disbelief and disgust as I read each story. The stories all had an ironic twist that altered what I imagined would happen or was set up to happen. My opinions of the small boy from "River", the grandma in "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the one armed man in "The Life You Save May be your Own", and the man selling bibles in "Good Country People" all changed when I was at the end of the stories.

O'Conner kept my attention by adequetly developing the stories then struck me away making me ponder what she just said and why she said it. In most of these stories O'Conner seems to include a thought that people can't always be trusted and will often act differently, rather than show their true nature, in order to obtain self gain. That's probably what makes these stories so ironic. O'Conner carefully builds the characters up only to destroy the image she first created and replace it with one showing the true side and intentions of people. She's a good author and is able to encompass the reader with the dialogue and religious beliefs of those she wrote about.

Rating:
Summary: Demonic....
Review: Recently I was browsing trough bookstores in the town where I study, when I stumbled upon a book called "A good man is hard to find". I remembered reading about it somewhere, remembered that it held high place on bestselling list in my country, and, as it was on discount and I was having extra money, the book finished on my shelf where it remained for a few weeks. Then suddenly inspiration came to me and I begun to read.
And I read, and read, and finished the book in few hours. Few hours of frantic turning of pages not being able to lift my eyes from black letters.
Well, what's in it, you ask? Afterword of the book mentions struggle of men vs. nihilism, struggle of good vs. hatred, and morbidity within not being just that. But, if we put aside afterword we'll find ourselves in a world carefully built. With people living and breathing (and breeding), murdering, lying, envying and people with every other aspect of life. Sometimes you just forget that you're being oulled into the literary world, and sometimes you just forget to wonder - can it really be truth.
Evidently, author knew the world that surrounded him. And she was well aware of it.
My life is not changed after this book, buit somehow, now, I feel thankfull for my life being what it is.
Some other options presented here just scared me.
And normality of them is the thing that terrifies the most.

Rating:
Summary: Uncovers the gross underbelly of the Southern mystique
Review: The ten short stories in this 1955 collection by Flannery O'Connor expose a grotesque underbelly of the Southern mystique that go far beyond their seemingly simple surface plots. Ms. O'Connor has a flare for dialog as well as a primal understanding of the darkness in people's souls. All her characters have a relationship with God and she combines Christian imagery, an apocalyptic vision of life and a strong element of cruelty. And yet, there is a deeply human element that gives me the shivers because it exposes truths I'd rather not see.

I could tell from the very beginning of each story that something ominous was going to happen. I didn't know when, I didn't know how, and I didn't know exactly what it would be. Always, I was surprised. And yet, when I thought of it later, each story could have gone no other way. All of them had a sad or tragic ending, although some were more awful than others. What keeps the narrative exciting though is a way she has of suddenly disappearing the storyline and taking it up in another place, leaving just enough information to spark the imagination. Then, when I think I have it all figured out, things change again.

Ms. O'Connor writes in simple startling sentences. And most of the stories are no more than 20 or 30 pages long. I found it hard to read one story right after the other however. Each one was so thought provoking that, even though I felt a great deal of discomfort, I wanted to stay with each just a little bit longer. That's because they move much too fast and are too intriguing to stop. Later, when the initial shock of the story is over, is the time to work it out philosophically. And it is then that I could appreciate the mastery of her craft.

This is a truly fine book and I unquestionably give it a high recommendation. It is certainly not for everyone however. These stories haunt uncomfortably. But those willing to explore the dark side of human nature in this small work of art will love it.

Rating:
Summary: Uncovers the gross underbelly of the Southern mystique
Review: The ten short stories in this 1955 collection by Flannery O'Connor expose a grotesque underbelly of the Southern mystique that go far beyond their seemingly simple surface plots. Ms. O'Connor has a flare for dialog as well as a primal understanding of the darkness in people's souls. All her characters have a relationship with God and she combines Christian imagery, an apocalyptic vision of life and a strong element of cruelty. And yet, there is a deeply human element that gives me the shivers because it exposes truths I'd rather not see.

I could tell from the very beginning of each story that something ominous was going to happen. I didn't know when, I didn't know how, and I didn't know exactly what it would be. Always, I was surprised. And yet, when I thought of it later, each story could have gone no other way. All of them had a sad or tragic ending, although some were more awful than others. What keeps the narrative exciting though is a way she has of suddenly disappearing the storyline and taking it up in another place, leaving just enough information to spark the imagination. Then, when I think I have it all figured out, things change again.

Ms. O'Connor writes in simple startling sentences. And most of the stories are no more than 20 or 30 pages long. I found it hard to read one story right after the other however. Each one was so thought provoking that, even though I felt a great deal of discomfort, I wanted to stay with each just a little bit longer. That's because they move much too fast and are too intriguing to stop. Later, when the initial shock of the story is over, is the time to work it out philosophically. And it is then that I could appreciate the mastery of her craft.

This is a truly fine book and I unquestionably give it a high recommendation. It is certainly not for everyone however. These stories haunt uncomfortably. But those willing to explore the dark side of human nature in this small work of art will love it.

Rating:
Summary: Flannery O'Connor--Misunderstood
Review: The title of this story is also the title of O'Connor's first collection of short stories. Told in third-person, the focus is on the Grandmother's perspective of events. O'Connor does a brilliant job of foreshadowing, entertaining, shocking, and forcing the reader to ask difficult questions. She is relentless in her depiction of these characters-they are not likable. And so, by creating such annoying, unsympathetic characters, O'Connor has carefully set the premise for her main argument: the grace of God is for everyone; even the most unlikable.



The story begins when a family packs up their car and heads south from Tennessee to Florida for a family vacation. The family is as annoying to the reader as they are to each other. The Grandmother is the most annoying of them all. She complains that she doesn't want to go, but she's the first one ready to go. She sneaks her cat into the car, even though she's been told not to bring it along, and she wears her best dress and hat-in case she winds up dead on the side of the road, she explains, people will know she was a lady. Along the way the family stops to eat and the Grandmother gets into a conversation with the proprietor about a convict on the loose---he is known as The Misfit.

Through this character, The Misfit, O'Connor explores the Christian concept of "grace"-that a divine pardon from God is available simply for the asking. In the story, it is the Grandmother-a small-minded, cantankerous, and bossy old woman-who realizes grace at the moment of her death, when she reaches out to the Misfit and all of a sudden sees him as one of her own children. For O'Connor, God's grace is a power outside the character, a moment of epiphany. Nonetheless, her characters are usually too stubborn or unwilling to acknowledge the grace of God.

For more information on the life and works of Flannery O'Connor and other great southern authors visit www.southernlitreview.com

Rating:
Summary: Best writer of the century?
Review: There can be no doubt that Flannery O'Connor is at least the best *American* writer of this century. Each of these stories is a carefully crafted masterpiece, making A Good Man a perfect introduction to O'Connor's fiction. When God is in search of man, you never know when redeeming grace may strike.

Rating:
Summary: Good Read.
Review: They are misfits, wanderers, and souls searching for faith and absolution. Many of them are, to one extent or another, hypocrites; others are almost unbelievably naive. All of them are Southerners - and yet, even the most outlandish among Flannery O'Connor's protagonists come across as entirely believable, complex characters whom, regardless of location, you might expect to come across in your own travels, too; and there is no telling how such an encounter would turn out.

Of course, you would hope it does not prove quite as disastrous as the title story's chance meeting of a family taking a wrong turn (on the road as much as figuratively) and the self-proclaimed Misfit haunting that particular area of Georgia; which culminates in a bizarre conversation, the failure of communication underneath which only adds to the reader's growing feeling of helplessness in view of impending doom. And such a sense of irreversible destiny pervades many a story in this collection; yet, while as in O'Connor's writing in general, her and her protagonists' Catholic faith plays a dominant role in the course of the events, that course is not so much brought about by the hand of God as by the characters' own acts, decisions, judgments and prejudices.

Freakish as they are, O'Connor's (anti-)heroes are meant to be prophets, messengers of a long forgotten responsibility, as she explained in her 1963 essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South:" their prophecy is "a matter of seeing near things with their extensions of meaning and thus of seeing far things close up." Often, she uses names, titles and items of every day life and imbues them with a new meaning in the context of her stories; this collection's title story, for example, is named for a blues song popularized by Bessie Smith in the late 1920s, and a cautionary road sign commonly seen in the 1950s ("The Life You Save May Be Your Own") becomes the title and motto of a story about a wanderer's encounter with a mother and her handicapped daughter who take him in, only to use that purported charity to their own advantage - at the end of which, predictably, nobody is the better off. Indeed, the endings of O'Connor's stories are as far from your standard happy ending as you can imagine; and while you cannot help but develop, early on, a premonition of doom, most of the time the precise nature of that doom is anything but predictable.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories" was Flannery O'Connor's first published collection of short stories; yet, by the time these stories appeared (nine of the ten were published in various magazines between 1953 and 1955 before their inclusion in this 1955 collection) she was already an accomplished writer, with not only a novel under her belt ("Wise Blood," 1952) but also, and significantly, a master's thesis likewise consisting of a collection of short stories, entitled "The Geranium and Other Stories" (1947; first published as a collection in 1971's National Book Award winning "The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor," although several of those stories had likewise been published individually before). Two of the stories included in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" count among O'Connor's six winners of the O'Henry Award for Short Fiction ("The Life You Save May Be Your Own" and "The Circle in the Fire," again an exploration of insincerity, half-hearted charity and its exploitation); and the collection as a whole, even more than her first novel, quickly established her as a masterful storyteller, endowed with vision, an unfailing sense for language and a supreme feeling for the use of irony; all of which have long since placed her firmly in the first tier of 20th century American authors.

Flannery O'Connor died, at the age of 39, of lupus, an inflammatory disease which in less severe forms may not be more than an (albeit substantial) nuisance, but which proved fatal in her case as well as that of her father before her. Her literary career, almost the sole focus of her life from the moment that she was diagnosed onwards, was thus cut short way before her time. Yet, to this day her writing holds a unique position in contemporary literature; and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is an excellent place to start exploring her work.

Rating:
Summary: Oddball prophets caught in the web they wove themselves.
Review: They are misfits, wanderers, and souls searching for faith and absolution. Many of them are, to one extent or another, hypocrites; others are almost unbelievably naive. All of them are Southerners - and yet, even the most outlandish among Flannery O'Connor's protagonists come across as entirely believable, complex characters whom, regardless of location, you might expect to come across in your own travels, too; and there is no telling how such an encounter would turn out.

Of course, you would hope it does not prove quite as disastrous as the title story's chance meeting of a family taking a wrong turn (on the road as much as figuratively) and the self-proclaimed Misfit haunting that particular area of Georgia; which culminates in a bizarre conversation, the failure of communication underneath which only adds to the reader's growing feeling of helplessness in view of impending doom. And such a sense of irreversible destiny pervades many a story in this collection; yet, while as in O'Connor's writing in general, her and her protagonists' Catholic faith plays a dominant role in the course of the events, that course is not so much brought about by the hand of God as by the characters' own acts, decisions, judgments and prejudices.

Freakish as they are, O'Connor's (anti-)heroes are meant to be prophets, messengers of a long forgotten responsibility, as she explained in her 1963 essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South:" their prophecy is "a matter of seeing near things with their extensions of meaning and thus of seeing far things close up." Often, she uses names, titles and items of every day life and imbues them with a new meaning in the context of her stories; this collection's title story, for example, is named for a blues song popularized by Bessie Smith in the late 1920s, and a cautionary road sign commonly seen in the 1950s ("The Life You Save May Be Your Own") becomes the title and motto of a story about a wanderer's encounter with a mother and her handicapped daughter who take him in, only to use that purported charity to their own advantage - at the end of which, predictably, nobody is the better off. Indeed, the endings of O'Connor's stories are as far from your standard happy ending as you can imagine; and while you cannot help but develop, early on, a premonition of doom, most of the time the precise nature of that doom is anything but predictable.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories" was Flannery O'Connor's first published collection of short stories; yet, by the time these stories appeared (nine of the ten were published in various magazines between 1953 and 1955 before their inclusion in this 1955 collection) she was already an accomplished writer, with not only a novel under her belt ("Wise Blood," 1952) but also, and significantly, a master's thesis likewise consisting of a collection of short stories, entitled "The Geranium and Other Stories" (1947; first published as a collection in 1971's National Book Award winning "The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor," although several of those stories had likewise been published individually before). Two of the stories included in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" count among O'Connor's six winners of the O'Henry Award for Short Fiction ("The Life You Save May Be Your Own" and "The Circle in the Fire," again an exploration of insincerity, half-hearted charity and its exploitation); and the collection as a whole, even more than her first novel, quickly established her as a masterful storyteller, endowed with vision, an unfailing sense for language and a supreme feeling for the use of irony; all of which have long since placed her firmly in the first tier of 20th century American authors.

Flannery O'Connor died, at the age of 39, of lupus, an inflammatory disease which in less severe forms may not be more than an (albeit substantial) nuisance, but which proved fatal in her case as well as that of her father before her. Her literary career, almost the sole focus of her life from the moment that she was diagnosed onwards, was thus cut short way before her time. Yet, to this day her writing holds a unique position in contemporary literature; and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is an excellent place to start exploring her work.

Rating:
Summary: For the Active Reader
Review: This collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor reveal some reality in Southern life. Each of the short stories details an event or portion of a persons life, and how strange circumstances changed everything. Each of the stories are unsatisfying to the average reader out to read a book with a happy ending. The stories don't end like a fairy tale with all the problems of the world being reconciled, but they end to make the reader think about the situation that occured. They are stories of real life, ending unexpectedly, or even without an end at all. Each story the main character has to reflect on themselves, and make choices dealing with trust, or pride. The stories do not tell of what would happen, but what COULD happen. This is what makes A Good Man Is Hard To Find, and other stories memorable and distinct from all other short stories. Overall, I think this is a good book to read, if you are looking for something different and thought provoking--this is only for an active reader.

Rating:
Summary: Not a simple bedtime story
Review: This is not a story to read before trying to sleep, the images that O'Connor creates engage the mind hours after you have finished the last story. the reader wonders: what the heck is her point? How do her characters come to their "moment of grace?" How are these seemingly grotesque figures connected to reality? The reader who only looks for a good story will be greately disappointed with O'Connor's works. Only those with an eye for the deeper aspects of love, nature, grace and faith will truly appreciate O'Connor's tales. Note to all, however, they are very disturbing, do not read to children!