Rating: 
Summary: An American Master
Review: I first discovered O'Conner's short fiction in college. Her vivid prose paints in harsh, metallic hues. O'Conner stories, and her characters, will not leave you. If you read for the joy of well crafted, perfectly chosen words and tight, surprising narrative, she will thrill you beyond measure. Be forwarned, however, that she writes with an axe to grind. A Catholic mystic, her tales are about salvation; she renounces what we would now call secular humanism. Her religious beliefs are not blatant in her work, but it will begin to beat on you if you read enough. Despite my personal distaste for her particular orthodoxy, I will forever be in love with her writing. Writers like O'Conner are all too rare, whatever their personal beliefs.
Rating: 
Summary: not for the faint of heart or mind
Review: I have always enjoyed Flannery's work. It's violence. It's portrayal of archaic (hopefully) racial issues. Her work is a tapestry of hate, history, social commentary and so on. One must look beyond the situational to the intent.
I have recommended her work to many friends and realtives. The response is just as unpredicatable as the artist's words. Some have thanked me for the introduction, some have requested that I never recommed anything else to them.
I still stand by my opinions of this truly eccentric literary mastermind.
Rating: 
Summary: Bleak Magnolias
Review: I have always thought that the best reviews were those that give the reader enough information to make his or her own conclusions about the book separate from those of the reviewer. Since my reaction to these stories is distance rather than dislike, hopefully I can provide that information. Ms. O'Connor is a true daughter of the South and her characters, all well-drawn, will be familiar to those who have read much literature of that region. I have found though the best of such literature amuses with tales of these bigger than life characters who seem to populate the South or draws the reader to empathize with and cheer for the struggling outsider or rebel or both. Ms. O'Connor's characters seem to fall into three categories: those trying to hold on to the Old South including some of its less endearing practices and views, those who are part of a newer but crass South and depressed loners. I found it hard to get emotionally involved with these characters in any way. Difficult to love and no struggle in which to root for the underdog. A little like Sylvia Plath goes South. Maybe you had to grow up with this to appreciate it. For my own part, I decided to move on to other authors who engage me more, both emotionally and intellectually.
Rating:
Summary: I seen the dummy!
Review: I recommend reading Linda Linguvic's review, she is dead right. Reading Ms. O'Connor stories is time well invested, and I agree one at a time is about all you can to digest, its like Harper Lee meets Edger Allan Poe. I always find myself in surreal situations that remind me of a Flannery O'Conner story...STOP READING AT THIS POINT AND GO TO LINDAS REVIEW...You see I am in a witness protection program and the only way I can communicate with my family is through Amazon...sad but false.Which reminds me of when I was a kid visiting my grand parents and favorite uncle in North Carolina (we stayed with them every summer until they told my folks to stop). My mom, grandparents,uncle and brother went a visitin' some obscure relatives in a town that seemed to make my grandfather grumpy, reckon that would have been any town USA. However this particular town was near another particular town that held something of interest, the spaghetti man, or as my grandfather called him the dummy. They called him the spaghetti man because he was Italian, he had worked for a circus and happened to die in the nearby town I mentioned, back in the early 20th century is my guess. The manager of the circus only gave the local funeral director a deposit for the burial with the promise of returning with final payment, which never came. So the Spaghetti man/mummy/dummy remained in his freezer for years. The son inherited the business as well as the dummy as I will refer to him from this sentence on until the end of my review. Well back in the 60's my brother, uncle and to a lesser degree myself badgered my grandfather enough that he agreed to leave the family gathering to go find the dummy. He found the town just fine it being on the map and all, but had to ask directions to find the dummy "where's the dummy"? after several blind alleys we found the funeral home and in the garage the owner took us for a small fee to the garage, he opened the freezer and there in the flesh was a shrunken up freezer burnt dummy! One of those moments you never forget, a certain smell might take you back or a foreign accent, but you dont forget those memory's by god! cause that's what life's made of, memories and things like that, eating too. Years later in the year 2000 I visited my folks in NC and in honor of the dummy I went to Target and purchased a white T shirt a couple of sizes to big and a black marker. I laid the T-shirt on my kitchen table and scrawled "I seen the dummy" across the front and into the armpit. The next day I showered,shaved and put on my new shirt, drove to the airport early , requested exit row (I'm above average in height you know) and flew to Charlotte. I then boarded a commuter plane to New Bern and the flight attendant asked me what my shirt said and I told her "I seen the dummy" ...Even though I was in the front row and she had to sit in the jump seat in front of me she was sort of cool and impersonal the rest of the flight, people you figure them out? If you like reading, buy Flannery O'Conner its not a walk in the park but you aint no dummy now are you?
Rating:
Summary: Good suspense filled action short stories,
Review: I think that Flannery O'Conner is a great author. I really enjoyed all of the stories by her.
Rating:
Summary: "It just goes to show what some people will do"
Review: If I were banished to a deserted isle and could take only one book of short stories with me, O'Connor's A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND would be it.This is as perfect as a work of American fiction gets, with the author hitting almost no false notes. Some may be put off with O'Connor's themes - man's inability to save himself from damnation with intellect or pride (the proselytizing got worse in her last collection, EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE) - but she crafts her stories with such humor and insight, the Catholicism is easy medicine to take. The best story in the collection? What a choice! My initial pick would have been "The Artificial Nigger," a Dantesque tale in which an old man learns the true meaning of grace and humility from his young grandson. Now I lean somewhat toward the book's longest story, "The Displaced Person." I've rarely come across a work in which theme and technique were integrated with such inevitability and power. In it a woman eschews anything that's not practical, including spirituality, and makes the great mistake of placing her faith in technology and her fellow man. And of course there's the title story, one of the funniest and scariest things you'll likely ever encounter. Mix all this up with O'Connor's matchless ear for dialogue, and you have an American - no, a world - classic. Once when one of O'Connor's mother's friends read one of Flannery's stories and was asked her opinion, the good woman replied tersely, "It just goes to show what some people will do." Indeed. And thank goodness she did it.
Rating:
Summary: Provacative yet, disturbing
Review: In A Good Man is Hard, to Find, Flannery O'Connor proves herself as the master of the short story. Through ten provocative, delightful, and at the same time disturbing stories, O'Connor paints a vivid picture of the Deep South while commenting on life and the different values that God plays in people's lives.
Flannery is brilliant writer whose experience in deep Southern Georgia shines through her language and characters. Each of her stories reflects a new detail of life in the south in the 1940's and 50's ranging from black prejudice, to staunch-almost ludicrous-religious fanaticism. Most of her stories concern people who live on family farms in the middle of nowhere and have little contact with the outside world. From this setting, Flannery has a lot of flexibility to develop her characters who are often without contact outside of their immediate family for days or even weeks on end and thus are believable representatives of southern heritage and culture.
Perhaps the most distinguishing part of O'Connor's writing, is her ability to create larger-than-life characters who's personalities are both exciting and disturbing: a woman who denies her own pregnancy; a colorful grandmother who refuses to see the truth of the lethal Misfit; and a one-armed vagabond who robs a innocent woman of her dearest possession. Each character represents and portrays a person whose personality and view of life is so set and unbending that their response to adversity leads to sadness and often death. Each ending leaves the reader deep in thought, and searching within his/her own soul for answers to the character's actions. She seems to have a way with words so that just by describing one of her characters, she almost tells a story of their persona, mentality, and background.
O'Connor's ability to write is sheer genius, and A Good Man is Hard to Find is nothing short of her best work. It deserves every bit of praise that can be heaped upon it.
Rating:
Summary: Provacative yet, disturbing
Review: In A Good Man is Hard, to Find, Flannery O'Connor proves herself as the master of the short story. Through ten provocative, delightful, and at the same time disturbing stories, O'Connor paints a vivid picture of the Deep South while commenting on life and the different values that God plays in people's lives.
Flannery is brilliant writer whose experience in deep Southern Georgia shines through her language and characters. Each of her stories reflects a new detail of life in the south in the 1940's and 50's ranging from black prejudice, to staunch-almost ludicrous-religious fanaticism. Most of her stories concern people who live on family farms in the middle of nowhere and have little contact with the outside world. From this setting, Flannery has a lot of flexibility to develop her characters who are often without contact outside of their immediate family for days or even weeks on end and thus are believable representatives of southern heritage and culture.
Perhaps the most distinguishing part of O'Connor's writing, is her ability to create larger-than-life characters who's personalities are both exciting and disturbing: a woman who denies her own pregnancy; a colorful grandmother who refuses to see the truth of the lethal Misfit; and a one-armed vagabond who robs a innocent woman of her dearest possession. Each character represents and portrays a person whose personality and view of life is so set and unbending that their response to adversity leads to sadness and often death. Each ending leaves the reader deep in thought, and searching within his/her own soul for answers to the character's actions. She seems to have a way with words so that just by describing one of her characters, she almost tells a story of their persona, mentality, and background.
O'Connor's ability to write is sheer genius, and A Good Man is Hard to Find is nothing short of her best work. It deserves every bit of praise that can be heaped upon it.
Rating:
Summary: Elements of O'Connor
Review: Never having heard of Flannery O'Connor, let alone having read any of her works, I was in for quite a surpise when I picked up A Good Man is Hard to Find. Her style and voice jump out in the first page and continue throughout all her short stories. She also has common themes that dominate or atleast influence each of her fictional stories.
O'Connor uses much imagery and detail in describing scenes but it's not too over-flowery. One particular note of mention is in The River where she uses "skeleton" to describe several of the characters five times throughout. This was used in describing a woman as well as a man; however, most of the male characters in other stories are pictured with grotesque and unpleasant features.
She rarely uses commas, which gives way to consistent run-ons--independent clause after independent clause after independent clause all combined with "and." Having grown up in the South herself, most settings are in the South such as Georgia and Tennessee. Her style of writing reflects their speech patterns and thought. They have a southern way of thinking which is displayed through the narrator as well as dialogue.
There seemed to be an overwhelming pattern for the main character to be nonchalantly hypocritical. To name a few: the grandma in a Good Man is Hard to Find, the child in a Temple of the Holy Ghost, Ruby in a Stroke of Good Fortune, and Tom from the Life You Save May Be Your Own. They all believe in their own goodness yet display overt flaws. Each situation is different of course; but for example, Ruby hates her mother for her ignorance when the entire story is about her defiant ignorance of her pregnancy.
O'Connor's stories speak of "the good ole days" and pose life questions about the nature of man. There is a family theme as well as religious one seen throughout. Many characters speak of prayer and the Holy Spirit. This gives the idea of a search, which is often common to those searching religion for their purpose in life. However, there is a moment in each where grace is rejected. They are offered something permanent and concrete yet choose a different path, such as Tom in the Life You Save May Be Your Own when he leaves his newly-wed wife and continues on the road.
The endings offer no definite resolutions. The main character's death is either stated or implied in several stories, including A Good Man is Hard to Find and The River. Many questions remained unanswered for the reader. Perhaps the characters' searches still continues.
Over all, Flannery O'Connor is a brilliant author who is true to life as she sees it. She leaves you questioning yet satisfied!
Rating:
Summary: realism+literary technique = convincing judgments on society
Review: O'Conner writes these short stories in a time of her life where she is faced with lupus, and her stories often contain themes of judgments of society and salvation. One of the techniques I enjoyed the most is the real-life setting O'Connor applies to each story. She creates a southern environment from the start of each of her stories with a display of culture and language that that make you feel as if you were "a fly on the wall" as the stories are told. The realistic setting put's O'Connor and her fiction in a position to pass judgments on society with credibility. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a great example of this judgment in the dialogue between the Grandmother and the Misfit. One of these aspects is that everything is not as clear as it seems. O'Connor masterfully uses devices such as imagery to convey her themes subconsciously: "'Ain't a cloud in the sky,' he remarked, looking up at it. 'Don't see no sun but don't see no cloud neither...'" In this case, she continues this idea of cloudiness as the Grandmother and the Misfit discuss argue salvation with the Misfit appearing to have a better understanding of it than the Church-going Grandmother. Again, everything is not as clear as it seems. Another story that follows the indirect theme pattern is "The Life You Save May Be Your Own." Again O'Connor takes us into the lives of a Mother, innocent girl, and a wanderer. The mother and the wanderer are both guilty of a society driven superficiality hiding their true feelings. O'Connor convey's this uniquely for each of them: with the wanderer, it is with imagery such as "Mr. Shiftlet's smile stretched like a weary snake waking up by a fire;" with the mother it is with her speech, and how Mr. Shiftlet reacts to her speech. I enjoyed this particular technique of illuminating the character's sincere feelings. Overall, O'Connor paints a fairly vivid picture with her short stories of what life could have been like in the bible-belt south. The action is slow moving, but the reading raises insights about society, which, when combined with O'Connor's realism, can keep the plots flowing.
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