Thursday, March 29, 2012

A Good Man is Hard to Find - Lynn's Take

He certainly is hard to find in this collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor.  A more enjoyable collection of misanthropy I've never read.

There is not one iota - not one, single, teeny, tiny sliver - not a drop - of happiness or human kindness in any of these stories. A family on vacation shot dead; a small, neglected boy drowning; a mentally handicapped girl left at the side of the road: these are just a few of the endings this collection provides.  And the endings are inevitably precipitated by human venality, vanity, or narrow-mindedness.

But oh how the prose shines! Like all the best writing, reading this collection so entirely effortless it seems like each story is simply poured into your brain.  A good man might, indeed, be hard to find.  A good writer, it seems, is not, thanks to Flannery O'Connor.

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