A Good Man is Hard to Find: a book review

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor
Recently, I was very kindly given a copy of A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor – an author I had heard many good things about.

Stories included in this collection are:

• “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
  
• “The River” – I had read this one before
• “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
  
• “A Stroke of Good Fortune”
• “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”
• “The Artificial Nigger”
• “A Circle in the Fire”
• “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
• “Good Country People”
• “The Displaced Person”

Most of these stories are in the “excellent but disturbing” category. And by “disturbing” I mean “rip your guts out.”

Some lines that struck me:

“Finally, far downstream, the old man rose like some ancient water monster and stood empty-handed, staring with his dull eyes as far down the river line as he could see.”

“The girl had taken the Ph.D. in philosophy and this left Mrs. Hopewell at a complete loss. You could say, ‘My daughter is a nurse,’ or ‘My daughter is a schoolteacher,’ or even, ‘My daughter is a chemical engineer.’ You could not say, ‘My daughter is a philosopher.’ That was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans.”

“He was going to Bible school now and when he finished he was going to start him a church. He had a strong sweet voice for hymns and could sell anything.”


A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor: 4 stars