Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
I listened to this, maybe it was the voice. Does the author have an evil stepmother fixation. The same mother figure kept appearing. DNF
This is the first book of hers that I've read.
I am in some considerable awe and have no clue how to convey what an extraordinary writer she was. One thing that I could do: I just ordered the Library of America edition of her Collected Works.
I am in some considerable awe and have no clue how to convey what an extraordinary writer she was. One thing that I could do: I just ordered the Library of America edition of her Collected Works.
I wish there was a rating that said, "I totally respect the quality of this book, but I personally did not care for it." That's what I would give this book. O'Connor is genius at getting inside people's heads and showing that the way they think has a power over their lives and actions. (Or, as Proverbs says, "As a man thinketh, so is he.") Anyway, that was brilliant. However, the stories are all ridiculously depressing, somewhat over the top, and oddly devoid of any emotion. She is more unbiased in her reporting than any news writer I have ever known. I seriously wonder what was up in O'Connor's life that led her to write such stories.
Rinse and repeat. I know, I know: why? It’s Flannery O’Connor. I had to make sure.
Really glad I read this so close to [b:Gone With the Wind|18405|Gone With the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166913011s/18405.jpg|3358283]. Many of the stories were set in Georgia and dealt a lot with racism in a South vs. North way. It was interesting to see how little their views had changed between this and the Civil War. The major difference was the younger people from these stories often looked at their older relatives, and their fond remembrances of their grandparents with huge plantations, as dinosaurs, whose views were narrow-minded and prejudiced. Yet their own views can hardly be considered open-minded and the often came off as petty and mean for all their big talk.
O'Connor definitely has a depressing theme running through these stories. After the first couple, I found myself trying to guess which character was going to die, not a single story in this book went without a murder, suicide or accidental death. I'd like to read more of O'Connor's work, but only if this same formula doesn't hold true for all her writing. I don't mind seeing a theme run through a collection of short stories, but I wouldn't want to see it run through all her works. I think I'll try [b:Wise Blood|48467|Wise Blood|Flannery O'Connor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170355801s/48467.jpg|1046530] after this.
Bookish Notes:
This was a side read. The discussion is here.
O'Connor definitely has a depressing theme running through these stories. After the first couple, I found myself trying to guess which character was going to die, not a single story in this book went without a murder, suicide or accidental death. I'd like to read more of O'Connor's work, but only if this same formula doesn't hold true for all her writing. I don't mind seeing a theme run through a collection of short stories, but I wouldn't want to see it run through all her works. I think I'll try [b:Wise Blood|48467|Wise Blood|Flannery O'Connor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170355801s/48467.jpg|1046530] after this.
Bookish Notes:
This was a side read. The discussion is here.
How do these hateful and hypocritical humans coexist with each other? Spoiler alert: they don't for very long. The back cover promised "the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque." Tragic and grotesque are certain there in spades.
I am new this year to Flannery O'Connor and she shot into my Most Significant list like a comet (with everything old-fashioned a comet entails) after her 1st collection, [b:A Good Man is Hard to Find|32144622|A Good Man is Hard to Find|Flannery O'Connor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474374354s/32144622.jpg|783228]. I gobbled those stories one after the other -- which was not Too Much. On the contrary, I recommend it. Now I'm going to be a pig and say that this, her second and last collection, felt to me differently positioned and... let's say, less where I am at the moment. Who knows, I'll revisit these another year and may be in the place for her.
Transcendent, I said of her first, and devoted to grace. These were harsh, and less spiritual to me, although more overtly religious.
Still, ever since I met her (three months ago), I've thought: she d. aged 39 in the year I was b. : they should have dispensed with me and given mine to her.
Transcendent, I said of her first, and devoted to grace. These were harsh, and less spiritual to me, although more overtly religious.
Still, ever since I met her (three months ago), I've thought: she d. aged 39 in the year I was b. : they should have dispensed with me and given mine to her.
actual: 3.5
i've spent all semester on various o'connor books and while each story has immense literary value i never want to pick this up ever again. not that there was anything wrong with it, but 4 months relentlessly spent on grotesque religious fiction is too much
i've spent all semester on various o'connor books and while each story has immense literary value i never want to pick this up ever again. not that there was anything wrong with it, but 4 months relentlessly spent on grotesque religious fiction is too much