Reviews

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor

Only show reviews with written explanations

inthebooknook's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Excellent in every way

sarahnipper's review

Go to review page

5.0

Just what a short story collection should be.

mauvenotebook's review

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I read this in 8th grade but didn't really understand it, so I thought I'd give it a re-read. Well, I still didn't really understand it at first, but it was really thought-provoking and I think I understand it better now. The best stories imo are A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The River, and The Displaced Person. The worst was The Artificial N-, which was dated, thought not as racist as you might suspect.

When the young boy first encounters a black person, he doesn't realize he's black and doesn't start to hate him until his grandfather, who is the villain of the piece, tells him to hate him.

frankovolko's review

Go to review page

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ndizz87's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I was excited to read more of O’Connor’s work because of Everything that Rises Must Converge. The collection was a 4 out of 5 for me and so with that, I certainly entertained reading more. I was surprised by the Southern Gothic and her wicked and dark short stories. While I stand by what I thought of Everything that Rises Must Converge, I was not particularly fond of this collection of short stories. I found them largely pointless. Maybe I’m wildly off, but for the most part I was unimpressed. Even the titular story didn’t grip me like I thought it would.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing here is still superb. The way she can depict scenes and the thoughts running through a character’s head are all marvelous. The same dark sense of humor and twisted plots are all still there. However, I felt many of the stories were lacking an intangible something that was felt in Everything. I had this underwhelming sensation when I’d read the last sentence in nearly all the stories presented. I’d even go back and reread paragraphs just to see if I missed something. I’m sure some will say that I did, but I still don’t feel that way.

I can regurgitate the plots of the various stories, but I wouldn’t try scrutinizing too hard. The definite denominator here is lonely middle-aged women who hire help on their farm with mostly disastrous consequences. Though I was intrigued by the first short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, it was that story where the underwhelming feeling started when I hit the ending. “The River” did lift my spirits a little and reminded me, more so than others, of Everything. “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” was interesting and definitely a more fully fleshed out story, but also seemed to end very quietly. I appreciated the twisted sense of humor that the river which baptized the child was also the river that took his soul and that Paradise (both literally and figuratively) is out of reach. “A Stroke of Good Fortune” was odd, but an interesting departure from the lonely middle-aged woman with farmland who needs help. I appreciated how for her, creating life was also causing symptoms associated with death. “A Temple to the Holy Ghost” had some odd imagery, and was intriguing, but died a quiet death. “Artificial Nigger” was bland and, well, obviously racist. “A Circle of Fire” was middling at best and didn’t live up to the potential that was more realized in Everything. I didn’t really understand what “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” was doing in the collection. It was short, sweet, and pointless. I thought that “Good Country People” was one of the strongest in the collection. I loved the twist of the Christian Bible salesman putting one over the atheist doctoral student. She’s so sure that she’s above everyone and so smart, but in the end is rendered defenseless by the twerp salesman who steals her fake leg. Now that, my friends, drips Flannery O’Connor. “Displaced Persons” had the potential, but it was far too long, too boring, and then the ending was so rushed that it didn’t feel deserved.

After reading this collection I realized that this was her first collection which was written in 1955, a full ten years before Everything Rises Must Converge. You can definitely tell she’s honing her imagery, characters, and stories here. You get a glimpse of the tighter and more cohesive collection to come. However, the one thing that just made this collection really hard to get into was all the obligatory racism that wormed its way into nearly each and every short story. I fully understand that this was written in the South in the 1950’s and I also fully understand that that’s probably the way people talked, however, I just can’t accept it and felt it was unnecessary. On the flipside it does give probably a very accurate portrait of what Southern whites thought about Black people at that time. I just wish there was one white person who actually liked Black people, or that Black people weren’t always depicted as lazy and half-witted. The Black people in this story aren’t real people, but just racist caricatures.

All in all, I was less impressed by this outing with O’Connor. I could see the beginning rumbles of something that I was intrigued by when I first read her, but many of the stories were just okay with underwhelming endings. There were a few gems like “Good Country People”, “The River”, and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, but that also means there are seven other stories that are meh. I’m not sure if I’ll continue to pursue Flannery O’Connor. There are two novels, but I might take a break from her before circling back.