Reviews tagging 'Racism'

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

20 reviews

bishop_504's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was assigned to read this book for a writing class. We read a short story in between classes and then discussed it. 
I think this is probably the best way to enjoy this book. Each story is deceptively simple with lots of ways that it can be read into. 
Definitely feels very English class in the way that you’re meant to analyze it, but would probably be really good for something like a book club too. 

We looked at it a lot from a Christian perspective, focusing on the idea of the grace of God being something that is both grotesque and holy. Lots of the stories had a sort of Jesus-type character, although interestingly he was not always a moral person. Most of the characters aren’t moral people, the short stories discuss a lot of the human condition and this idea of innate sinfulness. Often the main character of a story gets ‘saved’ in some capacity, but not usually a positive capacity that you might expect. It was pretty interesting. 

I was uncomfortable though because the book used the n word and other slurs a lot of times. I’m used to listening to rap and stuff, but it definitely is more weird when some white lady writes it down. I guess this book is pretty old but it still felt weird to me, even if the point was that the people she wrote saying those things were not moral people. To Kill a Mockingbird type beat I guess.
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menshouldread's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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dalstellar's review against another edition

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1.0

theres no reason for this to be read in this day and age. nothing of value, just an egregious amount of racism
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phantomgecko's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Southern gothic with no Southern romanticism, which I mostly like. These stories are dark. Most the characters are detestable, but you can still feel sympathy for them. "The Displaced Person" was a particularly illuminating look into why people are afraid of people that are different from them.

idk, these were thought provoking stories, but they are not fun to read.
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hnnhkbk's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No

0.5

um…… not for me. I finished this but at what cost
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fjordpingvin's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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toffishay's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

These stories are about terrible people who think that they are better than they are. The introduction provides a great foundation of the themes and how these stories exemplify a certain mind-frame of poor white Americans in the mid 1900s. Class, ability and disability, history and identity, family and country versus city are a few of the ideas explored. Some of my favorite stories are the titular "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", "A Stroke of Good Fortune", and "Good Country People". Some of the weaker stories or the ones that I didn't quite enjoy are "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" and "A Late Encounter with the Enemy"
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avasadored's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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allapaz's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I can see the literary merit, but damn that was a slog to get through. Probs best to read a story here and there on its own than try and marathon through a whole collection
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changelingreader_adrian's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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