capy 's review for:

Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories by Flannery O'Connor

3.25

---

She was a good Christian woman with a large respect for religion, though she did not, of course, believe any of it was true.

really enjoyed the layered mic drops in this read! my interest definitely lessened the more religious the book got but all of these can easily translate into movies or at least short films. the title story is probably one of the best short stories of the english language (and one of the best titles too)

What she meant when she said she had won was that she had brought him up successfully and had sent him to college and that he had turned out so well-good looking (her teeth had gone unfilled so that his could be straightened), intelligent (he realized he was too intelligent to be a success), and with a future ahead of him (there was of course no future ahead of him). She excused his gloominess on the grounds that he was still growing up and his radical ideas on his lack of practical experience. She said he didn’t yet know a thing about “life,” that he hadn’t even entered the real world—when already he was as disenchanted with it as a man of fifty. 
The further irony of all this was that in spite of her, he had turned out so well. In spite of going to only a third-rate college, he had, on his own initiative, come out with a first-rate education; in spite of growing up dominated by a small mind, he had ended up with a large one; in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts. Most miraculous of all, instead of being blinded by love for her as she was for him, he had cut himself emotionally free of her and could see her with complete objectivity. He was not dominated by his mother.

- everything that rises must converge: ★★★★★ !
- greenleaf: ★★★★✰ !
- a view of the woods: ★★✰✰✰
- the enduring chill: ★★★★✰ !
- the comforts of home: ★★✰✰✰
- the lame shall enter first: ★✰✰✰✰
- revelation: ★★★✰✰
- parker's back: ★✰✰✰✰
- judgement day: ★★✰✰✰

p.s: do not recommend listening to the audiobook in public