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

Title: A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Author: Flannery O'Connor

First Published: 1956

No. of Pages: 276

Synopsis (from B&N): "The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive The Misfit, as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories."

The other stories contained are: The River; The Life You Save May Be Your Own; A Stroke of Good Fortune; A Temple of the Holy Ghost; The Artificial Ni**er (this is not the actual title, but I will not use that word, even in telling the name of a story); A Circle in the Fire; A Late Encounter with the Enemy; and Good Country People

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

Comments and Critique: These are not stories to make you feel warm and fuzzy. The overarching theme seems to be "People are no damned good" and each story supports that idea in a different way. This is not to say that the stories are not good -- they're very good, they just don't make you feel good. But they're well-written and solid, and the author does an amazing job of capturing ordinary rural Southerners of the time. I grew up in the South and many of the book's characters could have been mirror-images of some of the old people I knew. Their manner of speaking, the actual words used, the way they carried themselves, everything. It's kind of spooky, actually, how accurate the author was, but that also tells you something of how good a writer she was.

Challenges: 999 ("Booker/National Book Awards"); A to Z (author "O"); Modern Library; National Book Award Project (1956 nominee)