The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor

 

Did you have any favorite short stories that you read in high school?  I read a few Flannery O’Connor short stories in both high school and college American Literature classes and enjoyed them.  They were well written and had surprise endings that were unlike most other stories.  I picked The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor for the July pick for my Back to the Classics Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  We watched the movie Wildcat (2023) in August about the life of Flannery O’Connor.

My thoughts on the short stories and movie:

·       I don’t think the ladies of my book club enjoyed the stories as much as I did, but I enjoyed reading it.  The movie was strange and hilarious in ways.  I learned a lot about Flannery O’Connor and enjoyed seeing some of her short stories on the screen.  We enjoyed watching the movie as a group.  I did not think a Flannery O’Connor story could make me laugh, but it did.  One member said that the stories reminded her of The Twilight Zone and that is a great description.  Another recommended looking up each story online to really understand the religious subtext of the stories, which is a great recommendation.

·       O’Connor seemed to really target mothers and grandmothers in her stories that try to control their offspring or are stuck in their old ways and unable to adapt to a changing world.  I found this to be fascinating.

·       The stories really seemed to focus on the Southern myth and how people were stuck in their own thoughts of past grandeur and are unable to move on to the present (example their ancestor had a plantation and 200 slaves, but they themselves live in poverty).

·       The stories pick on the racist thoughts that were prevalent at the time and bring them to the forefront for the reader to really think about.  People say her works are racist now because of her use of the N word.  The stories instead made me really think about race.

·       The stories tend to focus on that people or things were not what they appeared to be.

·       Hypocrisy was a major theme.

·       Pride, idolatry over family heritage were also themes and people thinking they are better than others.

·       The stories overall really made me think.  Some of the stories stood out more than others.  My favorite is still A Good Man is Hard to Find.

·       I thought it was interesting that it appears that the Boomer generation in my book club did not read her in school.  My children (Gen Z) also did not read her.  I did as a Gen X.  O’Conner did discuss race frankly and use the N word.  As she says in the movie, that is how people talked in the South at that time.  Her stories on race ring true sadly still now, but minus the N word.  Unfortunately, I have heard people I know talking about classifying people based on race and economics as is discussed in the stories.

·       I also listened to the audiobooks, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories narrated by Marguerite Gavin and Everything that Rises Must Converge narrated by Bronson Pinchot, Karen White, Mark Bramhall, and Lorna Raver.  Both were excellent and well worth listening to.

·       I kept a notebook with notes on each story so I could go on for quite a while, but this is my general review of the book.

Overall, I have thought about The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor long after I have turned the last page.  They are brilliantly written and unique Southern Gothic short stories.

Book Source:  I purchased The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor at a used book store many years ago.  I also purchased two short story collections on audible this summer.