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

• August 2012 book club selection
• Originally published 1955
• US author, from the deep south, devoutly Catholic, diagnosed and died from lupus at young age
• Short Stories
• Great character names
• Themes:  inevitability of darkness, evil touching all lives, moments of grace, deception, distrust, I question whether O'Connor may have been latent homosexual and struggled with the Catholic homophobic doctrine, perhaps even seeing her lupus as God striking her down for it
• Vocabulary:  no new vocabulary
• Quotes I Liked:
• p.3..."In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady."......grandmother on why she dressed so nicely when going in the car
• p.21..."I call  myself  "The Misfit" because I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment."
• p.33...."They looked like the skeleton of an old boat with two pointed ends, sailing slowly on the edge of the highway."...Mrs. Connin and the children waling along the highway on a summer afternoon
• p.52...."He seemed to be a young man but he had a look of composed dissatisfaction as if he understood life thoroughly.".....author does too?
• p.57...."......the monks of old slept in their coffins!"....."They wasn't as advanced as we are,' the old woman said."
• p.95...."She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick."
• p.131......"He understood that it (mercy) grew out of agony, which is not denied to any man and which is given in strange ways to children."
• p.163..."He didn't have any use for history because he never expected to meet it again."
• p.177...."Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used in her human dealings."
• p.179...."Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a constructive way that she never felt the lack.".......LOL
• Review:  Hard to believe I have never read Flannery O'Connor's stories before!  She was an absolutely amazing writer.  Her stories are dark, distrustful of humanity, and clearly support her belief that "A Good Man is Hard to Find".  The author's early diagnosis of lupus and her devout Catholicism are a matter of record, and the impact of these two aspects of her life is clear throughout the stories.  There are a few moments of grace, there are frequent religious symbols, portents, and consequences.  Bottom line......no one is immune to tragedy, to darkness, and to disillusionment.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.....I know....who would want to read such dark stuff?  I say, anyone who appreciates clear, well-crafted prose.  And, believe it or not, there are phrases which are drop dead funny that appear every so often, and O'Connor has that delightful Dickensian ability to choose great names for her characters!