Customer Reviews

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

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A candid warning must be delivered: this is not a book for the timid. These stories resonate with horror and violence.

The concepts of violence are the common thread. Thankfully, O'Connor spares us the detailing of the violent acts. The ruminations about the same are as far as the reader must go.

In the first story - "A Good Man is Hard to Find" - innocent women and children are murdered without explanation or reason. The second and sixth stories - "The River" and "The Artificial Nigger" - delve with humiliation of the young and naive. The third and ninth stories - "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" and "Good Country People" - deal with mistrust and theft of the not-so-young and naive. And, then the losers of Darwinism are outlined in the fifth, eighth and tenth stories - "A Temple of the Holy Ghost", "A Late Encounter With The Enemy", and "The Displaced Person" - where adults are mistreated by societal norms.

Harsh results for those who "did nothing to deserve it" are too common in these stories. Trickling with southern dialect - much like Faulkner, Morrison or many of the other 20th century southern greats - this book phonetically spells their spoken words so as to deliver the reader to the point where one can almost taste the collard greens and grits.

After reading the first book, I ran to the internet to see who was first - "Deliverance" or this book as each depicts southern white men in a worst light - ignorant (maybe illiterate) murderers without reason who jump out of the woods with shotguns in hand. In "Deliverance", Dickey allowed good to prevail. O'Connor does quite the contrary. O'Connor's story precedes Dickey's novel by 15 years.

To those who prefer romance novels and lighter reading, this is not the cluster of stories which I would recommend. These stories do not touch upon light reading which concern fun concepts.
I like some harsh issues in literature. But, even these stories may have been more than I had bargained for.

But, I love southern literature - so I am biased to decry how much I enjoyed these stories. And, even those who less adore southern culture or literature would have to acknowledge this author's literary skill or talent.

If you have not the time for Faulkner in the immediate future, read a few of these stories. If you like them, you will probably enjoy Faulkner.