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

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Morbidly Catholic. Probably the most appropriate way to describe this collection.

Just about all of the stories in this collection deal with Catholic- or well, really, Christian- conceptions of morality in the context of the American South, and all of the ways in which those notions have been twisted and at other times preserved within that culture. O'Connor sometimes takes these so-called morality plays to shockingly morbid extremes... that also ironically feel appropriate for the setting. Between this and Faulkner and other more contemporary examples like recent current events, I think I've come to expect this from the South.

While it might feel tempting to call these stories heavy-handed because of their obvious Catholic association, most of the ideas presented are handled as subtly and thoughtfully as would be expected in a well-written short story. With maybe one exception, I didn't really get a sense that I was being preached to or even solicited at any point; instead, I felt like I was being presented with complex, heavy conflicts and situations that didn't have easy solutions in real life. Or at least if only because in real life, people really are that flawed and hypocritical and make problems worse for themselves than need be. It is human nature, and O'Connor captures that aspect pretty well here.

Yes, O'Connor does tend to push for a certain Catholic/Christian moral standard at the end of the day that many of her characters fail to meet (except in ironic, grace-filled moments per Christianity), and whether or not or to what extent you agree with her ideas can be a whole other topic of discussion, but her presentation of these subjects in a creative and subtle way that forces you to reflect deeply on them is admirable and quite masterful in my opinion. The first and last stories in this collection ("A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "The Displaced Person") were my favorites in that regard, but many of the other stories are pretty good too.

Part of me wishes I'd gotten to read a collection like this for school- this is definitely the kind of short story worth analyzing in detail for, from the dialogue to the symbolism to the imagery and themes and all that- although I also get the feeling that I might not have enjoyed it as much if I'd been forced to do so. Ironically now that I'm reading this for fun, I don't have as much time to actually scrutinize it to that level of detail... but it's still enjoyable to read in its own way.