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Summary: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know Will Converge
Review: This book contains everything an aspiring writer needs to know. Forget books ABOUT fiction writing. Buy this book; read it; then read it again; then write. There is no better road to the world of fiction than the one which winds through O'Connor country.
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Summary: Laughing at Iqhope
Review: This has got to be one of the funniest things I have ever read in my life! Iqhope, did you not know that Virginia is a Southern state?
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Summary: The book you save may be your own
Review: This is probably the most amazing collection of short stories I have ever read. O'Connor presents Southern people at their best and worst. Adding a hint of religion, O'Connor conveys the idea of salvation and how life affects those who do and do not have this. Each tale is crafted for maximum shock and emotional impact, but the effect is not cheap. O'Connor obviously dug deep to get some of this material and it shows. The only other collection of short stories I've read that had this much impact on me was Jackson McCrae's THE CHILDREN'S CORNER, which is not a book for or about children, but rather a group of stories dealing with great insight into the human condition. Excellent and highly recommended.
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Summary: A good book is hard to find
Review: You'd think that with the short story really being and "American" form, like Jazz and baseball, that more writers would come by it naturally---not so. And of these, the truly great ones are Southern. Welty comes to mind, as does McCrae and Faulkner. Capote and then, of course, O'Connor. Of all of these though, O'Connor is the reigning queen, for her stories are like no others in the canon. True, they're Gothic to the 'inth degree, and if you know anything about the poor woman's life, you'll understand why. She ended up raising peacocks on her mother's farm due to a long illness and even before that she wasn't the model of "normal." But all of that and more is what makes her a true Southerner---one of those wonderful characters that themselves could be IN their own short story collection. So many owe a debt to this woman--McCuller, McCrae, Capote. And yet so few have come up to her level. I just can't recommend these well-written stories enough.Would also recommend the short stories of Eudora Welty, McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood--A Tour of Southern Homes and Gardens" and the short stories of William Faulkner.
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