unfoldingflanneryoconnor.blogspot.com
How I Came to Love Short Stories
It was Flannery O’Connor who made me fall in love with the
short story genre. As an English major in the early 70s, I had
read the mandatory Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
and Sherwood Anderson classics, but none of them reached
out and grabbed me like O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Equally enthralled with and repulsed by the grandmother and the Misfit, I wanted to know more of these bizarre
characters and the woman who imagined them.
In O’Connor’s stories I encountered Hulga Hopewell (“Good Country People”), who loses her wooden leg to a Bible salesman; Mrs. Turpin (“Revelation”), who thanks Jesus for not making her ugly, black, or white trash; and Julian’s racist mother (“Everything that Rises Must Converge”), who condescendingly offers a black child a nickel, only to be knocked to the ground by his insulted mother.
My reaction to these characters was similar to Lawrence Downes', who wrote in the New York Times (“In Search of Flannery O’Connor,” February 4, 2007), “People like these can’t be real, and yet they breathe on the page.” I mourned the fact that O’Connor died way too young and did not have the chance to breathe life into more "unreal" yet oddly believable characters.
With their sparse prose and vivid images, often “soaked in violence and humor,” O’Connor’s
32 short stories left me hungering for more. As I began searching for more short stories to read, I discovered and continue to discovery a number of contemporary writers (most of whom you won’t find in an American Literature anthology or on the New York Times Best Seller list) whose stories and writing styles resonated with me.
During the past four decades I have read nonfiction, memoirs, novels, poetry, and short stories, but it is the short story genre that continually fascinates me the most. I don't meet many people who are short story enthusiasts; I believe we are a minority among avid readers. The Internet provides us an opportunity to connect through shared literary interests.
In this blog I hope to share with you some insights about my favorite short stories and short story writers as well as the short story genre itself. I hope you will share as well.
It was Flannery O’Connor who made me fall in love with the
short story genre. As an English major in the early 70s, I had
read the mandatory Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
and Sherwood Anderson classics, but none of them reached
out and grabbed me like O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Equally enthralled with and repulsed by the grandmother and the Misfit, I wanted to know more of these bizarre
characters and the woman who imagined them.
In O’Connor’s stories I encountered Hulga Hopewell (“Good Country People”), who loses her wooden leg to a Bible salesman; Mrs. Turpin (“Revelation”), who thanks Jesus for not making her ugly, black, or white trash; and Julian’s racist mother (“Everything that Rises Must Converge”), who condescendingly offers a black child a nickel, only to be knocked to the ground by his insulted mother.
My reaction to these characters was similar to Lawrence Downes', who wrote in the New York Times (“In Search of Flannery O’Connor,” February 4, 2007), “People like these can’t be real, and yet they breathe on the page.” I mourned the fact that O’Connor died way too young and did not have the chance to breathe life into more "unreal" yet oddly believable characters.
With their sparse prose and vivid images, often “soaked in violence and humor,” O’Connor’s
32 short stories left me hungering for more. As I began searching for more short stories to read, I discovered and continue to discovery a number of contemporary writers (most of whom you won’t find in an American Literature anthology or on the New York Times Best Seller list) whose stories and writing styles resonated with me.
During the past four decades I have read nonfiction, memoirs, novels, poetry, and short stories, but it is the short story genre that continually fascinates me the most. I don't meet many people who are short story enthusiasts; I believe we are a minority among avid readers. The Internet provides us an opportunity to connect through shared literary interests.
In this blog I hope to share with you some insights about my favorite short stories and short story writers as well as the short story genre itself. I hope you will share as well.