Tuesday, July 5, 2011

O'Connor Short Stories

I recently mentioned that my book club chose for June the Flannery O'Connor short story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find, which led to a spirited discussion. Short stories seemed just the right thing to read here at the beginning of summer when our next selection is Gone With the Wind (scheduled for August, and we also gave ourselves July off in preparation). Partly because of our June book selection, I have a particular interest in O'Connor at the moment. The other reason is because a fictional book about O'Connor's life in Milledgeville, Georgia, has just been published. It's called A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano. I read it last week. It fits in somewhat well with other fictional accounts of authors' lives I've been reading lately (see examples here and here). I quickly ordered the book online and read it to prepare for Napolitano's visit to the Atlanta area on her book tour next week. I'm anxious to hear what she has to say on her book and see if she talks about what is complete fiction in the book and what is made up with good, educated guesses on what O'Connor and Milledgeville were like in the 1960s. No matter how she speaks to these issues, it was a great read. I love a good book where characters are intertwined in surprising ways, and this book fits that bill for sure.

1 comment:

  1. I miss being in a book club! Your book reviews are great and I'm very impressed at your ability to read on a regular basis with such a busy work schedule. Hope to see you soon!

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