In Everything That Rises Must Converge, O'Connor deals with dysfunctional parent-child relationships, race and bigotry, faith and lack of faith, class standings, prejudice, differences between the north and the south. I can't wait to discuss this one with my book club.
I was unable to find this book in the library, but I did find a book called O'Connor: Collected Works. The cover listed Everything that Rises Must Converge so I took the book out of the library, figuring I could at least read the title story. Perhaps Collected Words would include several of the stories. It included the whole book of 9 stories.
I read the first (title) story - which ended tragically - and incorrectly assumed that the book was going to be strictly about race relationships. Or parent-child relationships. After finishing the second story, that ended equally tragically, I felt I needed to prepare myself for what was to come. Because O'Connor's characters seem so real, the language is so true, and the emotions clearly represented on the page, these stories that end dismally don't make this a difficult book to read.
There are no happy endings, no likeable characters, yet these stories will stick with me for a long time. I don't have to return my book to the library for a few more days so I plan to read some of the letters from Ms. O'Connor to others just to get a better sense of this author.
No comments:
Post a Comment