by Jan Bear | Mar 20, 2024 | Reading
OK. She’s done it this time. In her story “The Crop,” Flannery O’Connor has taken her satire a step too far—skewering a writer in search of a story. As the old joke goes, “I resemble that remark.” Miss Willerton (and O’Connor never gives us her first name)...
by Jan Bear | Mar 18, 2024 | Reading
In Flannery O’Connor’s story, “Wildcat,” an old, blind, black man faces death. Old Gabriel, blind from childhood, can perceive a lot through his senses of smell and hearing. He recognizes three of the four young men—his grandchildren—on the front porch by their smell,...
by Jan Bear | Mar 16, 2024 | Reading
O Lord and Master of my life, take from me a spirit of despondency, sloth, love of money, and idle talk. — Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian Did you ever get into an argument with a troll? I’m ashamed to say that I have a few times, and it doesn’t turn out...
by Jan Bear | Mar 14, 2024 | Reading
In one of Flannery O’Connor’s earliest stories, an old man from Georgia laments his decision to move in with his daughter in New York City. His yearning for home is like Psalm 136 (137): By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered...