A Good Man Is Hard to Find

December 22, 2009
Book of the Day: A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, by Flannery O'Connor
Grade: A-
First published: 1955
1-word review: Salvation
7-word review: The rural South is a happy place.

Not many writers, even great ones, can write a good short story. There's something about condensing an idea to its very essence that a novelist can't handle. Flannery O'Connor was a great short story writer. Like a poet, she could communicate a complete idea in the fewest words required. Her characters are briefly described but fully fleshed out, and the reader becomes engulfed in each story's environment. The rural South is a scary place in her stories, yet there is always some sense of hope for salvation.

However, I've come to the conclusion that a short story collection should never be read in one day. A writer has certain themes and settings that she likes to repeatedly revisit, so reading all of her stories in such a short period makes it difficult to appreciate each one individually, since no matter how different they are from one another, they will run together a bit.

O'Connor was a Georgia native, and all her stories are set in the South. Why aren't more stories set in Idaho? Your assignment for today is to write a story based on the following representative Idaho photograph, taken by Joe Deaver.

Discussion Question:

Why doesn't the sign say "Rabbits & Meat Bunnies?"

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Disgrace

December 12, 2009 Book of the Day: Disgrace , by J.M. Coetzee Grade: A First published: 1999 1-word review: Brutal 9-word review: South Africa's still struggling in the aftermath of apartheid. A communications professor in Cape Town resigns his job after having a scandalous affair with a student. He visits his daughter on her ranch in the country, where they are viciously attacked and robbed in her home. The rest of the novel, in sparse and nearly perfect prose, deals with the aftermath of this attack, examining white guilt, police incompetence, and intellectual bankruptcy. Coetzee is a white South African who wrote a novel that depicts black on white violent crime in his country. As you may expect, this has generated quite some controversy, despite Coetzee's bona fide anti-apartheid status. Many critics have suggested that Disgrace should be read as an allegorical tale about the inadequacies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set up in South Africa to exam...

Breath, Eyes, Memory

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Freddy the Detective

December 11, 2009 Book of the Day: Freddy the Detective , by Walter R. Brooks Grade: A- First published: 1932 1-word review: Porcine 5-word review: Don't mess with the pig. Freddy the Pig awakes one morning to find Hambone, his best friend and longtime sty-mate, missing. He begins an investigation into the disappearance only to stumble upon the dismembered and eviscerated corpse of Hammy hanging in a meat locker. He proceeds to take revenge on those he deems responsible, doing to them what was done to his buddy. Blood flows as Freddy self-destructs in an orgy of violence. This is all rather surprising to find in a children's book. Warning to my more sensitive readers! Here's a gruesome picture of some of Hammy's remains, shown only in the interest of science. Here we have Idaho.

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