A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor – this is the best known from the Collection of Short Stories by this another look at this outstanding writer, winner of The National Book Award…and another look at it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find-by-flannery.html - 10 out of 10

 

A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor – this is the best known from the Collection of Short Stories by this another look at this outstanding writer, winner of The National Book Award…and another look at it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find-by-flannery.html

 

10 out of 10

 

I was so thrilled, elated when I first read The Stories of Flannery O’Connor that here I am, enthused with taking them on again, and what better in memoriam that A Good Man Is Hard To Find, one of the greatest, which the magician novelist reads and you can find at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQT7y4L5aKU

 

This is not just humorous – the grandmother is a tragic figure, but she is also ludicrous and makes one laugh, until of course, there is no merriment any more, it is all drama, spoiler alert, I will not be able to stay put, ergo I will keep writing what happens, even if it gives in the plot, so you better stop reading now

‘Grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida’ this is the start of the tale, then we see her suggesting destinations, confusing locations, and eventually, getting the whole family into the most terrible trouble – there is that spoiler alert, up there – when she just blurts out that she recognizes one of those diabolical characters

 

Early in the narrative, actually in the second line, grandmother reads from the newspaper and tells Bailey, her only son, she lives with him, his wife and children, about The Misfit, a felon that is on the loose near Florida – she does not want to go there, and therefore she uses this piece of horrible news to have her way

The children are rather obnoxious, although, with hindsight, when one knows what is going to happen to them, the punishment is heinous, and they are just too small to know better – they suggest that grandmother should stay home, if she does not want to go…then there is the cat, and this pet should not stay home

 

They can be so cute, I have seven in the garden, not mine, but they come to eat at about six in the evening, and a couple just attack me, even if I am the one feeding them – like in that saying, biting the hand that gives food – they speak about police cars that see when you speed along the highway, maybe about one hundred years ago

Harsh words are said about Tennessee and Georgia, the former was a Trump state, while the latter had voted for Biden, in 2020, and has two Democratic senators, albeit we will have to see what happens in November, when Ornge Jesus may get elected, again, and then he may seek another, third term, he said as much

This is a problem I have now, if it is a red state, I do not want to have anything to do with it, however clear it is that cities actually vote Democratic, and the less educated, countryside realms are embracing this utter fool, ‘the very stable genius’, the one who said a few days ago that Jimmy Connors was a president of the US

 

While attacking ‘Sleepy Joe’, this buffoon is actually lost, he had called Tim Cook Tim Apple, rigged a map of a hurricane, insisted Nicky Haley is Nancy Pelosi, loves Putin and dictators, a monster, crook, Confidence Man  https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/confidence-man-making-of-donald-trump.html the ultimate crook

the family has an accident and then they see this car, with some men with guns, when they come over, grandmother becomes the negative personage, we could argue she was there from the start, and this is such a creative, outré, unique Reversal of Fortune, grannies are always, this could be the only exception, kind, generous

 

This is the one that is selfish, insists on what she wants, she insists they see a touristic spot, but she confuses it, thinks it is in one place, when it is in another state, unless I got this wrong, and when they meet with the gangsters, she could, must at least keep her mouth shut, but what she does is murder, if manslaughter in legal terms

No, that is wrong, for legal consequences she would have to drive a car, run the people down, only what she does is just plain stupid, and terminal, when she looks more at the fellow who is in control, she shouts ‘you are The Misfit’, and he replies ‘I wish you had not recognized me’, or words to that effect, with disastrous consequences

 

Bailey expresses the anguish, anger, anxiety with foul words, and who can blame him, The Misfit comments something on the rudeness, then instructs one of his men to take Bailey away, and we hear a shot, and so we know (not absolutely sure, we do not have the killing depicted, but what else could it be happening

Besides, we will have the next stages of this execution, and if we had doubts, they will all disappear, grandmother herself is whining and keeps saying that ‘you will not kill an old lady’, which sounds vicious, somewhat vile, I mean, yes, it is human to want to survive, there is the famous, or infamous instinct, but still…

 

Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis has about thirty books that I find exhilarating, one of them is The King’s English https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-kings-english-guide-to-modern-usage.html and one of the words analyzed there is infamous, which comes from infamy, but these days, or maybe in the time of Amis, it came to mean just famous

So, to keep asking for forgiveness, to be allowed to live, while the whole family is shot and killed, appears not just exaggerated, but reprehensible, The Misfit, annoyed with all this talk, takes his revolver and kills the woman…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”