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Book Review of The Complete Stories

The Complete Stories
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This collection of stories by Flannery O'Connor provides the reader with a good sense of O'Connor's development as a writer. The anthology is presented in chronological order. Those familiar with the author's novel "Wise Blood" will find the early versions of chapters from this novel, published as short stories.

The book begins with the short story "The Geranium", one of her earliest works, and ends with "The Judgement", a retelling of the story which reflects her fully developed literary style. In "The Geranium" the ending is subtle, reflective. In "The Judgement" it is shocking and violent, as we had by then come to expect from O'Connor.

Whether you love her or hate her, it is certain that Flannery O'Connor will leave you forever changed, viewing life's common events as scenes in a complex moral drama where people are never really what they seem to be on the surface. O'Connor had a genius for making the ordinary turn to extraordinary and shocking in an instant.