A Good Writer Is Hard To Find: The Search For Flannery O’Connor

by Linda McGovern

To try and get more from a writer than what you see on the page, depends on the writer and their ability to make you see, and of course your own imagination. When that work is so distinct and the characters so clear, you sometimes think you know something about that writer and who they were. It could be argued that a writer can be found in their words, but a good writer may be hard to find in those words which may often confound the reader rather than betray the writer.

One writer that invites you to go beyond words is Flannery O'Connor. The contradictions of violence a...