This collection of twenty provocative and quirky essays presents Marshall Bruce Gentry’s most recent discoveries of angles from which to freshly examine and appreciate the works of Flannery O'Connor, along with reprints of most of Gentry’s O'Connor articles since he published Flannery O'Connor’s Religion of the Grotesque. Although there is plenty in this gathering that would certainly surprise O'Connor herself, there is much that might help the reader who is searching for how to get more out of her intriguing stories, such as
A Good Man Is Hard to Find,

Good Country People,

The Displaced Person,
and
A View of the Woods.
Along with thoughts about where the study of O'Connor has been and where it is now going, Gentry proposes original ideas on O'Connor’s depiction of children (how they are neglected, as well as how they are empowered), on O'Connor’s fascinating manner of narrating, on gender issues as they relate to O'Connor’s life and work, and, of course, on the popular topics of religion and race. One set of articles finds new ways to look at O'Connor by comparing her to other major literary figures, including such luminaries as Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Joyce Carol Oates, and Alice Walker. Anyone with an interest in O'Connor should find here something to treasure and something to which they will profitably object.