One Hundred Years of Flannery O’Connor

“Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe.”
― Flannery O’Connor

Go here to read the story.  Dead at only 39 in 1964, she left behind some of the most thought provoking writing ever to emanate from the pen of Fallen Man.  I think her fellow Catholics understand her the best, because she was, at bottom, a Catholic mystic.  She could take the most grotesque examples of humanity in her fiction, with often terrible actions committed by them, and show that the Grace of God was not far from them.  When reading her, it is best to always keep one’s thinking cap on.  She is not an easy author.  I would recommend starting with a collection of the book reviews she wrote, Presence of Grace, or collections of her large correspondence.  Chesterton has been called the patron saint of paradox.  I think O’Connor is the patron saint of the whimsy and mercy of God.  Her beloved peacocks remind us that when life seems utterly prosaic and grey, God in a flash can reveal the grandeur that permeates His Creation.