Everything That Rises Must Converge
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $15.56
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bronson Pinchot
-
Karen White
-
Mark Bramhall
-
Lorna Raver
About this listen
This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.
The title story is a tragicomedy about social pride, racial bigotry, generational conflict, false liberalism, and filial dependence. The protagonist, Julian Chestny, is hypocritically disdainful of his mother's prejudices, but his smug selfishness is replaced with childish fear when she suffers a fatal stroke after being struck by a black woman she has insulted out of oblivious ignorance rather than malice.
Similarly, “The Comforts of Home” is about an intellectual son with an Oedipus complex. Driven by the voice of his dead father, the son accidentally kills his sentimental mother in an attempt to murder a harlot.
The other stories are “A View of the Woods”, “Parker's Back”, “The Enduring Chill”, “Greenleaf”, “The Lame Shall Enter First”, “Revelation”, and “Judgment Day”.
Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly individual stamp and could have been written by no one else.
©1956 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965; renewed 1993 by the Estate of Mary Flannery O’Connor (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
-
Good Things Out of Nazareth
- The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends
- By: Flannery O'Connor, Ben Alexander
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A literary treasure of over 100 unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O'Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of 20th-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did.
-
-
this narrator's faux southern accent is abominable
- By Tnarg Yrat on 11-10-19
By: Flannery O'Connor, and others
-
Stories of Your Life and Others
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.
-
-
Amazing collection of short stories
- By Carolina on 09-15-14
By: Ted Chiang
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Why have I avoided this Beautiful Book???
- By Kelly on 03-25-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
The Terrible Speed of Mercy
- A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor
- By: Jonathan Rogers
- Narrated by: Jeremy Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Rogers follows the roots of Flannery O’Connor’s fervent Catholicism and traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy.
By: Jonathan Rogers
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
-
Good Things Out of Nazareth
- The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends
- By: Flannery O'Connor, Ben Alexander
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A literary treasure of over 100 unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O'Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of 20th-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did.
-
-
this narrator's faux southern accent is abominable
- By Tnarg Yrat on 11-10-19
By: Flannery O'Connor, and others
-
Stories of Your Life and Others
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.
-
-
Amazing collection of short stories
- By Carolina on 09-15-14
By: Ted Chiang
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Why have I avoided this Beautiful Book???
- By Kelly on 03-25-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
The Terrible Speed of Mercy
- A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor
- By: Jonathan Rogers
- Narrated by: Jeremy Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Rogers follows the roots of Flannery O’Connor’s fervent Catholicism and traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy.
By: Jonathan Rogers
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
As I Lay Dying
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
-
-
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review
- By Kristina on 11-12-08
By: William Faulkner
-
The Hamlet
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation.
-
-
The Long, Hot Summer
- By W Perry Hall on 07-30-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner
-
Columbus Day
- Expeditionary Force, Book 1
- By: Craig Alanson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We were fighting on the wrong side of a war we couldn't win. And that was the good news. The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved.
-
-
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-04-17
By: Craig Alanson
-
Collected Stories of William Faulkner
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Susan Denaker, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 31 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial collection of short works by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner reminds listeners of his ability to compress his epic vision into narratives as hard and wounding as bullets. Among the 42 selections in this audiobook are such classics as "A Bear Hunt", "A Rose for Emily", "Two Soldiers", and "The Brooch".
-
-
Audiobook Table of Contents (by Chapter)
- By Anonymous User on 09-27-20
By: William Faulkner
-
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
- An American Pilgrimage
- By: Paul Elie
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the middle of the twentieth century, four American Catholics, working independently of one another, came to believe that the best way to explore the quandaries of religious faith was in writing. The four writers were Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy.
-
-
well worth the price and time
- By Richard D. Shewman on 04-28-06
By: Paul Elie
-
All the King's Men
- By: Robert Penn Warren
- Narrated by: Michael Emerson
- Length: 20 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fictionalized account of Louisiana's colorful and notorious governor, Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men follows the startling rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer in the Deep South of the 1930s. Beset by political enemies, Stark seeks aid from his right-hand man Jack Burden, who will bear witness to the cataclysmic unfolding of this very American tragedy.
-
-
Beautifully presented
- By Cheimon on 10-12-08
-
Absalom, Absalom!
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Absalom, Absalom! tells the story of Thomas Sutpen, the enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson township in the early 1830s. With a French architect and a band of wild Haitians, he wrung a fabulous plantation out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. Sutpen was a man, Faulker said, "who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him". His tragedy left its impress not only on his contemporaries but also on men who came after, men like Quentin Compson, haunted even into the 20th century by Sutpen's legacy.
-
-
A long, enjoyable listen
- By pilot on 01-08-09
By: William Faulkner
-
The Color Purple
- By: Alice Walker
- Narrated by: Alice Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by society and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband. In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters to God. The letters, spanning 20 years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women.
-
-
way better than the movie
- By Ms. Blacq on 10-13-19
By: Alice Walker
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
-
-
A gift to be treasured
- By David Shear on 07-09-14
By: Harper Lee
-
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Cherry Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
-
-
Do yourself a favor
- By Barbara on 06-08-05
By: Carson McCullers
-
Go Set a Watchman
- A Novel
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Reese Witherspoon
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, best-selling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
-
-
To Kill A Mockingbird vs Go Set A Watchman
- By Sara on 07-15-15
By: Harper Lee
Critic reviews
Featured Article: The Best Short Story Audiobooks to Immerse Yourself In Now
Short stories have had a huge impact on the canon of great literature. In fact, some of history's most revered novelists—Ernest Hemingway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Louisa May Alcott among them—wrote short stories, which make excellent introductions to their work. Plus, these bite-size listens are the perfect way to get a big dose of literary inspiration even when you’re short on time. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of listens.
Related to this topic
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
-
The Violent Bear It Away
- By: Flannery O’ Connor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle - that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.
-
-
Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-12
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column, which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As "Miss Lonelyhearts" reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional barfights. The novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but clever sense of humor and irony.
-
-
Charged with Meaning, and Far Leftist Leaning
- By W Perry Hall on 01-27-16
By: Nathanael West
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
-
-
A gift to be treasured
- By David Shear on 07-09-14
By: Harper Lee
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
-
The Violent Bear It Away
- By: Flannery O’ Connor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle - that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.
-
-
Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-12
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column, which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As "Miss Lonelyhearts" reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional barfights. The novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but clever sense of humor and irony.
-
-
Charged with Meaning, and Far Leftist Leaning
- By W Perry Hall on 01-27-16
By: Nathanael West
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
-
-
A gift to be treasured
- By David Shear on 07-09-14
By: Harper Lee
-
The Plague of Doves
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
-
-
Avoid this Plague
- By Andre on 05-16-08
By: Louise Erdrich
-
Our Story Begins
- New and Selected Stories
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
-
-
Great
- By chris on 04-11-08
By: Tobias Wolff
-
Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
-
-
Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
-
Sanctuary
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction, Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake. She introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.
-
-
disappointment
- By Dana on 10-20-10
By: William Faulkner
-
Go Set a Watchman
- A Novel
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Reese Witherspoon
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, best-selling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
-
-
To Kill A Mockingbird vs Go Set A Watchman
- By Sara on 07-15-15
By: Harper Lee
-
The Optimist's Daughter
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Eudora Welty
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.
-
-
Beautiful writing
- By Teresa on 07-15-13
By: Eudora Welty
-
This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
-
-
A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
-
The Auctioneer
- Valancourt 20th Century Classics
- By: Joan Samson
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, John Moore and his wife, Mim, work the land that has been in his family for generations. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dinsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their freedom, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives....
-
-
Unbelievable
- By pineapple67 on 11-08-19
By: Joan Samson
-
The Gospel Singer
- By: Harry Crews, Kevin Wilson - foreword
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gifted, idolized singer returns to his poor hometown and a life and family he is so far removed from he now holds them in contempt. The Gospel Singer reveals the absurdity of blind religious faith and idol worship and the hypocrisy that results with the offering of money or sex. Crews grapples with race, gender, religion, and place and steps back to divulge the secrets of his characters - including a dead girl awaiting the gospel singer’s melodious eulogy, his dysfunctional family, a murderer, the zealous town residents, and a traveling freak show.
-
-
The gospel singer
- By L. Welsh on 07-13-22
By: Harry Crews, and others
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner
-
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Jessica Almasy, Victor Bevine, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This complete collection includes all of the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are 41 stories in all, including those in the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.
-
-
Too Good For Audio
- By Yennta on 06-18-12
By: Eudora Welty
-
The Last Ballad
- A Novel
- By: Wiley Cash
- Narrated by: Karen White, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve times a week, 28-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. Two in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's owners - the newly arrived Goldberg brothers - white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for 72 hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has.
-
-
Dryer than a popcorn fart
- By Scott Wilson on 02-11-18
By: Wiley Cash
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Violent Bear It Away
- By: Flannery O’ Connor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle - that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.
-
-
Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-12
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
Good Things Out of Nazareth
- The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends
- By: Flannery O'Connor, Ben Alexander
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A literary treasure of over 100 unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O'Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of 20th-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did.
-
-
this narrator's faux southern accent is abominable
- By Tnarg Yrat on 11-10-19
By: Flannery O'Connor, and others
-
The Terrible Speed of Mercy
- A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor
- By: Jonathan Rogers
- Narrated by: Jeremy Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Rogers follows the roots of Flannery O’Connor’s fervent Catholicism and traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy.
By: Jonathan Rogers
-
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
- An American Pilgrimage
- By: Paul Elie
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the middle of the twentieth century, four American Catholics, working independently of one another, came to believe that the best way to explore the quandaries of religious faith was in writing. The four writers were Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy.
-
-
well worth the price and time
- By Richard D. Shewman on 04-28-06
By: Paul Elie
-
The Violent Bear It Away
- By: Flannery O’ Connor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle - that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.
-
-
Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-12
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
Good Things Out of Nazareth
- The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends
- By: Flannery O'Connor, Ben Alexander
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A literary treasure of over 100 unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O'Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of 20th-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did.
-
-
this narrator's faux southern accent is abominable
- By Tnarg Yrat on 11-10-19
By: Flannery O'Connor, and others
-
The Terrible Speed of Mercy
- A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor
- By: Jonathan Rogers
- Narrated by: Jeremy Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Rogers follows the roots of Flannery O’Connor’s fervent Catholicism and traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy.
By: Jonathan Rogers
-
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
- An American Pilgrimage
- By: Paul Elie
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the middle of the twentieth century, four American Catholics, working independently of one another, came to believe that the best way to explore the quandaries of religious faith was in writing. The four writers were Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy.
-
-
well worth the price and time
- By Richard D. Shewman on 04-28-06
By: Paul Elie
-
Sanctuary
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction, Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake. She introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.
-
-
disappointment
- By Dana on 10-20-10
By: William Faulkner
-
A Subversive Gospel
- Flannery O'Connor and the Reimagining of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth
- By: Michael Mears Bruner
- Narrated by: Michael Mears Bruner
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this volume in IVP Academic's Studies in Theology and the Arts series, theologian Michael Bruner explores O'Connor's theological aesthetic and argues that she reveals what discipleship to Christ entails by subverting the traditional understandings of beauty, truth, and goodness through her fiction.
-
-
Grace in the "Bleeding, Stinking, and the Foolish"
- By C. Matthew Hawkins on 04-20-21
-
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Jessica Almasy, Victor Bevine, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This complete collection includes all of the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are 41 stories in all, including those in the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.
-
-
Too Good For Audio
- By Yennta on 06-18-12
By: Eudora Welty
-
The Ballad of the Sad Café
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind", McCullers' first published story, written when she was only 17, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
-
-
Literate short stories
- By RueRue on 02-23-16
By: Carson McCullers
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner
-
Collected Stories of William Faulkner
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Susan Denaker, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 31 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial collection of short works by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner reminds listeners of his ability to compress his epic vision into narratives as hard and wounding as bullets. Among the 42 selections in this audiobook are such classics as "A Bear Hunt", "A Rose for Emily", "Two Soldiers", and "The Brooch".
-
-
Audiobook Table of Contents (by Chapter)
- By Anonymous User on 09-27-20
By: William Faulkner
-
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Cherry Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
-
-
Do yourself a favor
- By Barbara on 06-08-05
By: Carson McCullers
-
The Optimist's Daughter
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Eudora Welty
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.
-
-
Beautiful writing
- By Teresa on 07-15-13
By: Eudora Welty
-
Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
-
-
Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
-
The Moviegoer
- By: Walker Percy
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A winner of the National Book Award, The Moviegoer established Walker Percy as an insightful and grimly humorous storyteller. It is the tale of Binx Bolling, a small-time stockbroker who lives quietly in suburban New Orleans, pursuing an interest in the movies, affairs with his secretaries, and living out his days. But soon he finds himself on a "search" for something more important, some spiritual truth to anchor him.
-
-
Percy's Prose Dances with Grace, Charm and Style
- By Darwin8u on 10-11-12
By: Walker Percy
-
Essential Welty
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Eudora Welty
- Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1956, Caedmon had the great fortune to record Eudora Welty reading some of her finest stories. In her sweetly vibrant Mississippi drawl, Ms. Welty deftly draws the listener in to the uproariously multilayered "Why I Live at the P.O.", the spontaneous "Powerhouse", and the insightful voice of women's truths in "Petrified Man". Ms. Welty's reading brings immediacy and resonance to these wonderful tales.
-
-
Lovely Stories
- By Judy on 08-02-06
By: Eudora Welty
-
Jesus' Son
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Denis Johnson's now classic story collection Jesus' Son chronicles a wild netherworld of addicts and lost souls, a violent and disordered landscape that encompasses every extreme of American culture. These are stories of transcendence and spiraling grief, of hallucinations and glories, of getting lost and found and lost again. The insights and careening energy in Jesus' Son have earned the book a place of its own among the classics of twentieth-century American literature.
-
-
Some books are better read.
- By dngold77 on 09-02-18
By: Denis Johnson
What listeners say about Everything That Rises Must Converge
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ryan
- 08-14-13
Pride goeth before the fall
Flannery O'Connor's short stories are fascinating the way looking at a household insect in a magnifying class is fascinating -- suddenly, a familiar, innocuous part of the world becomes a writhing grotesquery. Except, here, the object of examination is human self-importance, within the context of the American South circa 1960. If you've ever taken a creative writing class, you've probably read at least one of these stories. Fifty years after being written, they're still textbook examples of how to use flawed characters to reveal the absurdity of human attitudes. O'Connor sets her characters against some obstacle or antagonist, then dispassionately observes them as they drive themselves to their own ruin, usually with some final moment of epiphany.
It would be bleak stuff if it weren't so enthralling, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. There's the story of a young man who bristles at his mother's unthinking racism, yet whose own enlightenment rings false. There's a self-righteous father who neglects his disappointing son in order to "save" a delinquent teenage boy, whose feral cunning more than matches him. There's a self-satisfied middle-aged woman who can't understand why she attracts the ire of a college girl in a doctor's waiting room -- after all, she's the "right sort of person", not like that poor white trash family a few seats over.
My favorite in the collection deals with the dark comedy that results when the mother of a bookish 30-something hermit who still lives at home takes pity on and naively decides to rescue a very troubled young woman, much to her son's annoyance. Since I sometimes loan books I've finished to my own mother, I had a laugh at the thought of sharing that one. Not that I live with my mom or she often brings home tragic 19-year-old girls with nymphomaniac tendencies (alas).
There are a few other reasons O'Connor remains a staple of writing classes. She's great with language, voice, and nuanced observations of human behavior, and at using foreshadowing and meaningful imagery. She works in major social issues (e.g. race) and religious themes (e.g. suffering, epiphany), but doesn't hit the reader over the head with them.
If you enjoy stories that are dark, unsparing, and grotesque, but also humorous, compassionate, and deeply honest, consider this collection. Reading up on O'Connor's life, which came to an early end from illness, it wasn't hard for me to see how some of her own personal trials must have informed her work. The brilliance of these stories still shines, and her influence is visible in later writers who have picked up on her methods (e.g. Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud).
The audiobook production is pretty good. Some readers are better than others (one guy's voices sound like characters from South Park!), but I think you really need to have those thick southern accents in your head to fully appreciate the writing, so consider a listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
64 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darwin8u
- 10-29-12
A Painful Grace, A Search for the Holy
Nice Catholic ladies aren't supposed to demolish you like this. O'Connor was born to be a literary knife fighter. Page after page, with zero sentimentality, O'Connor rips the grotesque out of her characters and with a bareknuckle, Christian realism absolutely dares you to turn the page. Hers is a painful grace, a search for the holy in the swamps of the Southern absurd. The brilliant thing about O'Connor is by telling her stories of divine grace among the heretics and the horrors, the reader might easily miss the divine spark in the grotesque and absurd darkness.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
63 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark A. Shelly
- 12-04-15
Many stories same flavor
Seems a dark view of people, restated several ways. I think I got the idea after the first two or three.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrew
- 02-11-18
Brilliant Stories, Great Narration, Racist
Clearly Flannery O'Connor is regarded as one of America's most brilliant short story writers for a reason. Each story is spellbinding. The dark twisted side of everyday life blossoms in each story. The most common thread between each story is the bitterness and disfunction within families. Anyone who has experienced that will be fascinated. The narrators do a fantastic job. Having a variety helps break up the stories. I feel sure I got more out of this on audio than i would have in print.
I also have to say, it is hard to ingest the blatant racism in many of these stories. A tortured argument could be made that O'Connor is trying to "expose" the racism in America (particularly the South) and I am sure that what she depicts is accurate. But it doesn't take much digging through her personal letters to see the racism was an integral part of her life:
“About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing, prophesying, pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us about what it feels to be a Negro in Harlam [sic] but he tries to tell us everything else too.”
Flannery O’Connor to Maryat Lee, May 21, 1964
It is a pity that someone who was such a brilliant observer of some aspects of the human condition could fail to see the humanity in others. I wish she had met Baldwin - he would have run rings around her. Making beautiful art for a filthy racist culture means that anything you make will always be stained.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- menary kitchen
- 09-27-12
mixed review
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
yes. i enjoyed most of the listens
Would you recommend Everything That Rises Must Converge to your friends? Why or why not?
maybe. if in converstion
What aspect of the narrators’s performance would you have changed?
two narrators kept the interest and two did not
Was Everything That Rises Must Converge worth the listening time?
yes. the stories were entertaining lessons. i felt bored by some
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John
- 03-04-13
One ripping good yarn after another
I enjoyed Ms O'Connor's short stories as much or more than I've ever enjoyed any short stories. This is a challenging read because there is so much symbolism and depth to her writing. I advise using online resources such as cliffs and sparknotes so the reader doesn't miss anything. Be aware that Ms O'Connor's pen is cruel and prose is very biting. Her stories have quite a bit of "kick" to them. I'll definitely be reading more from her.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R.J. Schmigel
- 12-18-12
Must Have!
What made the experience of listening to Everything That Rises Must Converge the most enjoyable?
Listening to a Flannery O'Connor story is as enjoyable as reading one.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The Mother. She was strong-willed in her determination, even if her view of society was wrong and outdated.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When the mother had her stroke, totally unpredictable and shocking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C Poulsen
- 04-12-15
Well done
The various voices for the different stories were spot on! It added to the listening experience and help the stories to not only come alive but, stick with me long after the audio ended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bror Erickson
- 12-17-14
Bringing Life to the Grotesque in Southern Goth
I bought and read Flanner O'Connor's complete works a long time ago and really enjoyed reading the books. I really enjoyed the audio version of "Everything that Rises Must Converge" even more than the books themselves. Somehow the narration in this series really made the stories come to life in a way that did not happen when I was reading the books. The incantation, the accents, the play in the different voices it all came together perfectly. Somehow, as the stories were being read to me on my walks, I was hit with even deeper understanding of the stories than I had before. I highly recommend this recording to those who are interested in the work of Flannery O'Connor. You will not be disappointed.
Flannery O'Connor was a devout Christian, and her stories reflect her faith in one way or another, in some stories it is more blatant than in others, but all the stories are wonderful for their grotesque characters struggling through everyday life. Most of them deal with the social upheaval in the Mid Twentieth Century South. And with that backdrop she begins in Southern Goth style to lampoon popular notions of Christianity, the notions held by many Christians themselves, but then she also effectively lampoons positions that are seen as intellectually superior to Christianity too. Really quite a masterful work of fiction.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Leslie D.
- 02-18-15
Grim stories, not for the faint of heart!
I can't say I "enjoyed" these stories, but they certainly are both honest and strangely witty.
The readings were well done, on the whole.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!