Friday, September 06, 2024

The Sunday Haul That Wasn’t

 Since Friday last week it rained heavily and continuously in Telangana as well as Hyderabad which put life out of gear for everyone. Since no bookseller would want to put out his books on the pavements in such weather at Abids I too dropped the idea of going there on Sunday. It was on Sunday that it rained the heaviest. Somehow I missed going to Abids, looking for books, having chai in the Irani and returning home heart filled with that joy that comes with buying good books.


 However, on last Thursday I had dropped in at ‘Unique’ bookstore in Khairatabad and found a gem there on the shelves. I spotted a copy of ‘Flannery O’ Connor: The Complete Stories’ with an attractive cover that featured a peacock. Though it was priced at three hundred rupees I did not want to miss buying it and regret later since it had thirty one stories including her famous ‘All that Rises Must Converge’ and ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ that I had already read. 


I had found a copy of another collection by Flannery O’ Connor titled ‘All that Rises Must Converge’ sometime recently that had … stories that are also included in ‘Flannery O’ Connor: The Complete Stories’. The list of the thirty-one stories in it is as follows: The Geranium, The Barber, Wildcat, The Crop, The Turkey, The Train, The Peeler, The Heart of the Park, A Stroke of Good Fortune, Enoch and the Gorilla, A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Late Encounter with the Enemy, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, The River, A Circle in the Fire, The Displaced Person, A Temple of the Holy Ghost, The Artificial Nigger, Good Country People, You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead, Greenleaf, A View of the Woods, The Enduring Chill, The Comforts of Home, Every That Rises Must Converge, The Partridge Festival, The Lame Shall Enter First, Why Do the Heathen Rage?, Revelation, Parker’s Back, and Judgement Day.

 

There’s an Introduction by Robert Giroux that throws light on Flannery O' Connor the writer and the person.  

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