"Why Do the Heathen Rage?"

(The Complete Stories, 1971)

I didn't know anything about Flannery O'Connor's story when I picked it today. I needed something relatively short because I had a full day ahead of me. Now I've done a little research and have found out that this story is considered a fragment of an unfinished novel of the same name.

This makes me feel better, because I thought the story just stopped at what could be considered the beginning. I enjoyed the pace before it stopped. A man comes home after having spent two weeks in the hospital after a stroke. We are introduced to his wife and two adult children.

Mary Maud at 30, is a teacher and has a demanding presence.

Walter, 28, is more of a free spirit--"He had the air of a person who is waiting for some big event and can't start any work because it would be interrupted."

Walter has a conversation with his mother about the farm/land and how he will now be in charge of it all--expected to take over and run the place now. Walter will have nothing of it. In fact, he gives his mother the best compliment (which is lost on her):

"Lady, you're coming into your own. You were born to take over. If the old man had had his stroke ten years ago, we'd all be better off. You could have run a wagon train through the Bad Lands. You could stop a mob..."

He's a reader. He writes letters. (he almost reminds me of Flannery).

According to a book review in the NYT, in the 378 pages of the unfinished novel, there are 17 drafts of a porch scene. I wonder if it is the porch scene included in this story. I guess I'll have the opportunity to find out soon enough.

~~J