SOURCE: "A Cold, Hard Look at Humankind," in Saturday Review, Vol. XL VIII, No. 2, May 29, 1965, pp. 23-4.

In the following review, Hicks discusses the lack of compassion in the stories in O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge.

Flannery O'Connor died last summer in her fortieth year, having published two novels and a collection of short stories. She left enough short stories to make another collection, which has just been published: Everything That Rises Must Converge.

Already a kind of Flannery O'Connor legend is taking shape. Much has been written about her since her death, and Esprit, published by the University of Scranton, has devoted most of an issue to praise of her work by distinguished men and women of letters. Certain themes are emphasized: her devotion to Catholicism, the toughness of character that permitted her to survive and to triumph as a writer while living on an isolated...