The Fiction Writer & His Country, Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction and The Regional Writer Summary and Analysis

O'Connor is challenged by a Life magazine editorial claiming that America's writers do not speak for America today. The editorial states that the country is the most powerful and wealthiest nation on earth yet its novelists write as if they are headed for the poorhouse. The editorial urges more fiction that truly represents the country and the inclusion of the redeeming quality of spiritual purpose as well. "'what is most missing from our hothouse literature' is 'the joy of life itself.'" The Fiction Writer & His Country, Page 26

O'Connor ponders what this means for the fiction writer and suggests that the direction urged by the editorial would include countryside...