Quote:
Originally Posted by fantasyfan
I think that a very good opener is "First Confession". A few interesting points are that the characters are based on members of his own family--giving this tale an autobiographical edge. It uses a dual narrative perspective; the narrator is a child--but a child whose memories and experiences are filtered through the mind of the adult who is aware that aspects of this particular event had the potential to have been far more serious in their consequences than seems apparent. It is, to an extent. a story of persecution; a persecution on a series of levels.
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I was interested to see that O'Connor drastically revamped "First Confession" twice; the first time to concentrate the action, the second time to put it in the first person. O'Connor: "I would wish you to believe that if you work hard at a stoary over a period of twenty-five or thirty years, there is a reasonable chance that at last you will get it right."
So far I've read four of the stories, and I prefer the first-person boy's voice to that of the third-person narrative ("First Love").
I'm laggard about highlighting, but I need to go back and select some of the choicest comments. Funny, funny stuff, yet "The Duke's Children" really tugged at my heartstrings.