Clara and Laughter Claiborne Park. in The American Scholar
(Spring 1982), 181 1 Q St. N.W., Washing-
ton, D.C. 20009.
A self-righteous atheist flirts with a Bible salesman, who returns her interest stealing her artificial leg. An old woman feels an instant of pity for the madman who has just murdered her family; he responds by shooting her in the chest. "Most people think of [my] stories as hard, hopeless, brutal," wrote author Flannery O'Connor, a prolific writer despite her own long...