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Everything That Rises Must Converge  By  cover art

Everything That Rises Must Converge

By: Flannery O’Connor
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Karen White, Mark Bramhall, Lorna Raver
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Publisher's summary

This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.

The title story is a tragicomedy about social pride, racial bigotry, generational conflict, false liberalism, and filial dependence. The protagonist, Julian Chestny, is hypocritically disdainful of his mother's prejudices, but his smug selfishness is replaced with childish fear when she suffers a fatal stroke after being struck by a black woman she has insulted out of oblivious ignorance rather than malice.

Similarly, “The Comforts of Home” is about an intellectual son with an Oedipus complex. Driven by the voice of his dead father, the son accidentally kills his sentimental mother in an attempt to murder a harlot.

The other stories are “A View of the Woods”, “Parker's Back”, “The Enduring Chill”, “Greenleaf”, “The Lame Shall Enter First”, “Revelation”, and “Judgment Day”.

Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly individual stamp and could have been written by no one else.

©1956 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965; renewed 1993 by the Estate of Mary Flannery O’Connor (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“The current volume of posthumous stories is the work of a master, a writer's writer—but a reader's too—an incomparable craftsman who wrote, let it be said, some of the finest stories in our language." ( Newsweek)
“All in all they comprise the best collection of shorter fiction to have been published in America during the past twenty years.” ( Book Week)
“When I read Flannery O'Connor, I do not think of Hemingway, or Katherine Anne Porter, or Sartre, but rather of someone like Sophocles. What more can you say for a writer? I write her name with honor, for all the truth and all the craft with which she shows man's fall and his dishonor.” (Thomas Merton)

Featured Article: The Best Short Story Audiobooks to Immerse Yourself In Now


Short stories have had a huge impact on the canon of great literature. In fact, some of history's most revered novelists—Ernest Hemingway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Louisa May Alcott among them—wrote short stories, which make excellent introductions to their work. Plus, these bite-size listens are the perfect way to get a big dose of literary inspiration even when you’re short on time. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of listens.

What listeners say about Everything That Rises Must Converge

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book. Bad narration.

Would you consider the audio edition of Everything That Rises Must Converge to be better than the print version?

The print version is better. The narration is really bad, especially when conveying dialogue. The male voice actors are annoying, even offensive when they attempt southern accents.

How could the performance have been better?

I think the voice actors are great when reading most things. Their attempts at conveying the dialect of these characters fell way short. My recommendation for a better performance would be to have someone with more compassion for Southern characters read O'Connor's work.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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spoiler alert

Would you listen to Everything That Rises Must Converge again? Why?

yes I would, although these stories were very relevent at the time There is also underlying truths that are relevant today. this is why Flannery O connor is one of the greatest authors of all time.

What other book might you compare Everything That Rises Must Converge to and why?

It is a collection of Flannery O connor stories there is no comparison

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

To be honest I did not like any of the characters. That is what is so great about the story telling. If we're honest though we di not like these people we all can relate some how.

If you could take any character from Everything That Rises Must Converge out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Like I said I did't like any of these characters.

Any additional comments?

Is it just me or do they all die in the end.Which I guess is also timeless and universal, no one makes it out alive.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Country Karma

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Something upbeat

Would you recommend Everything That Rises Must Converge to your friends? Why or why not?

I might recommend it to friends with strong emotional filters.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Narrators were all good. Portrayals of disparate characters was handled adroitly.

What character would you cut from Everything That Rises Must Converge?

Cannot say, as this was a series of stories, not a novel.

Any additional comments?

All stories dealt with failure, typically caused by personal or social flaws of the central characters. All were dark, some extremely dark. It takes a bit of adaptation for the listener to pick up the nuances of southern US culture from early in the last century, but the author does not rely on the simple stereotypes current readers might accept more easily.

That being said, the stories were all thoroughly developed, characters well fleshed-out, action appropriate. The stories are well written, and beautiful in a technical sense, but not a source of pleasure.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Must Have!

What made the experience of listening to Everything That Rises Must Converge the most enjoyable?

Listening to a Flannery O'Connor story is as enjoyable as reading one.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Mother. She was strong-willed in her determination, even if her view of society was wrong and outdated.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the mother had her stroke, totally unpredictable and shocking.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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Narration is a problem, stories are great

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The stories read by Karen White are unbearable, and I skipped them. The other narrators are wonderful and make the stories come to life.

Any additional comments?

Wonderful book! Stories read by Karen White are difficult to listen to.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Bigoted and depressing

Must have been relevant for its time, which is sad in itself, but just too much bleakness to even finish. The language was a real turn off. I guess if there wasn't the N-word, there wouldn't have been any stories....

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Are these all the same story?

What did you love best about Everything That Rises Must Converge?

Everyone's right. Oconnor is a great writer. She peers into the details of her characters with such detail and plausiblity you can't stay uninvolved. And her use of language is great.

Which scene was your favorite?

It's an anthology and I don't remember the titles. There was a story that takes place in a doctor's office and it was an amazing contrast of characters.

Any additional comments?

She falls back on killing those characters with traditional values, be they flawed values or not. You know who's getting snuffed by the end of the first paragraph.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Lord have mercy – don’t listen if you enjoy life at all

Flannery O’Connor is hailed as one of the best “Catholic“ authors of her time. That is the sole reason I downloaded this series of short stories of hers.

They show the most gross and depraved and nonsensical elements of humanity, and it ends darkly in every single case. She can we have a story sure, but it will make you wish you had never listened to anything she’s written. I cannot express how disappointed I am.

There is nothing Catholic nor beautiful about the stories. Hard pass.

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1 person found this helpful

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Just not for me

This was hard to get through and I found myself trudging through it. Perhaps just not for me as a book.

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Not for me

I was shocked at the racism in the writing. I want to return this title.

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