I knock of one star because this book constantly depressed me. O'Connor's characters are deeply flawed, in a disturbing period of American history, and mostly meet dramatic and painful ends. And maybe they are a little bit too relatable. This is also a terribly uncomfortable book for 21st century white folks to read -- the racial divide is stated so matter-of-fact. We're used to just sweeping these things under the rug.

A running flaw for many of her characters is that they categorize people, some as worthwhile, others not so much. Are you a Fortune or a Pitts? Are you Black or White? Are you "good" white or "white trash"? Are you an educated city person or a country bumpkin? The categories that matter may change with time and geography but oh, what a deep and common character flaw across humanity!

The downfall of these people who label some people as worthy and others as not so worthy is really well contrasted against the naiveté or self-centeredness of the characters who try to prove that they do care about the "less fortunate". They really just turn out to be deeply flawed as well.

Throughout all of these stories, she deftly takes us on a tour around the many reasons for how we treat others, who we think worthy of our kindness, and who we think worthy of our hate.

After writing this review I'm going to go and put that last star back.