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Flannery O'Connor's collection is arranged in chronological order; throughout the stories her ideas age as she does. Her final story, entitled "Judgement Day", is a revision of her first story, "The Geranium." The difference between the two stories is apparent when O'Connor hides the hope, faith, and love that many feel is missing from all the stories in between. O'Connor, very much like the God she believed in, seems too ready to expose her characters to an amazing amount of pain and degredation. But if you read every sentence carefully, you'll see that O'Connor makes every sacrifice necessary. In an era now where authors tend to shock for the sake of it, O'Connor stands out as a timeless reminder that as senseless and vicious life's stories may sometimes seem, there is still the chance that behind everything there lays a deeper, knowable truth. That truth may come at some great expense but, O'Connor seems to say, it is better to buy with your flesh something lasting and real, than to sell your soul for even a whole world of lies. [via]