My book aims to help readers understand and appreciate O'Connor's novels and short stories. It weaves together her "place"-Milledgeville, Georgia; her purpose-to write a good story; and her preoccupations-belief, death, grace, and the devil. I explicate the influences that give depth to her fiction: her understanding and respect for the mores of the South ( including relationships between races), the books she read and marked that reveal links to...