The most majestic books that lift our spirits

Flannery O’Connor’s saturnine stories of the American South are jewels of American literature.

They are laced with humor and violence but are at the same time deeply spiritual. In fact, the Catholic Church banned her work until it was discovered that her stories were written to show Grace in the lives of her parochial characters.

In Everything That Rises Must Converge, a story from A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories published in 1955, O'Connor writes about Julian, a young college-educated writer who lives with his mother in a decadent neighborhood that lost its prominence as the Old South faded.

His mother who believes she must uphold the dignity of her family's antebellum name insists on "keeping up appearances." For instance, she likes to tell folks that Jason's first job as a writer "selling typewriters" was a good sign because "Rome wasn't built in a day."

She wears a new green ostentatious hat with a feather in its crown when she and Julian ride a newly integrated bus downtown to the YMCA for her weekly reducing class.

While on the bus a heavyset black lady wearing the same exact hat boards and shatters Julian's mother's illusion that the white aristocracy of her childhood is still alive. How else could a colored lady afford the same hat?

Again and again, O'Connor employs humor to teach the most profound lessons. Everything that Rises Must Converge is just one of many delightful O’Connor stories that peer into the depths of the dark human spirit and still manage to lighten my heart. 

Like Ulysses of the Odyssey and Jean Valjean of Les Miserable, Edmond Dantès, The Count of Monte Cristo has been etched into our collective consciousness by writer, Alexander Dumas.

Dantès’ betrayal by Girard de Villefort, Dantès’ loss of Mercedes, his escape from the infamous Château d’If, and the noble way he honored the freedom and gold bequeathed by Abbé Faria make him a timeless hero whose strength in the presence of evil and kindness in the presence of greed inspires those who read Dumas’ book.

When teaching creative writing to prisoners with life sentences, I offer a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. It is seldom refused.

Fine art whether it be in images, music, or words has always inspired me to become a better man and artist. Dumas’ novel exemplifies the finest of art. 

Samuel Pickwick Esq., G.C.M.P.C., is just one of Charles Dicken's delightful retinue of characters.

He was a portly little man shaped like a bowling pin with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge who was nominated to lead three bumbling Pickwickians (members of Pickwick's eponymous Pickwick Club in London) on a tour of the English countryside to learn about life outside of London then report back to a full meeting of the Club post haste.

Through their ineptitude, Pickwick and his retinue manage to tumble into a series of unimaginable yet hilarious intrigues.

No matter their travails, Dickens through his alter-ego Samuel Pickwick always sides with what is just and fair. If you believe in Providence you'll find all of Dickens' novels a joy to read. 

John Steinbeck wrote the Working Days... journals while writing The Grapes of Wrath.

The intent of the journal was to establish a schedule, including a completion date for the novel. What he reveals about his self-doubt is tonic for any writer who is haunted by the same malaise.

Here is the entry for June 18, "…I am assailed with my own ignorance and inability. Honesty. If I can keep an honesty to it… If I can do that it will be all my lack of genius can produce. For no one else knows my lack of ability the way I do. I am pushing against it all the time."

Sometimes, I seem to do a good little piece of work, but when it is done it slides into mediocrity…John Steinbeck’s honesty and humility remind me that self-doubt is a part of the creative process.

I sometimes read entries from Working Days... for reassurance when my spirit is low and the completion of my work seems light years away.

In elegant prose, Nien Cheng, a Shell Oil Company in 1966, recounts her life in Shanghai in 1966, when Chairman Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Mao’s Red Guards ransacked Cheng and her husband’s bourgeois home and then delivered her to No. 1 Detention House in Shanghai where she was held in solitary confinement of 7 years until her rehabilitation and release after several struggle trials.

Her work is prescient as the United States in under attack by a radical woke ideology. Many Americans have been cancelled or have been made to attend struggle sessions.  

Nein Chen is a heroic woman, a brilliant writer, and an example of how one courageous woman can stand up to a totalitarian regime.