Southern Gothic

I finally started reading Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories.

umm... terrifying, I didn't know what hit me. I'd thought them to be witty and sardonic until the savagery began. I do love the dripping southern colloquialisms - and the character names - June Star, Bevel, Pointer. In an odd way theses stories remind me of J.D Salinger's Nine Stories. The precocious children, alcoholic mothers and bitter endings.