BOOK

Flannery O’Connor, Collected Works. The Library of America’s compact compendium of O’Connor’s novels, short stories, essays, and letters might just be the best single-volume anthology of anything ever published. Not only does it contain all of her fiction and most of the best of everything else she wrote, but it’s light enough to hold comfortably in one hand, the typography is elegant, and the notes (by O’Connor scholar Sally Fitzgerald) are extensive and impeccable. Speaking as a sometime editor and longtime connoisseur of collections, I consider this to be one of the half-dozen super-essential books in my library, pre-designated for a place in my suitcase in the event of my hasty and involuntary evacuation to anywhere (TT).