[Eagles6]

I'll have to read that one again. Don't have it handy. I'm a fan of Flannery. All in all a good column by Ms. Noonan. All except for the fact that I don't believe it. Not that Ms. Smith is lying, I just believe that nichols is a cowardly, manipulative, sociopath who saw Smith as the only way to save him from meeting the God he so fortuitously found in that apartment.

[sailor4321]

It is quite clear that you have read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (and, I suspect there are other, much deeper reasons why you think the way you do). I couldn't agree more with your assessment of why Nichols behaved the way he did.

[nimbysrule]

Flannery O'Connor is my favorite writer. This is frankly an insult to her art and legacy, with not too well hidden Northern contempt for "primitive" Southerners' religiosity.

[singletrack]

No doubt your right about him being a scumbag. Still odd he would break into the house of a woman whos husband was murdered 3 yrs earlier.