Flannery O'Connor's "Everything that Rises Must Converge," first published in 1964, and included in the 1965 short story collection of the same title, comprises such themes as acculturation, aging, death and dying, disease and health, and the African-American experience Set in the newly integrated South of the 1960s, it tells the story of Julian, a recent college graduate who is too attached to his mother. HIS prejudiced mother suffers a stroke during an incident with a black woman, and Julian feels the overwhelming effects of his dependency.

"The Lame Shall Enter First," another short story included in the Everything that Rises Must Converge collection, weaves a disturbing story of a father's misdirected love, and his son's resulting suicide. The widowed father and grieving son seek solace beyond each other's embrace and are both influenced by a disturbed and disfigured young man who...