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The Comforts of Home
When Thomas’s mother takes a young woman jailed for fraud under her wing, he is instantly wary of the newcomer. When his mother takes her charity even farther and invites the woman, Sarah, to live with them, Thomas predicts disaster and begins to take steps to have Sarah removed from their home and from his life.
“The Comforts of Home” was originally published in Flannery O’Connor’s 1965 short-story anthology, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and deals with themes familiar in many of O’Connor’s works, including religion and morality.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
“The Comforts of Home” was originally published in Flannery O’Connor’s 1965 short-story anthology, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and deals with themes familiar in many of O’Connor’s works, including religion and morality.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
29 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
Flannery O'Connor
213 books5,534 followersCritics note novels
Wise Blood
(1952) and
The Violent Bear It Away
(1960) and short stories, collected in such works as
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
(1955), of American writer Mary Flannery O'Connor for their explorations of religious faith and a spare literary style.
The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.
O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.
Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.
People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.
The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.
O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.
Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.
People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 31, 2022
Thomas is grown, he’s big, he lives with his mother. She is filled with compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and judging by her actions, she is filled with the Holy Spirit: walking the walk, turning the other cheek judging not lest she be judged, and loving her neighbor as herself. His father is dead and was just the opposite: compassionless, remorseless, mean-spirited: he was of the world and walked easily there. Thomas thought His mother was rather simple, naive. Although he inherited his father’s cold-blooded, compassionless reasoning, he didn’t inherit his meanness.
One day the mother brought 19 year old Sara Ham to stay with her and Thomas. She prayed they would be able to bring some love into Sara’s life and help her get her life back on track. Sara was a self proclaimed nymphomaniacal liar, probably sociopathic or maybe the mother was right and Sara had just gotten a few bad breaks, made a few missteps, but that she was of a good heart — salvageable.
Read the story and decide for yourself. Flannery O’Connor is amazing, truly a five-star author. This story is representative.
One day the mother brought 19 year old Sara Ham to stay with her and Thomas. She prayed they would be able to bring some love into Sara’s life and help her get her life back on track. Sara was a self proclaimed nymphomaniacal liar, probably sociopathic or maybe the mother was right and Sara had just gotten a few bad breaks, made a few missteps, but that she was of a good heart — salvageable.
Read the story and decide for yourself. Flannery O’Connor is amazing, truly a five-star author. This story is representative.
March 16, 2017
3.6 stars
Freaky and disturbed. Who is really the mad one? They might all be. I'm more inclined to distrust the narrator, especially considering what he does by the end of the story. Though from what we get, the girl annoys and disturbs me as well. Strange.
Freaky and disturbed. Who is really the mad one? They might all be. I'm more inclined to distrust the narrator, especially considering what he does by the end of the story. Though from what we get, the girl annoys and disturbs me as well. Strange.
April 10, 2018
Ok to be honest I only skimmed this for my philosophy homework but it is so boring and weird. A 19 year old girl trying to flirt with a 35 year old hermit who lives with his mom??? I think I have said enough.
December 14, 2018
Masterful
May 27, 2019
2 1/2 stars. She writes well but this isn't my favorite story of hers.
July 30, 2021
O'Connor does this often: a stranger comes to town. (Then again, that's the only story anyway.) But what if that stranger moves into your own house. In the comparatively funny "Greenleaf" it's a bull visiting and messing with the cows. But in "Comforts", one might ask, "Who is the bull?" You might interpret the bull as the inviter, or maybe not. But one thing is for sure, when the sheriff shows up, the story ends with a killer final few words: "...but this one [scene] met his expectations." Good story, but this author has written better. IMO.
September 18, 2025
The Comforts of Home by Flannery O’Connor
This is yet another gem from the “Master- Mistress of my Passion” – as Shakespeare put it. I had no idea that Flannery O’Connor existed, only some months ago, let alone how great a writer she is.
The question is how many other writers, of a similar caliber are there left to be discovered. A consolation would be to say that not so many, because of the fantastic talent that O’Connor had. Or perhaps her study and hard work, as Outliers claims: if I manage to put together 10,000 hours of writing in the next ten years, which means 3 hours each day, at the end of the period I would be world class.
The lead role in The Comforts of Home belongs to Thomas, a gentleman from the South, as his mother calls him: he couldn’t have placed a revolver in someone’s bag, because he is a gentleman. Or isn’t he?
I did empathize with him and yet did not agree with what he did, even if the terrible outcome is an accident (waiting to happen?)
Thomas lives with his mother and the image of his father, which keeps popping up in his imagination, talking disapprovingly and encouraging his son to take action, be bold, even cruel.
The dead father would not put up with any nonsense, fact is we get a feeling that he put up with nothing he didn’t like and he enjoyed very few things or people, if any.
The conflict starts with the mother bringing home a woman that had broken the law, named Carol Ham, but calling herself Star. Even if this is a tragic story, there is humor aplenty: at one point, Thomas leaves the house with Star “attached to what might have been a miraculously moving monument”
“Tomsee doesn’t like me” says Carol Ham…baptizing our hero
“Thomas would stuff his ears with Kleenex”
Like in almost all the stories of O’Connor, the issue of God is ever present:
“If I kill myself, would God want me?”
“Try it and see „is the black humorous answer of Tomsee aka Thomas
There is even horror humor:
“His hope that the girl had cut her throat faded…”
The puzzle for me is how come Flannery O’Connor is not widely known and talked about?? Come to think of it, she is not even included in The Modern Library or The Guardian top 100 lists…it is only from The TIME 100 list that I have learned about her.
On the positive side…good for me and for you that we have heard and read her!
This is yet another gem from the “Master- Mistress of my Passion” – as Shakespeare put it. I had no idea that Flannery O’Connor existed, only some months ago, let alone how great a writer she is.
The question is how many other writers, of a similar caliber are there left to be discovered. A consolation would be to say that not so many, because of the fantastic talent that O’Connor had. Or perhaps her study and hard work, as Outliers claims: if I manage to put together 10,000 hours of writing in the next ten years, which means 3 hours each day, at the end of the period I would be world class.
The lead role in The Comforts of Home belongs to Thomas, a gentleman from the South, as his mother calls him: he couldn’t have placed a revolver in someone’s bag, because he is a gentleman. Or isn’t he?
I did empathize with him and yet did not agree with what he did, even if the terrible outcome is an accident (waiting to happen?)
Thomas lives with his mother and the image of his father, which keeps popping up in his imagination, talking disapprovingly and encouraging his son to take action, be bold, even cruel.
The dead father would not put up with any nonsense, fact is we get a feeling that he put up with nothing he didn’t like and he enjoyed very few things or people, if any.
The conflict starts with the mother bringing home a woman that had broken the law, named Carol Ham, but calling herself Star. Even if this is a tragic story, there is humor aplenty: at one point, Thomas leaves the house with Star “attached to what might have been a miraculously moving monument”
“Tomsee doesn’t like me” says Carol Ham…baptizing our hero
“Thomas would stuff his ears with Kleenex”
Like in almost all the stories of O’Connor, the issue of God is ever present:
“If I kill myself, would God want me?”
“Try it and see „is the black humorous answer of Tomsee aka Thomas
There is even horror humor:
“His hope that the girl had cut her throat faded…”
The puzzle for me is how come Flannery O’Connor is not widely known and talked about?? Come to think of it, she is not even included in The Modern Library or The Guardian top 100 lists…it is only from The TIME 100 list that I have learned about her.
On the positive side…good for me and for you that we have heard and read her!
August 2, 2018
Zeker niet haar beste verhaal, past wel perfect binnen de literaire architectuur van Flannery O'Connor. Weer een vaderloos gezin, dat door die afwezigheid stuurloos is, maar toch vaderlijke bevelen blijft opvolgen. De moeder wordt afgestraft voor het feit dat ze een jonge prostituee (?) uit de gevangenis haalt en in het gezin een thuis wil geven. Vervolgens ontstaat er een seksuele spanning tussen haar en de zoon des huizes, die dat sublimeert in agressie.
November 16, 2025
A Southern Gothic short story by Flannery O’Connor in which the young Thomas has to react to a situation in which his mother brings home a young and beyond hope delinquent girl in trying to take care of her. It is not by chance that Thomas is wrapped up in studying history or how many references he makes to his father and how his father would have dealt with the situation. It’s surprising how simple the story seemed and yet its meaning slowly came through once I’d finished it.
April 8, 2025
its like a 3.5, I actually enjoyed reading this quite a bit. However , the abrupt ending and VERY odd premise, along with Thomas' annoying ass mom made things a bit weird. It's kind of funny too, lots of madness from each of the characters.
January 24, 2024
Great little book to read.
May 16, 2024
An amazing southern Gothic masterpiece with a lovely twist at the end. She writes so smoothly and so well.
August 18, 2024
Summary: When a kindly woman brings a young criminal into her home, her son objects and tries to come up with a way to get rid of the girl.
February 11, 2025
I find Flannery O'Connor's stories to be a bit odd.
January 4, 2026
Fantastically written, and so interesting to reexamine the text after a faith deconstruction.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews