Someone recently asked me about which of Flannery O’Connor’s stories might be read as an exclusively secular story, one that shows few signs of O’Connor’s well-deserved reputation as a superb Catholic writer. Although there are several short stories can be characterized as at least somewhat secular, with limited overt religious themes, a good place to start our secular search would be “The Barber,” one of the author’s thesis stories written during her graduate studies at University of Iowa.

In this apprentice story by a young O’Connor, a social commentary and character study set in the American south, an earnest though obtuse liberal named Rayber supports a like-minded local politician in the forthcoming Democratic primary, and Rayber is eager to share his enthusiasm with others.