The very first sentence of The Violent Bear It Away:
"Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was sitting and bury it in a Christian way, with the sign of the Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up."
It is an incredibly powerful run-on sentence and a start to a book you can't stop. Front loading a story like that is unusual, but effective if the skill is there. Flannery O'Connor is virtually unmatched. The Violent Bear It Away was her second and last book. She was considered to be of the southern gothic style and you can see why. She died of lupus in 1964, she was only 39. More here.
