Stephen King Puts A Satisfying Spin On 1 Classic Short Story In You Like It Darker

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for You Like It Darker

Summary King revisits O'Connor's bleak tale with a more upbeat ending, giving a satisfying spin on the classic story.

"On Slide Inn Road" alters O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by having Granpop beat the attacker to death.

The story offers a cathartic update, focusing on empowering the characters rather than unsettling the reader with horror.

In You Like It Darker, Stephen King revisits Flannery O’Connor’s most infamous story and gives the tale a more upbeat ending. Stephen King has never hidden the creative debt he owes to the legendary writers who came before him. In On Writing, the author talks about Joyce, Faulkner, and Hemingway alongside H.P. Lovecraft and acknowledges that both literary fiction and classic genre stories contributed to his unique style. In one story from 2024’s collection You Like It Darker, King highlights his love of classic American fiction with a nod to Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”

A famous bleak tale, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is arguably O’Connor’s most influential story. While many of King’s books are bleak, even the iconic horror writer would struggle to come up with a tale darker than this one. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” follows a family road trip that ends in brutal tragedy when the entire clan is pitilessly killed by escaped convicts. In King’s You Like It Darker story, the same storyline is revisited from a slightly different angle. The family is still prone to squabbling and their detour remains a bad idea.

Related All Short Stories In Stephen King's You Like It Darker Book, Ranked You Like It Darker features a range of compelling stories from Stephen King, but some of these narratives are more memorable than others.

You Like It Darker Pays Homage To A Classic Short Story By Flannery O’Connor

On Slide Inn Road Sees King Riff On "A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

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However, King’s ”On Slide Inn Road” alters the ending of O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" after borrowing its basic setup. O’Connor’s story famously ends with the last survivor, the Grandmother, being killed in cold blood by the Misfit after she tries to appeal to his better nature. In contrast, King’s ”On Slide Inn Road” instead sees the elderly Granpop beat the family’s attacker to death with a baseball bat after tricking the criminal into searching the boot of their car. This makes for a far more cathartic conclusion than the nihilistic ending of the original classic.

”On Slide Inn Road” changes a few details of O’Connor’s plot, with two criminals accosting the family instead of three. However, both plots include the elder members of the family falsely remembering a shortcut that ends up getting the family lost and, later, accosted by criminals. King even includes a line about ”Thinking of Flannery O'Connor" in the story’s ending to clarify its inspiration. The setting of the two stories further underlines this, as both “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and ”On Slide Inn Road” gradually move from populated towns toward more remote, isolated dirt tracks.

Stephen King Puts A Satisfying Spin On O'Connor's Classic In "On Slide Inn Road”

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Some of You Like It Darker’s stories are as scary as King’s classic horror novels, but “On Slide Inn Road” seems more concerned with offering a satisfying end to O’Connor’s story than unsettling the reader. The plot is tense but the revelation that Grandpop is a Vietnam veteran is one early clue that the family might be saved when they find themselves in trouble later on. Where O’Connor’s grandmother had nothing but her faith to rely on, Grandpop has brute force to utilize against the criminals. Thus, this Stephen King offers an empowering riff on O’Connor’s grim classic.