Episode 23 Flannery O’Connor: A Good Man is Hard to Find

Doug and Caren are back together to talk about Flannery O’Connor’s most famous short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”

After a brief digression on summer road trips, they turn to the most famous account of a family trip gone horribly wrong. We delve into the nature of evil, the nihilist tendencies of the age, and the possibility of grace.

A sample of Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” provides the epigraph. Plus, our Top 10 Road Trip Ideas.

Show notes:

I highly recommend the Library of America’s Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works. You can find all of her fiction, most essays, and a wide selection of her correspondence (with a useful index for references to ideas, figures, and pieces of fiction).

Here is O’Connor reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” You’ll never hear her fiction the same way again.