Flannery O’Connor: Rare Recordings

I came to appreciate the work of Flannery O’Connor over time. In 1962, during my freshman year at Georgetown, I read one of her stories for the first time. A friend handed me a book containing several of her short stories and suggested I read at least one of them. I chose “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” because of its rather pleasant title. Was I surprised! I simply didn’t know what to make of this strange story of the mass murder of what I considered very stupid people by very evil people. It was certainly the most shocking short story I had ever come across. I’ll admit I didn’t fully grasp its meaning or appreciate its characters, probably because it was all so far beyond my own limited experience. In truth, I really didn’t even know how to understand the story, and so I just returned the book to my friend without much comment. I was probably too young, too naive, and simply too stupid to grasp what Flannery O’Connor was trying to tell me. Only years later did I begin to read her works a bit more seriously. And this was thanks to Dear Diane, my wife of 54 years. Diane, the English major, had been a longtime fan of O’Connor‘s work and encouraged me to read this great Southern writer. And a Southerner she certainly was. She was also Catholic, a devout Catholic, at that time not particularly common in rural Georgia. 

I won’t review her life and work here. That’s not my purpose. Flannery O’Connor died in 1964 at the young age of 39 after battling lupus her entire adult life. Perhaps not surprisingly, there are few recordings of her voice, but those we have are absolutely priceless. Whenever I hear her voice, I’m reminded of some of Diane’s Georgia relatives, especially those who were older and are no longer with us. They all had such delightful Southern accents. Anyway, I find it a joy to listen to O'Connor.

I’ve provided links to two audio recordings, both available on YouTube. In the first O’Connor reads that remarkable story I first read so many years ago:

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

And here’s a recording of her reading one of her essays:

“Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”

I hope you enjoy them. And if you have never read Flannery O’Connor’s work, perhaps hearing her voice will encourage you to do so.