This month's Book Club, we are doing a short story by Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find." This short story is set in the South, before the civil rights movement. It follows a grandmother, traveling with her family, as she gives various definitions and applications to what it means to be a "good man." Keep in mind, Flannery is trying to show that no one is good but God, and see how that plays out, as we look around, catagorizing people, catagorizing herself, and trying to constantly use the law to manipulate.

The overuse or lack of use of God's law is the highlight of this story, as each character and reader tries to find a way to wiggle loose from the law of God, thinking that their definition of good is actually what it means to be good.

This story is jolting, haunting, and will knock the wind out of you. Each reading will bring more to the surface. The killer in the story wrestles with the idea of Jesus, the resurrection, and trying to figure out what he ever did wrong. This is a story where ideas like nostalgia, or utopia, or various cultures runs full speed into God's perfect law, and nothing survives.

Show Notes:

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More from the hosts:

• Gretchen Ronnevik

• Katie Koplin

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" short story.

Flannery O'Connor's book of letters "The Habit of Being"

A long history of "Nobody Wants to Work Anymore" on Twitter (Paul Fairie, @paulisci)

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