I'm reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and am struck by the vividness of O'Connor's characters. Especially the boy Bevel in "The River," the second story. I'm remembering the conference I went to in Millegeville in 93 at Flannery's college. So many people there, and from all over. Sweden, LA, but not many from Georgia. Leo Keottke was there. Lee Smith. All to pay tribute to O'Connor. I read recently that Bruce Springsteen was highly influenced by her.
I like this description of the location in "The River:" "Across the river there was a low red and gold grove of sassafras with hills of dark blue trees behind it and an occasional pine jutting over the skyline. Behind, in the distance, the city rose like a cluster of warts on the side of the mountain. The birds revolved downward and dropped lightly in the top of the highest pine and sat hunch-shouldered as if they were supporting the sky." She certainly had a way with words.
I emailed my poem of Flannery to Toby Aldrich, the resident curator of the Flannery O'Connor childhood home. He said he's seen Flannery as a child several times and that once she woke him up. Said it didn't scare him a bit! It sure would freak me out tho.
It would be interesting to visit the O'Connor conference again. Last time, they showed films of her books that had been made into films. Wise Blood, for example. It would be great to see her childhood home also, as well as Andulusia. That would be a great vacation! I could even ask to overnight at her home in Savannah to see if she might pay me a visit.
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