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Loading... The Optimist's Daughter (original 1972; edition 1990)by Eudora Welty (Author)
Work InformationThe Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (1972)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I'm guessing I would not have loved this as much if I had read it in print. Eudora Welty reading it herself with all of the proper cadences and inflections made the story come to life for me. It's a character study in grief that is anchored in the Deep South and resonates with what it is to be human. This novella has a much heavier, darker mood than I have become accustomed to from Welty. There is little that could be mistaken for humor, and I felt a total abhorrence for the character, Fay, which is also a departure from what I have come to expect from Welty. Her characters are generally likable at some level. Of course, the subject matter, death and its aftermath, is so serious and Welty addresses it head on. I felt so sad for Laurel and the complete loss she experiences. Even in light of all the kind people who care for her in the town, she has suffered a loss that cannot be lightly comforted. Perhaps, having lost my own parents, I felt this at a visceral level. I am grateful, and have always been, that I was not an only child, that my loss was shared completely and wholly by others and that my memories were still shared in a way that no outsider could ever have known. She is a remarkable writer. There is a reason she received the Pulitzer, although this would not be my choice for her best work. This is a beautifully written quiet little book. The descriptions especially are very evocative, and certainly I know these people, having grown up in the South myself. I'm not sure how much I connected to the story or these characters, though--I felt, as I read, like a disinterested observer, admiring the craft but not getting emotionally involved. Perhaps it is because I feel like I have read the Southern novel so many times over that it has become too shopworn for me by now, which is probably more a fault of mine than of this author's. This is a slim novel that is a slow read. (at least for me). I think I have read some of Welty's short stories over the years - but came upon this when I decided to randomly choose a Pulitzer prize winner for my next read, something I have never done before. (as an aside - I happen to be going through PVD right now and there is a worry of a retinal tear and can not believe that I happened to choose a book that begins with a retinal tear. I told my Ophthalmologist and she said she has never read a fiction book about a retinal tear - what are the chances? ). Anyhoo, I think I understand why this won the PP. It is such a deep study of people - the themes are big and hard to ignore. Vision being the most prominent - and memory. I think I am glad I read it - even though the timing was weird for me.
The best book Eudora Welty has ever written, "The Optimist's Daughter" is a long goodbye in a very short space not only to the dead but to delusion and to sentiment as well. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Literature.
This Pulitzer Prizeâ??winning novel tells the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who has left the South and returns, years later, to New Orleans, where her father is dying. After his death, she and her silly young stepmother go back still farther, to the small Mississippi town where she grew up. Along in the old house, Laurel finally comes to an understanding of the past, herself, and her paren No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Her father's clueless and stupidly cruel second wife, Fay, is Laurel's age. While Laurel embraces the past, her family's past, Fay shuns it. "The past isn't a thing to me. I belong to the future, didn't you know that?" The future doesn't look good to Laurel. She returns to Chicago after burning her mother's letters, her past life gone. ( )