The Optimist's Daughter

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty was written in 1972 which is when I first read it and loved it.  It was chosen for one of my book groups December read.  It's always interesting to go back and re-read a book that you remembered either loving or hating to see how the book affects you after time.  I didn't especially love the book this time reading it, although it is a good story and made for good discussion in book group.

This is a short novel that takes place in New Orleans.  Laurel is a young widow living and working in Chicago who is called back to New Orleans when her father, Judge McKelva, was going in for surgery for a detached retina.  Her father had been widowed and remarried a woman younger than Laurel.  His new wife, Fay, is a very self-centered woman who was quite put out with the Judge for going into the hospital and putting her life on hold while he had surgery.  Needless to say, Laurel finds Fay quite difficult.

Sadly, the Judge does not recover from the surgery and the family was told that he was dying.  After he died, he was taken back to their small town where Laurel and Fay had to deal with each other as they came to some kind of understanding of where each stood.

There are all kinds of family dynamics going on in this novel!  Not only does Laurel have to come to terms with her father's death, but also giving up the family home and the memories of her mother there.  It's a good book and was worth the re-read.

It is interesting to note that this book won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction!






Welty's book, The Optimist's Daughter, is beautifully written to showcase the use of the written language and that of the spoken dialect in small town Mississippi. It's a joy to read and it easily transports the reader to the South and back to the mid-1900's. The story unfolds very slowly. It opens at a somber time for the McKelva family, but we are encouraged as Judge McKelva is an optimist. The limited action picks up speed with additional characters and their interaction. The the real story is not the action, but the self reflection by Laurel, the optimist's daughter. We learn her history and follow her process of letting go. It's difficult to write a story that makes "inaction" the "action" and Welty did a wonderful job of it. It's fair to say that if the story was changed to current time, the ending might have been different -- which would make a great group discussion.
Welty's book, The Optimist's Daughter, is beautifully written to showcase the use of the written language and that of the spoken dialect in small town Mississippi. It's a joy to read and it easily transports the reader to the South and back to the mid-1900's. The story unfolds very slowly. It opens at a somber time for the McKelva family, but we are encouraged as Judge McKelva is an optimist. The limited action picks up speed with additional characters and their interaction. The the real story is not the action, but the self reflection by Laurel, the optimist's daughter. We learn her history and follow her process of letting go. It's difficult to write a story that makes "inaction" the "action" and Welty did a wonderful job of it. It's fair to say that if the story was changed to current time, the ending might have been different -- which would make a great group discussion.
Welty's book, The Optimist's Daughter, is beautifully written to showcase the use of the written language and that of the spoken dialect in small town Mississippi. It's a joy to read and it easily transports the reader to the South and back to the mid-1900's. The story unfolds very slowly. It opens at a somber time for the McKelva family, but we are encouraged as Judge McKelva is an optimist. The limited action picks up speed with additional characters and their interaction. The the real story is not the action, but the self reflection by Laurel, the optimist's daughter. We learn her history and follow her process of letting go. It's difficult to write a story that makes "inaction" the "action" and Welty did a wonderful job of it. It's fair to say that if the story was changed to current time, the ending might have been different -- which would make a great group discussion.