The Optimist's Daughter

The book builds the characters layer by layer. We can feel their pain and their joys. The contrast of the daughter and the new younger wife if stunning. The author compares and contrast the two while comparing and contrasting the people of the town and the new wife's family. I read this with my bookclub and I think we were all struck by the love shown when the daughter remembers her father and mother (the first wife) reading to each other in bed at night while she listens through the walls. Great book for anyone who enjoys southern novels and anyone who knows sharing books with others holds its own magic.

I really enjoyed the book when it was about Laurel and her relationship with her ailing father, and found their struggles to connect poignant and moving. The stepmother Fay and her cretin relatives were just annoying, and I skimmed to the end

The book is divided into four parts. The story floats between past and present, with the characters, both deceased and living,carrying the tale along in a dream like fashion. Those characters are wonderfully drawn and some of the dialogues are laugh out loud funny. I enjoyed the book, but the unusual writing style had me reading and rereading whole paragraphs in an attempt to grasp Welty's intended meaning. I wasn't always successful and so am left with a feeling that my intellect was not able to keep up with Eudora's! This book would be a great choice for a book club...lots to ponder.

The story is about a forty-something daughter who returns to her childhood home to help her father through a surgery which eventually leads to his death. Laurel, the daughter, sits through her father’s wake as a flood of old friends dawdle around when the new wife’s white trash family invades the solemn farewell. The heart of the story is hard to point out. Every word, every character and their diction, every event within those few days that story takes places come together at the end for Laurel. When the sum of it all leads to a grand realization that will not only help her through this loss, but in life. Things I particularly loved about the novel—how the author used nature to set the mood and sometimes foreshadowed things to come. The rose bushes. Her mother’s childhood house set on a high mountain. The river. The caged pigeons. And the bird that got in through the chimney; and could escape. The storm… And even the breadboard her husband had so lovingly made for her mother. The read was like walking through a muddy road in red heels. But. Once I'd reached the paved road, I stood looking down at my beautiful expensive red shoes and looked back at the muddy road behind. I had a choice be angry about the muddy shoes or see the beauty ahead of me. I chose the latter, much like Laurel. When the heart of the story is climaxed at the second to the last page, that’s when it will all make sense; and that is the heart of the story.

On its face, this is a "little book," not only because it is short in length, but because its written in simple prose, straightforward language, and tells a bittersweet, simple story. But don't be fooled; beneath the surface lies a swirling tale of frustration and betrayal. Blink, and you will miss it. I did. On my second slower reading, I found layers in the layers, resentments and disappointments, flashes of anger and bitterness-even among friends, families and lovers. Through the telling of this simple tale, the author pursues various themes, using character study, plot development, symbols (birds, flowers, and other household objects). Very few insights are given in a straightforward, declarative manner, but are unfolded slowly, in independent presentations, to which the reader gives weight by finding connections. For example, one of the larger themes the author pursues is the way love and interdependence intertwine. In that regard, the author writes: "But Laurel had kept the pigeons under eye in their pigeon house and had already seen a pair of them sticking their beaks down each other's throats, gagging each other, eating out of each other's craws, swallowing down all over again what had been swallowed before...They convinced her that they could not escape each other and could not themselves be escaped from." Later in the novel, she revisits this theme describing how Laurel's mother, on her death bed, angrily confronted her husband's inability to "see" her pain and frustration (which the mother refers to as "her betrayal") by calling him a coward--but simultaneously and steadfastly clinging to his hands, and refusing to let go. Among other themes, as the title suggests, the author explores the notion of optimism, with the converse for the author, not being pessimism, but being realistic--the strength to face life and go on, even with its pains and difficulties. In that regard, the author writes, "But he was not an optimist--she knew that. Phil had learned everything he could manage to learn, and done as much as he had time for, to design houses to stand, to last, to be lived in; but he had known they could equally well, with the same devotion and tireless effort, be built of cards." In conclusion, even after two readings, I feel that I have only scratched the surface of this book's depth. My suggestion for one considering a read, to achieve the maximum value this book has to offer, be prepared to do the work. If you are not (which is of course fine), its probably not the best choice.

This is not a plot driven book. It is a character study with Eudora Welty's powerful ability to tell her story through images and examples such as a lit-up bridge visible in the distance, flocks of birds and other powerful images. Through the death of her father and the encounters she has with her new step-mother, Laurel Hand is able to move forward into life rather than becoming stuck in the past. Although short in length, the book moves slowly because the reader needs time to evaluate and apply the other messages given by the author through her use of images. Ms Welty does not tell us what to think, she lets us come to our own conclusions. This is a book that can be read many times and still find new meaning.

*****

Libro di sicuro valore letterario ed artistico. Per le mie inclinazioni pero' non cosi' scorrevole ed avvincente.

I read this book because Anne Tyler said that when she started writing, Eudora Welty was a major influence and Anne Tyler is my favourite writer. Well, this novel does not have the detailed behavioural insights of AT and as a result I found myself detached and unconcerned by Laurel's emotional battle with her step mother at her father's funeral. Other reviewers have said you need to come from the deep South in America to understand the interest in one generation's influence upon the next. I missed it. Apparently you need to read it twice to understand why it won a Pulitzer prize, but there are too many other books waiting.

Seemed to have a point towards the end of the book, but I was racing to get through it Because I was bored, but sure there was more to it because it won the Pulitzer Prize. Turned me off reading more Eudora Welty.

As a character study this short book works; as a novel it lacks purpose. Laurel has come home to Mississippi because of her father's illness and finds herself at loggerheads with his new wife, Fay. The characters are finely drawn and the sense of place is engaging, but I found myself at the end wondering what the point of the story was; Laurel does not seem to learn anything about herself or her parents, issues with Fay are not resolved - there is no enlightenment or feeling of growth. The story is split into four parts and when I'd finished I read the final part again to try to see what I'd missed - but the meaning escapes me.