The Optimist's Daughter

Rating:
Summary: A Work Designed To Please The Mature Mind
Review: At the time of her death, Eudora Welty of Mississippi was generally considered America's greatest living author. Although Welty made her reputation with and is best remembered for her remarkable short stories, she also wrote a number of novels, including THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

As seen in reviews posted here, THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER provokes a very divided response in readers. This largely due to the nature of the work, which is character rather than plot driven, and which although quite short requires a slow reading in order to develop clearly in mind. Perhaps more so than in any other work, Welty writes "below the surface" here: the story itself, which concerns a daughter who returns to her tiny Mississippi home town when her respected father dies, is quite slight--but Welty endows it with a surprising depth of meaning, transforming what would otherwise be pure character study into a sharply focused and deeply moving statement on the nature of love, loss, life, and the passage of time we must all endure.

Although written in a deceptively simple style, THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER is the mature work of a master. Given the nature of the piece, I do not think it can be much appreciated by young adults; one requires the perspective of at least middle age to fully grasp both its delicacy and beauty. But once that perspective is acquired, THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER should move immediately to the top of every serious reader's list. Strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Work Designed To Please The Mature Mind
Review: At the time of her death, Eudora Welty of Mississippi was generally considered America's greatest living author. Although Welty made her reputation with and is best remembered for her remarkable short stories, she also wrote a number of novels, including THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

As seen in reviews posted here, THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER provokes a very divided response in readers. This largely due to the nature of the work, which is character rather than plot driven, and which although quite short requires a slow reading in order to develop clearly in mind. Perhaps more so than in any other work, Welty writes "below the surface" here: the story itself, which concerns a daughter who returns to her tiny Mississippi home town when her respected father dies, is quite slight--but Welty endows it with a surprising depth of meaning, transforming what would otherwise be pure character study into a sharply focused and deeply moving statement on the nature of love, loss, life, and the passage of time we must all endure.

Although written in a deceptively simple style, THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER is the mature work of a master. Given the nature of the piece, I do not think it can be much appreciated by young adults; one requires the perspective of at least middle age to fully grasp both its delicacy and beauty. But once that perspective is acquired, THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER should move immediately to the top of every serious reader's list. Strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not to the standard expected of a Pulitzer Prize winner
Review: Eudora Welty's Pulitzer prize winning novel, "The Optimist's Daughter", underwhelmed me. That's my honest reaction to this quietly restrained tale of remembrance, whose floodgates were opened by the unexpected death of Judge McKelva and the ensuing funeral gathering of neighbours, in-laws and family. Welty's heroine, Laurel, through whose eyes the tale is told, is so unnaturally quiet - she barely speaks or responds to conversation - she's a Cordelia-like character from "King Lear". She must also be the most underwritten protagonist ever in a novel. The reader has almost to construct her character from the dots left by the author. Wanda Fay is, on the other hand, a caricature - a southern bimbo. The story (thankfully short) moves at such a slow pace you have to pinch yourself to stay awake. The dialogue is awkward and hard to make out. Maybe that's how southerners speak or sound to foreigners. It's only in the last chapter that sparks start to fly and Laurel shows she has blood flowing through her veins. It took a trapped bird in the house to bring that out. Maybe I didn't get it, but "The Optimist's Daughter" must be the most disappointing prize winning book I have read in a long time. Not a priority read. For me anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Tomboy Nun
Review: Hearing this story in the author's own soft, cultivated and yet mischievous Mississippi voice is the greatest treat. I liked the story itself because it was one of those things that you just got drawn into, like family gossip. You don't maybe want to take the time at first, it's hardly blood and thunder, but you just get to wondering why people are where they are in life. How did we get to this pass? All of sudden you find yourself in some little town because your father is in need of an operation , and then you are forced to be among people not your own class because your dad gave into his sexual desires at an advanced age, and the woman he's married stomps all over the family memories and does the bedroom in hooker style. Later, the younger wife's kin will arrive and collectively freak. And you (finally) take it all like a good, believing Christian, but only because you have the gift of irony and humor. And because any other response does violence to the memory of your parents. Classical virtues act like a giant levee against the red mud tide of blind pig-squealing relatives. Is it self-control at a price? Sure. God, I love this woman. May flights of angels send her to her rest.

Rating:
Summary: Perspective on confluence
Review: I believe Eudora Welty chose the story she tells in "The Optimist's Daughter" to present her own point of view (attitude) regarding the inevitable results of the confluence of culture she was witnessing in society. Through Laurel, on the train ride from Chicago to Mount Salus, Welty describes what occurs,looking down from a great distance, when the Missippi and Ohio rivers come together. What she sees is the confluence, the blurring of boundaries, the turbulent wiping out of what has been with the indefinable presence of what is. Reaction to what is in the human heart and consciousness varies. Welty indicates some choose pessimism, some choose optimism, and some choose to accept life as it is "on the true." Once again, through Laurel, Welty reveals her decision regarding how she chooses to react.

Rating:
Summary: How did this win the Pulitzer?
Review: I cannot find much that was redeeming about this book, except that it was so short. The characters were undeveloped, the story disjointed, and the story silly. The author had a hard time juggling what appeared to be a desire to introduce eclectic, satirical characters and tell a story of introspection and the meaning of life and memory. It just didn't work and am rushing out to find out what the pulitzer finalists were that lost to this book.

Rating:
Summary: Take the time for this book...
Review: I enjoyed taking the time to read this short novel. Welty has crafted incredibly believable characters that carry their frustrations and inanities safely in a clip-shut purse to rest on their laps. I particularly enjoyed discovering Fay; she stands for the selfish, nasty, and brutish in all of us; she is all around us, we all know someone like her.

Best of all, however, is Welty's supple gift with language. She constructs the narration with a maturity of style that is difficult to describe. She delves into the lives of the characters, their pasts, their silent struggles, and reveals it with respect. It's as if she were handling a rare vase newly unearthed from a dig, turning it in the light, pointing out the scratches and cracks and always admiring the thing.

This is a character novel. The plot is secondary to the lives of the characters. Inside the story, the gossamer trace of humanity in the characters left me with a tickle--a flutter--and it made me think about things in my life in comparison.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, the book I was looking for....
Review: I lost my mom last year following a lengthly illness--my husband and I were her primary caregivers during the last terrible, torturous months of her life. Since her death, I've had much trouble dealing with the ordeal and with her loss.

Over the past year, I've read a lot about chronic illness, terminal illness, and death--trying to find some sense and understanding of my mother's tragedy. This book helped me where dozens of others couldn't.

Part of my distress has been a lingering sense of guilt that I could have done more, done things better. Objectively, I know I gave everything I had. However, this book helped me examine those emotions, put them in perspective, and hopefully begin to heal. The following horrible quote describes exactly the shortcomings I saw within myself:

"You could have saved your mother's life. But you stood by and wouldn't intervene. I despair for you."

I'm at a loss to explain why this made me feel better--but it did. This is a glorious novella which has helped me more than I can say--I recommend it highly. I apologize for the very personal nature of this review.

Rating:
Summary: The optimists Daughter
Review: I thought this book was well written but missing some elements. When the book first started out it was very confusing. I wasn't sure what was going on or who the characters were. The book got more interesting in the middle. This is where you really learned about the characters personalities and true colors. The book needede more elements of surprise throught the whole book not just near the ending. Overall though the bok was a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Thank goodness it was short
Review: I was just glad I was able to finish this novel in about an hour - while it isn't the worst I've ever read, it was overall dull and sort of pointless to my liking. I never really cared for enough of the characters to really connect to the book, and whenever there was a glimmer of amusement or cleverness, it passed as quickly as it had begun. I never mind literary vagueness, but most of the points in the story were just a tad *too* vague. That having been said, I will comment that the ending of the book did please me - I won't give it away for future readers, but what Laurel does with her life is an enormous relief; had she done otherwise I would probably have dashed the book against a wall!