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!
Rating: 
Summary: The Optimists Daughter
Review: I would recommend Optimists Daughter to anyone. This book is great ! It deals with a judge's daughter and the way she dealt with his death. This book shows the importance of living life to the fullest and the how every person in your life is important in some way whether thay be friends, family, or even neighbors. This is filled with realism by dealing with the death of a loved one to many. Although this book is sad it shows that life is short and we need to live every minute of it to the fullest. The Optimists Daughter shows us that things we deal with every day may be painful but, it is easier if we have friends and other family to support us in times of need.
Rating:
Summary: Optimists Daughter
Review: I would recommend Optimists Daughter to anyone. This book is great! It is filled with realism. It shows the meaning of true friendship and how dealing with death can be painful, but at the same time able to get something from it by finding out some things about the past.Also, the book explains the importance of life and how one minute things can be fine but the next, things may fall apart. Although there is saddness in this book, the main character shows a true quality of being strong for herself and others. Optimists Daughter shows how short life may be and how we need to live it to the fullest. It also shows the importance of every person that fills our life whether they be friends, family, or even neighbors.
Rating:
Summary: The finest in Southern melancholy
Review: I'm not a big fan of Southern fiction in general, but this short novel is definitely a brilliant achievement. With admirable subtlety, Welty creates a portrait of the good and bad in all of us, as personified by demure Laurel and her wonderfully nasty stepmother, Fay. If most of the actual events come and go in the first 25 pages or so, the heart of the novel belongs to the more reflective remainder. Bereaved of her father but also free - for the moment - from the nagging of Fay and her relatives, Laurel experiences an emotional journey instantly recognizable to all of us who have ever stumbled into our families' past. From the thrill of reading your grandparents' childhood letters to the pungent smell of their clothes after years of smoking to the dimly lit bedroom nobody else had entered for 30 years...Welty's prose may be a bit purple, but all those sensations you love and hate at the same time are here. Character development is strong across the board as well. You won't like most of Fay's relatives and some of her friends, but then, you're not supposed to. (Isn't that what funerals are usually like in real life?) And they do blend in well with the vividly illustrated surroundings. You may not want the book to end as quickly as it does, but chances are you'll be happy for Laurel that it's over. You'll also come away with an interesting perspective on an uncomfortable event that most of us have to endure several times in our lives.
Rating:
Summary: The finest in Southern melancholy
Review: I'm not a big fan of Southern fiction in general, but this short novel is definitely a brilliant achievement. With admirable subtlety, Welty creates a portrait of the good and bad in all of us, as personified by demure Laurel and her wonderfully nasty stepmother, Fay. If most of the actual events come and go in the first 25 pages or so, the heart of the novel belongs to the more reflective remainder. Bereaved of her father but also free - for the moment - from the nagging of Fay and her relatives, Laurel experiences an emotional journey instantly recognizable to all of us who have ever stumbled into our families' past. From the thrill of reading your grandparents' childhood letters to the pungent smell of their clothes after years of smoking to the dimly lit bedroom nobody else had entered for 30 years...Welty's prose may be a bit purple, but all those sensations you love and hate at the same time are here. Character development is strong across the board as well. You won't like most of Fay's relatives and some of her friends, but then, you're not supposed to. (Isn't that what funerals are usually like in real life?) And they do blend in well with the vividly illustrated surroundings. You may not want the book to end as quickly as it does, but chances are you'll be happy for Laurel that it's over. You'll also come away with an interesting perspective on an uncomfortable event that most of us have to endure several times in our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Much ado about_______?
Review: I've always wanted to read a Welty book and I picked this one. Unfortunately, because now, I don't think I'll try another.
Why must praise be heaped upon books that make you dig into them to uncover meanings that are obvious human truths? What Laurel(the title character) comes to realize at the end was plain to see at the beginning. Human beings are complex and may have motives that are different from what you assume or what yours would be in similar situations. Laurel knew her parents all her life and only after their deaths does she "get" this.
Rating: 
Summary: well written but a bit dull
Review: If I had not known who wrote this book I would have guessed it was an early Anne Tyler novel. The similiarities in style and content are striking. The main character is interesting and quite well developed, but there are too many rather banal conversations involving minor characters. Welty has a fine eye for detail and a good sense of time and place but the plot is not strong enough to sustain even a short novel. I'm sure I missed half the point of this book, but I could not be bothered to read it again to find out exactly what I'd missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Quietly Epiphanic
Review: If you have long wondered what the fuss about Eudora Welty is all about, read THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER, the 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction. This is no peripheral achievement but the heart of the Welty experience. As you begin reading it, you would describe it as a spare, quiet character study. By the time you finish it--the prose is sleek and straightforward, you glide through it--you are flipping back, realizing the profundities it has kicked up all the way through, hoping you did not miss anything. It is the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, fortysomething widow, who has flown back to the south from her career life in Chicago to be at her father's side as he copes with a medical emergency. It is obvious that she has come because the trophy wife/stepmother, Fay, is not considered up to the task by anyone else's standards. The first part of the novel ends with the judge's death; the second part moves back into the Mississippi house where Laurel grew up for her father's funeral. Here Welty introduces the town folk who hold her father and late mother in high esteem, who regard Fay as a white trash outsider nuisance. Fay reminds everyone that she gets all the property, everything they all view as belonging to the deceased parents and the grown daughter. The first two parts could easily translate to the screen or stage; the last two would be more difficult because Welty turns inward, helping Laurel sort out memory, loss, and what it spells for her future. The power of the book lies in how it twists and turns through the four characters--Laurel, her parents, and Fay--moving around the tensions between them until a full sense of the truth is located. What you first know about Laurel and Fay will be challenged. Neither is simple, nor is the story.
Rating:
Summary: Quietly Epiphanic
Review: If you have long wondered what the fuss about Eudora Welty is all about, read THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER, the 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction. This is no peripheral achievement but the heart of the Welty experience. As you begin reading it, you would describe it as a spare, quiet character study. By the time you finish it--the prose is sleek and straightforward, you glide through it--you are flipping back, realizing the profundities it has kicked up all the way through, hoping you did not miss anything. It is the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, fortysomething widow, who has flown back to the south from her career life in Chicago to be at her father's side as he copes with a medical emergency. It is obvious that she has come because the trophy wife/stepmother, Fay, is not considered up to the task by anyone else's standards. The first part of the novel ends with the judge's death; the second part moves back into the Mississippi house where Laurel grew up for her father's funeral. Here Welty introduces the town folk who hold her father and late mother in high esteem, who regard Fay as a white trash outsider nuisance. Fay reminds everyone that she gets all the property, everything they all view as belonging to the deceased parents and the grown daughter. The first two parts could easily translate to the screen or stage; the last two would be more difficult because Welty turns inward, helping Laurel sort out memory, loss, and what it spells for her future. The power of the book lies in how it twists and turns through the four characters--Laurel, her parents, and Fay--moving around the tensions between them until a full sense of the truth is located. What you first know about Laurel and Fay will be challenged. Neither is simple, nor is the story.
Rating:
Summary: Portrays struggle of accepting new ties within a family.
Review: It is hard for one to let go of past memories and to accept a new face, especially one who is tremendously different from the family's own identity. A woman who must try to deal in the best way she can, as hard as it may be to understand the predictions and words spoken from her mother. She must try to forget and try to realize as well, what her father has seen in the past few years of his life. What was each of them struggling to hold on to, what out of life did each of them desire. She must find an inner peace, so that she can move ahead and forget the past
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