Another Southerner

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
New York : Vintage Books, 1990.
180 p. ; 21 cm.

The past several years I've been updating our library's collection of literary criticism and noticed the availability of several volumes of Bloom's criticisms for Eudora Welty.  I acquired two and added a couple of her novels, too.  I had heard of Welty, but had never read any of her novels so I picked The Optimist's Daughter - the novel that brought Welty a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

In some ways the novel is more of a meditation than a novel.  Very little really "happens" in the novel - a daughter returns to the south to be with her father for a surgery that does not turn out well, and has to deal with the shallow new wife that her father recently married.

Before returning to Chicago where she lives and works, the main character, Laurel revisits the home of her childhood and ruminates on the people her mother and father were.

It's not an incredibly compelling read, but I enjoyed it and appreciated its subtle and light-handed touch, a touch which does not take away from seriousness of the subject matter. I'd definitely recommend Welty for a student looking for an author to research for an English class.

Welty's novel reminded me a bit of Carson McCullers, and made me want to go back and reread some Flannery O'Connor - which I have not read in many, many years.

A Wake Up Call

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
New York: Bantam Books, 1992.
xx, 211 p. ; 18 cm.

This 1899 novel is on our student's AP list, and it is one that I've meant to get around to reading.  It's interesting because when I told my partner I was reading it, she said, "But you read that years ago!" I said, "No way, I'd remember that."  But she reminded me of the ending scene (which I won't give away here) and it suddenly dawned on me - oh yeah, I sure did!

In discussing my REreading of The Awakening, I said how - though it has a bit of the melodramatic, flowery style of the late 19th century - there is a lot to this novel that is decades ahead of its time and reminded me of the early writings of feminist movement writings of the 1950s and 60s (Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique comes readily to mind). My partner mentioned that I should listen to Diane Rehm' show where she discusses Chopin's novel with several guests - that podcast is on my to-do list.

The novel is really a great study of the emergence of a feminist consciousness in a woman hemmed in by the constraints of a conventional white, upper-class life in late 19th century New Orleans.  Edna, the main character is a woman of restless passion, spirit and longings who settled early for having a family and sharing her life with a wealthy, decent man who is nevertheless condescending and patronizing toward her - but clearly not her equal in passion, curiosity and spirit.  The novel deals with all the complications and turmoil that ensues from Edna's struggle to escape the confines of the narrow role she is in at the beginning of the novel.

I think many young people would enjoy the novel well enough.  It is relatively short and the structure is straightforward.  However, I think many students would find it interesting (and surprising) that the novel was so controversial - since by today's standards it is so tame as to be almost bland.