A review by serendipitysbooks
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 1973 winner, The Optimist's Daughter, follows Laurel as she travels from Chicago to New Orleans to be with her father, Judge McKelva, as he convalesce from surgery. He fails to recover, and the story then moves to his hometown in Mississippi, where he will be buried. Much of the story centres on the conflict between Laurel and her stepmother Fay, who is both younger than Laurel and of a different class. I was uncertain about this aspect of the story since the characterisation of Fay felt a little over-the-top, lacking in subtlety and nuance. Once Fay leaves Mississippi, the focus shifts to Laurel, the warm interactions she shares with the neighbours and her memories of family and friends, which lead her to re-evaluate her own life and be able to move forward in a healthy and positive way. Her personal journey and her reckoning with the past were the more successful parts of the story for me.
 
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