The Optimist's Daughter: Pulitzer Prize Winner (Abridged)

by Eudora Welty Narrated by Eudora Welty

Overview

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who has left the South and returns, years later, to New Orleans, where her father is dying. After his death, she and her silly young stepmother go back still farther, to the small Mississippi town where she grew up. Along in the old house, Laurel finally comes to an understanding of the past, herself, and her parents.

Editorial Reviews

NOVEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

Eudora Welty performs her own work, which glows with Southern ambiance and sensibilities. She adeptly depicts the world of Laurel McKelva, who is coping with the death of her father in a New Orleans hospital. When Laurel returns to Mississippi, friends and family converge to bid the Judge adieu. Welty delivers her picturesque prose with a measured pace, a genuine accent, and a natural cadence that she truly owns. The characters’ internal observations and ageless colloquialisms are spoken with an ease and comfort that honor old-fashioned Southern ways. Her voice gently hints at class snobbery while grief, loss, love, and family resentments blend as an excuse for the characters to masterfully vent. Although some of the dialogue lacks expression, perhaps the author performs it thus to place the vanishing time and place in high relief. A.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

Eudora Welty performs her own work, which glows with Southern ambiance and sensibilities. She adeptly depicts the world of Laurel McKelva, who is coping with the death of her father in a New Orleans hospital. When Laurel returns to Mississippi, friends and family converge to bid the Judge adieu. Welty delivers her picturesque prose with a measured pace, a genuine accent, and a natural cadence that she truly owns. The characters’ internal observations and ageless colloquialisms are spoken with an ease and comfort that honor old-fashioned Southern ways. Her voice gently hints at class snobbery while grief, loss, love, and family resentments blend as an excuse for the characters to masterfully vent. Although some of the dialogue lacks expression, perhaps the author performs it thus to place the vanishing time and place in high relief. A.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171964580
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	04/19/2011
Edition description:	Abridged

Videos