The major character is young Jack Renfro who has just escaped from Parchman Prison one day before his scheduled release to attend the reunion.
LOSING BATTLES EUDORA WELTY SERIES
The book is a series of humorous short stories and vignettes that Welty wrote over the years and pieced together to form the novel. It takes place during a family reunion for the birthday of a family matriarch. This book is set in northeastern Mississippi in 1931 in the midst of the Great Depression. It is an enigmatic comedy that may bear a variety of readings.įifteen years separated "The Ponder Heart" from Welty's next novel, the lengthy "Losing Battles" which was shortlisted for the National Book Award. The book is told in the brilliantly unreliable voice of one Edna Earle Ponder who describes small-town Mississippi, a murder, and a trial.
The book tells the story of a decaying Mississippi family when one of its more eccentric members marries into a family commonly described as "trash". Welty received the William Howells Medal for Fiction for her short novel of 1954, "The Ponder Heart." This novel also became a Broadway play and musical. A major character in the book, George Fairchild, shows exuberance in his acceptance of life and people. The short book moves slowly and deliberately as it offers a portrayal of a family, the Delta in all its aspects, and change. The book describes the wedding of young Dabney Fairchild, 17, of a close-knit wealthy plantation family, to Troy Flavin,34, the overseer of the family plantation. Set in a small town in the Mississippi Delta in 1923, "Delta Wedding" (1946) is quintessential Welty. The book is one of two Welty novels that became a Broadway play. The story is a contrast of innocence and naivety with greed and cupidity. The characters include the legendary, swaggering riverboat man, Mike Fink. It is a mixture of legend, fairy tale, and realism told with humor, quickness, and style. Welty's first novel, "The Robber Bridegroom" (1942) is a short, historical work set in the late 18th Century. My brief thoughts on each of the novels follow below. This Library of America volume includes each of the novels together with a valuable chronology of Welty's life and short textual notes. She published her first novel in 1942 and her final novel in 1972. The novels span much of Welty's lengthy career as a writer. There is a great deal of humor in the novels, but in precision and detail of the writing, they make demanding reading. The single long novel, "Losing Battles" is itself a collection of small scenes and stories joined together. Welty takes small scenes and places and develops them closely. Of the five novels in this LOA collection, four are short. Many passages have an almost photographic quality of a writer with a sharp eye, but the books capture nuances of meaning and thought that photographs can develop only rarely. The books show a strong interest in description, both of places and people.
LOSING BATTLES EUDORA WELTY PROFESSIONAL
In addition to writing, Welty had a strong professional interest in photography which shows, I think, in her novels.
It is difficult not to fall in love with the state and its people in reading Welty. All her novels are set in Mississippi and have a strongly local character. Welty was born and lived her entire life in Jackson, Mississippi.
Eudora Welty : Stories, Essays & Memoir (Library of America, 102) When the Library of America published its two volumes of Welty's writings in 1998, it was the first time that the series had published the work of a living American writer. A companion volume in the Library of America includes her stories, for which she is better known, together with her essays. I became interested in reading further in Eudora Welty (1909 - 2001) after reading a recently published volume of her correspondence with her friend and editor, William Maxwell." What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell" Thus, I read this Library of America volume which includes Welty's complete novels. A companion volume in the Library of America includes her stories, for which she is better known, Eudora Welty's Novels In The Library Of America Eudora Welty's Novels In The Library Of America I became interested in reading further in Eudora Welty (1909 - 2001) after reading a recently published volume of her correspondence with her friend and editor, William Maxwell." What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell" Thus, I read this Library of America volume which includes Welty's complete novels.
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