Right from the start I was drawn into the story by the exceptional writing and evocative sense of place. Good news, I enjoyed Delta Wedding very much indeed, so much in fact that I might revisit Losing Battles one of these days. I felt I needed to give Eudora Welty another try and this much earlier Welty novel was a charity shop find last year. I had really wanted to like it but just couldn’t get to grips with it. In 2012 I began reading her later novel Losing Battles, (1970) a book of something like 400 pages, I read about half of it before giving up in frustration. I know lots of people really like Eudora Welty’s writing, but my only previous experience of her writing was not very successful.
I chose it to tick off 1945 of my ACOB – and I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. ( )ĭelta Wedding was my first book read during May. I probably won't keep or reread it, but I'm glad I made the effort. I did enjoy parts of this book - the characterization was strong, and of course the setting shines. There's not a great deal of plot here ("a southern family prepares for a big wedding" about sums it up), so there's nothing to pull the story along. Instead, the point of view shifted frequently, sometimes disconcertingly, from one character to another, and that character might get lost in reminiscences for several pages before picking back up in the middle of a scene. Personally, I would have liked this book better if it had remained in Laura's perspective the whole way through. The writing is beautiful, but sometimes I have to read a sentence multiple times to untangle the syntax - and there were a few times when I basically shrugged and moved on! Add to that the particularly Southern vocabulary (for instance, I had to look up "joggling boards"), and characters with names like Battle, Dabney, and Lady Clare (many of which repeat over generations, so they may be talking about an existing character or her deceased great-great-aunt), and the result is a slow-reading text, languid as a Mississippi summer. As preparations for the big day ramp up, family secrets circulate and emotions run high.ĭoes anyone ever read Eudora Welty and immediately comprehend exactly what she's getting at? Because I find her immensely challenging. It's 1923, and nine-year-old Laura McRaven is taking the train down to visit her mother's family in the Delta for the wedding of one of her cousins.
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