( 6 reviews )
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Posted: Apr 4 2009
This book was recommed to me in an online discussion group for classics, so I ordered it and looked forward to reading it. However, I never really got into it, I tried very hard several times, there are hardly any books I have not finished but with this one I just couldn't make myself read on. There are endless descriptions of what various members of the Fairchild family think and do during a long hot week. The style varies, depending on which persons thoughts we are following, but the thoughts are so boring and the writing doesn't help either. After about 100 pages I gave up and I couldn't even think of someone who I could give this book to.
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( 1 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: Nov 10 2006
I had always wanted to read something by Eudora Welty, and this book cured me of that. What a confusing bunch of characters--one didn't know if they were white or black--young or old. The one bright spot in the book was her very descriptive language.
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( 3 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: Oct 31 2006
Welty has a way with words that is unlike any other American author. Delta Wedding is one of those "typical" Welty books that delivers passages that you have to reread several times because they are so evocative of time, place or spirituality. DW is set at Shellmound, the Fairchild's plantation in the Mississippi Delta, aka cotton country. Laura McRaven, a cousin to the Fairchilds' travels by train from Jackson to Fairchild and is both overwhelmed by her huge family of cousins, aunts and uncles, and lured to be accepted by them. Laura's mother had recently passed away, and she expects to be treated special as a result. Other than her first greeting by her Aunt Ellen (the matriarch of this enormous family) she is pretty much left to fend for herself. Sometimes this proves too much for her, but by the end of the novel it seems that Laura fits right in with the rest of the Fairchilds. One theme in particular that I liked about the book is that of the view of the outsider. Laura is an outsider who both wants to be inside and remain outside. She likes her "special-ness" by being an orphan and not being part of the Fairchild clan, but she desperately wants to be part of something grand, and the Fairchilds seem like a good place to start. Ellen, who married Battle Fairchild, is from Virginia and is seen as snooty even though she is thoroughly in love with the people around her. Welty does such a wonderful job of showing someone who is so overwhelmed by her life that she can't seem to react with enthusiasm--it's as if she's a piece of drift wood in the Yazoo River. Then there is Troy Flavin who is the bride groom of the story. Not only is he from another part of Mississippi where there are hills, but he is the overseer for the plantation--he is doubly outside. He looks different than everyone else, too. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the world from Troy's perspective other than in the few statements he makes about his mother and her quilting. I enjoyed reading DW, though I have to admit I wished it were a little shorter. I felt myself being overwhelmed by the huge cast of characters. I still don't know how many children Battle and Ellen have, and I found myself wondering who some minor characters were upon their reintroduction to the story. That said, Welty has such a talent for a turn of phrase or for the absurd, that I found myself laughing out loud and thoroughly enjoying this book.
