The Optimist's Daughter: Parts 1 and 2
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Apr 24 • 1HR 1M
The Optimist's Daughter: Parts 1 and 2
Close Reads is a book-club podcast for the incurable reader. Featuring David Kern, Tim McIntosh and Heidi White, alongside a couple of other occasional guests, we read Great Books and talk about them. This is a show for amateurs in the best sense. We’re book lovers, book enthusiasts. This is not an experts show and it’s barely literary analysis in the way that literary analysis is commonly understood. Instead it’s a show about experiences with literary urge. Join us!
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Welcome to a new series of episodes on a new book! This week David, Heidi, and Sean are digging into Eudora Welty’s Pulitzer Prize winner, discussing such topics as the book’s similarities to Jane Austen’s work, whether Faye is purely an antagonist, the very Southern sense of humor in the story, and much more! Happy listening!
The Optimist's Daughter: Parts 1 and 2
So many good comments. To the question of sympathizing with Faye, I can to a tiny extent. She is extremely annoying but she actually reveals herself. She also wasn’t given as much by life so you give her a pass. Laurel on the other hand won’t share. So in this small instance, I can see why Faye might lash out with her insecurities. It’s interesting that both women have left their families and homes. Thinking to Heidi’s interest in the mother daughter relationship-Is Laurel more like her Mom or Dad in her behavior? I’m having feelings for her, but she doesn’t seem motivated to make change or to address Faye’s dysfunction or her Dad’s apathy. She reminds me of her Dad in the way she passively watches his life wind down. He is dying-is she even alive? What is going to animate her? Are her father and her actually grieving still for the mother? The mother was clearly the gardener. Is she what gave the home a life force? I do think it’s a lesson about death though. It brings out the worst in people. It’s just raw and ugly. Nobody is the hero because we are all subjugated by it. I’m curious about Welty as a writer. She is good, but is she profound? Will she be able to capture something about divine grace in all of this? I’ve never even heard of her so really enjoyed the recommendation here for this book. Peace.
Would the Judge still be alive if he had taken Fay's advice and let nature be the healer? It seems ironic that this child/woman whom we all want to "punch in the neck" (is that where Southerner's punch instead of at the nose?) is perhaps right about the operation, thought for the wrong motives. The Judge seems to just give up (granted he is physically immobile and blinded) after the surgery. He doesn't even talk to Laurel much. Whatever Fay is (fool or villain) she has a lot of energy and desire and it is directly expressed, not muted.