Delta Wedding was my first book read during May. I chose it to tick off 1945 of my ACOB – and I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. I know lots of people really like Eudora Welty’s writing, but my only previous experience of her writing was not very successful. 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 had really wanted to like it but just couldn’t get to grips with it. I felt I needed to give Eudora Welty another try and this much earlier Welty novel was a charity shop find last year. Good news, I enjoyed Delta Wedding very much indeed, so much in fact that I might revisit Losing Battles one of these days.
Right from the start I was drawn into the story by the exceptional writing and evocative sense of place. It is a novel which deserves slow, considered reading, and while there isn’t a huge amount of plot – the story of a large, Mississippi family, in the weeks around the wedding of their daughter to the plantation overseer, is quite wonderful.
“People are mostly layers of violence and tenderness wrapped like bulbs, and it is difficult to say what makes them onions or hyacinths.”
In September 1923 nine-year-old Laura McRaven travels on the Yellow Dog train from Jackson Mississippi to the family plantation of Shellmound on the Mississippi delta. Laura’s mother has died, and at Shellmound she is enveloped by the enormous Fairchild family – her mother’s family. The cast of characters is huge, and it took me a while to get to grips with who was who. I found some names confusing, a child with the same name as his father and several older aunts called by their husbands’ names; ie Aunt Jim Allen – and Aunt Robbie married to Uncle George – it doesn’t take much to confuse me.
As Laura arrives the family are beginning to gather for the wedding of Dabney the prettiest of the Fairchild children. She is still only seventeen and about to marry an older man, Troy Flavin, a man from the mountains, the family overseer and there is the feeling that deep down the Fairchilds don’t fully approve. Though everyone treats Dabney with all the deference due to a beautiful young bride to be, giving her advice, and gently teasing.
“‘Don’t ever let this husband of yours, whoever he is, know you can cook, Dabney Fairchild, or you’ll spend the rest of your life in the kitchen. That’s the first thing I want to tell you.’”
The day to day events in the lives of this large, proud Southern family are portrayed with humour and affection. Children race around the house and grounds, drawing, poor motherless Laura into their games and their world, while the adults concern themselves with wedding preparations and family gossip. Aunt Ellen is the mother of the bride, mother to eight and expecting again, married to Uncle Battle she is a warm loving presence. Uncle George, the firm family favourite is due to arrive soon from Memphis with his wife Robbie – though when he finally turns up, he is alone, Robbie having apparently left him. This is just about as shocking a thing as any of the Fairchilds have ever heard, that she should leave George! George of course can do no wrong, though we see him as a little less than perfect.
As with all families, stories are told and retold, some quickly taking on an almost legendary status. Like the recent story; told to Laura and then repeated later by the adults – of George walking the railway trestle with young Maureen, as his wife watched nearby. Maureen’s foot got caught in the rail just as the train was coming, George stayed to free the child’s foot as the train raced toward them. Tragedy was averted, but the story of such a close call is hard to resist.
Dabney, the child bride is in love – after her marriage she will move into another family house on the plantation, Marmion. She has her head in the clouds, appearing at table just whenever she feels like it – Laura notices. She is girlish and romantic but despite her youth she knows what she wants and the life she wants is just within reach. The old maiden aunts gift her a small, treasured night light, the object seems to be symbolic for Laura and the aunts and perhaps even for Dabney too.
“Life was not ever inviolate. Dabney, poor sister and bride, shed tears this morning (though belatedly) because she had broken the Fairchild night light the aunts had given her; it seemed so unavoidable to Dabney, that was why she cried, as if she had felt it was part of her being married that this cherished little bit of other peoples’ lives should be shattered now.”
Capturing a time and place perfectly Delta Wedding is the story of long, slow Southern days, a complicated loving family, and ultimately a celebration of a way of life. So very pleased I gave Eudora Welty another chance.
This sounds excellent, it also reminds me of something else but I can’t think what right now. Glad it’s made you keener on Welty again – and another year off the list, hooray!
Yes I feel much more positive about Eudora Welty now. I starting to get obsessed about ticking those years off.
“Good Reads” reviews are a mixed bunch on this book.You did well to give the author a second chance.
I’m glad I made the effort, I can understand that age might be a writer to split opinion.
this sounds delightful – perhaps the perfect read for a lazy summer holiday?
Oh yes I think so.
This does sound good. I’ve only recently read Welty (she’ll be making an appearance in the novella series I’m doing) and I really enjoyed her, so it’s great to have another of hers recommended.That last passage you pulled out is wonderful.
Yes I loved that extract too, she manages to build our understanding of her characters slowly with passages like this.
Sounds good- I’m sorry your first experience with Welty wasn’t so good. Mine A Ponder Heart (the only one I’ve read so far) I enjoyed.
Perhaps A Ponder Heart will be one to look out for then.
Do read it if you get hold of it- it was a fun one. My review is here in case you’re interested: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/853371.The_Ponder_Heart?ac=1&from_search=true
Thank you, I will take a look at that.
The only Welty I’ve read is The Optimist’s Daughter and it was a long time ago. I should read this one, too.
I have heard of The Optimist’s Daughter, though can’t say I know anything about it.
I didn’t get on with this very well when I read it, many years ago. You’re definitely tempting me to give it another chance.
I hope you do, one day I shall have to give Losing Battles another go.
How fortunate that you gave her another try! I’ve also enjoyed One Writer’s Beginnings and The Robber Bridegroom, both very short. Perhaps if you have a couple of short successes, the idea of trying again with your first flop won’t seem so daunting, but it must have been quite the disappointment to have walked away from a couple of hundred pages read.
Yes, it was quite frustrating, but after this success I feel more confident of reading her again.
Nice review Ali. I’ve not read Welty and I don’t even think I own any of her books. It’s odd how we respond to authors so differently at different times.
Yes it is, perhaps it was the wrong time before.
It’s funny how timing and picking the ‘right’ book can make such a difference to our responses to certain writers. There was a time when I thought Muriel Spark might not be for me, but then I read Memento Mori and it was a whole different story – I really clicked with it. Welty sounds like an interesting writer – I’m pleased you decided to give her another chance.
Yes absolutely, I had a similar experience with Virginia Woolf. Eventually we find the right time to read these writers.
I liked this one also but it is rather meandering — I think she’s really great with her characters and sense of place. This is the only novel I’ve read by Welty but I have read a few of her short stories and those are great. “Why I Live at the P. O.” is just hilarious.
I’ve also heard good things about The Optimist’s Daughter which won the Pulitzer Prize.
I should probably look out for those short stories as I generally like short stories, I hadn’t known that The Optimist’s Daughter had won the Pulitzer Prize.
[…] month started really well with Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty, my second try at Welty which was much more successful. A slow, evocative read with […]