Category: Pulitzer Prize

The Optimist's Daughter Year: 1972 Author: Eudora Welty Length: 239 minutes / 3.98 hours The Optimist's Daughter is yet another short piece of Pulitzer Prize winning prose that I failed to connect with. Sure, the writing is solid, if not flowery at times. The problem with these kinds of books (Housekeeping also coming to mind here) is that I don't feel it has anything significant to say. Contrasting Chicago from New Orleans is so common that culture clash is an inevitable trope for any character who ventures into the south from their home in the north. Family drama always seems to attract prize-winning status. Here, we see the titular optimist's daughter as she grapples with the death of her optimist father. The death of a patriarch always brings out the worst in people as they try to get as much of the remaining estate they can get their hands on. Not that the titular character isn't without faults either, as her judgmental nature of her...