Eudora Welty (1909–2001)

Had a dreamy quality that I enjoyed. The atmosphere was kind of beautiful and the descriptions were great and the scenes felt real. I liked it.

Weird/bad points: there was pretty much no conflict involved in the book even though quite a bit was set up, which was bizarre. For example, there are constant references to Troy's seeming unsuitability as a husband but nothing comes of it - and there's not really much explanation of WHY people talk about him as unsuitable. Near the end, Shelley witnesses him apparently shooting a black worker who's threatening him with a knife. The scene lasts maybe a page and she says it shows some sort of extreme unsuitability, but the event is never referenced again and Shelley makes no further comments about Troy, in thought or otherwise. The event itself is incredibly confusing and I have no idea what went on. Weird. There are a couple other similar scenes, which presumably have deeper implications or ones which aren't the obvious but aren't referenced again and don't seem to have an impact - George talking about "sleeping with" the vagrant girl Ellen finds in the woods - Ellen seems shocked but again nothing else happens, it doesn't affect their relationship and the girl is referenced once again in an ambiguous context. There are several times the author seems to be describing some sort of romantic tension between George and other people but maybe I'm reading too much into it. Every character is prone to going into deep reflection at every opportunity, which is pretty ridiculous but adds to the dream like quality of the book and really wasn't bad. There are a lot of named characters that it's impossible to keep track of and don't really have a point.

Bigger things: I note an event re: violence above - violence is treated as tainting someone in this one case. Yet Battle beating children happens often and is treated incredibly casually. He also threatens extreme violence casually and the one reference to this plays it off as a "oh haha our Battle!!" thing.
None of the Fairchilds are ever shown engaging in any work. Yet at the end of the book several describe how "draining" and "tiring" the wedding has been. The disconnect between words and experience is noticeable. The only reason I can see Troy being unsuitable, in fact, is in his job as an overseer - in doing their work, the work of the plantation owner running their lands, he's somehow "unclean". His presence impinges on the "paradise" of the Fairchilds' life - they have no experience of the reality of where their (obviously absolutely massive) income comes from. The thing is, this theme is hardly developed and shows mostly in omission, making me curious how the author felt about this.
The black workers have very little presence, even though they should be a constant presence around the house as domestic servants. The scenes that feature them show them as personality-less - they just obey orders happily - with 2 exceptions. Right at the end of the book, one says they don't like roses. This upsets Ellen, although we're not given much more than that. One character is visited at her house to ask about something lost and the Fairchilds who visited treat her vaguely dramatic searching as malicious - the one example of personality is shunned and considered bad.
In fact, I could think of only two other instances of things being treated as malicious or wrong in the book - the first is the mentally disabled preteen Maureen (who is referred to in rude terms) and the other is George's wife Robbie, who is again considered "unsuitable" but especially for leaving him when she feels hurt. Their real crime seems to be that they disturbed in some way the Fairchilds' untroubled existence.
I don't know if my view of the Fairchilds as horrible people who live an incredibly happy life merely by ignoring or shunning things that disturb it is an unreasonable one, but to me it was the only one that made sense and still let me enjoy the book.… (mer)

JUST SOME THOUGHTS I'M JOTTING DOWN WHILE I GO ALONG. They're not very coherent, or a real "review", just talking about things that stood out to me that I found interesting

The Wide Net: Good story, although I feel I lacked the proper context to fully understand the interactions and what they were doing. Theme of thinking you understand what you don't at all - William believes for certain Hazel has jumped in the river, despite not even reading the entire letter. The boys that take a baby alligator just because they can - also somewhat related to William's relationship with Hazel, where she's described as very pretty but otherwise he seems to have no real interest in her. Doc is a sort of "voice of reason" in both cases.

Old Mr Marblehall: I liked the idea of a double life almost just for the sake of it. Both his families are described negatively and he seems to find fulfilment only in the having of a double life at all. It reminds me of a sort of childish thing to do - children always try and hide things from their parents, even the most mundane stuff - which links both with his having children exactly at the time when he started a double life and with his obsession - and apparently his only real interest, Weird Tales and similar magazines. This also relates to the story as a story - the premise is somewhat absurd, that nobody has noticed or cared, which makes it almost fit for that kind of magazine.

A Worn Path: Pretty stark portrait of desperation. The old woman's path reminded me of a sort of shortened down fairy story of someone's quest to save the princess or whatever, which I guess in a way is kind of what it is

A Still Moment: Some dudes want to kill him for his horse but despite outnumbering him let him go because he can't be shot easily? And then in the next paragraph this is implied to be a bad thing??? What. Whole story absolutely mystified me, I couldn't pin down characters or what was going on or get any kind of feeling out of it, and the tortured syntax was especially noticeable here. Definitely didn't enjoy it

Powerhouse: Opens with several paragraphs of racial stereotypes and racism. Blecchhh. Going to excuse myself from that

complaint: occasional weird syntax? a few sentences were ordered counter to my expectations, confusing me a bit.
-The racial descriptions bother me a bit sometimes, more than usual. Black people seem to be *actually* stupid and bad, even outside of the perceptions of the viewpoint characters.

In general I've enjoyed it. Most of the stories are good/great/amazing but there are a couple I disliked and the racism was a bit grating… (mer)