This book was not an easy read for being such a short book. It is a bit depressing but ends on a more hopeful note. There was a tremendous amount of symbolism. The more symbolism you pick up the more satisfying the book becomes. Look for themes of nature, flowers, birds, eyes, memory and the past, and her careful choice of character names.

Very beautifully written. Classic style. Thought provoking.

Laurel McKelva, the optimist's daughter, learns from her father's death and the ensuing funeral and emotional aftermath that she must develop a new relationship with her past. As she is about to lose her childhood home to her father's much younger (and supremely insensitive younger wife), she comes to realize that our past must be held in the heart rather than in the material evidence left from the past. Eudora Welty accomplishes this realization in the course of four distinct sections: An objectively understated prologue that includes the death of Laurel's father, Judge Clint McKelva, in New Orleans during Mardi Gras; a comical section that includes brilliantly developed dialogue contrasting Laurel's stepmother's Texas relatives with Laurel's friends from childhood home, Mount Salus, Mississippi; a painful lyrical section occurring during Laurel's last night Mount Salus as she rummages through her dead mother's letters and notebooks during which Laurel gradually comes to realize that the value of one's past does not lie in memorabilia; and a coda in which she leaves the home to her stepmother. Eudora Welty's attention to psychological development and contrasting dialogue are brilliantly handled.