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Delta Wedding

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 1,183 ratings · 129 reviews

A vivid and charming portrait of a large southern family, the Fairchilds, who live on a plantation in the Mississippi delta. The story, set in 1923, is exquisitely woven from the ordinary events of family life, centered around the visit of a young relative, Laura McRaven, and the family’s preparations for her cousin Dabney’s wedding.

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published June 28th 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published 1946)

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Apr 12, 2008 Ali rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

The common view was that, though the writing was lush, and the characterizations apt, the novel did show the flaws that you might have expected from a first-time author.

The tone of the first chapter, from the point of view of a young child, was excellent. But she was not able to construct a story line that could be told from Laura's point of view, and had to flit from character to character to continue the narrative. (But only, to Bruce's disappointment, using female characters.)

There was no cha...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Brunhilde rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just re-read this magical book, which opens with an evocative description of the Delta seen through the eyes of 9 year-old Laura, from the train carrying her to the home of her late mother's family where a wedding is to take place. This opening chapter is so good. We meet the family as Laura does, cousins, aunts and uncles purling through the narrative perfectly naturally, eccentric, hilarious, demanding, accepting, downright mad in some cases, but all perfectly sure of their place in the worl...more I just re-read this magical book, which opens with an evocative description of the Delta seen through the eyes of 9 year-old Laura, from the train carrying her to the home of her late mother's family where a wedding is to take place. This opening chapter is so good. We meet the family as Laura does, cousins, aunts and uncles purling through the narrative perfectly naturally, eccentric, hilarious, demanding, accepting, downright mad in some cases, but all perfectly sure of their place in the world. And that place is part of an apparently never-ending stream, as dotty great-aunts talk to deceased relatives, and portraits and endless family stories keep the dead alive, just as the succeeding generations contiue to appear (the mother-of-the-bride is pregnant again). The dialogue is spot on, and Welty handles old and young with equal aplomb. We see that the wedding, and the children that will follow, will make no huge impact on the basic fact of family, which goes on and on, with no-one moving far from the Dalta (Laura's home is in Memphis, and Dabney, the bride, daringly honeymoons in New Orleans). And family is a blessing and a curse, as ever. I developed a serious crush on Uncle George, enigmatic new husband of the irritating Robbie (those wedded to the family have to subordinate their personalities, as Ellen has) and rescuing hero of the Yellow Dog train incident which runs through the book retold by various family members from their own point of view and surely helping to remind us that this way of life is under threat. Indeed, the book opens with the Yellow Dog, and the second sentence is 'It was a mixed train' - the age of the domestic 'darkie', however much then seen as part of the family (and there are some wonderful examples here, from Aunt Studney with her mysterious sack to Partheny the nurse with her forgetful fits), is rightly destined to be a thing of the past, as the railway opens up the Delta to the world.. How lucky we are, then, that Welty has given us such a perfect reconstruction of a way of life that is gone, and with such enticing characters.(less)

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Jan 19, 2011 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I find myself wondering if I should be mentioning food in almost every post of my blog, but after reading this book, I am confirmed in my view that, since food is a major part of life, it belongs on the page. These southern characters are steeped in it. They also take it for granted that it is a part of every day and a special day, like the wedding of the title, requires special food.
Food is part of the way in which we grow to know this way of life. The other way is Welty's positioning us in th...more

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Jun 19, 2010 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I grew up in a family of four kids, and during the summer, we shared a lakehouse with another large family. Nearby, several other families from our church also had lakehouses. Every day - throughout the entire summer - was largely spent swimming, waterskiing, and biking with a huge extended family of other kids. We played games like spotlight and ghost in the graveyard almost every night. Around the Fourth of July, we had firework wars that were truly epic. No was ever alone. Each moment was a s...more I grew up in a family of four kids, and during the summer, we shared a lakehouse with another large family. Nearby, several other families from our church also had lakehouses. Every day - throughout the entire summer - was largely spent swimming, waterskiing, and biking with a huge extended family of other kids. We played games like spotlight and ghost in the graveyard almost every night. Around the Fourth of July, we had firework wars that were truly epic. No was ever alone. Each moment was a spontaneous burst of activity.

I have always had a difficult time explaining this experience to people without becoming overly sentimental and nostalgic. If I were to ever try to set this down in words, I would want my story would have a tenth of the power and raw energy of Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding.

I have read half a study's worth of "southern" novels, and none of them have depicted the culture in which I grew up. Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding is a welcomed exception to my reading experience. This masterful novel manages to funnel a massive cast of characters into a single setting; there's nearly one hundred distinct voices running through the narrative in regular intervals. It also weaves in themes of gris-gris, ghosts, and the importance of the land with a style that at times approaches magical realism. It is a highly unpredictable book, commenting on itself in jaunty asides and managing a emphemeral sense of both action and place effortlessly.

That being said, this is also a book of great finesse and manners. It requires an immense amount concentration and skill on the part of the reader to discover the hidden depths of the characters. Each passage reads like a puzzle with clues secreted away with great care. In a large part, the theme is about the implicit depth of dedicated superficiality, and the plot flies in the face of conventions like conflict and pacing, favoring a surrealist or impressionist approach to more conventional narrative structures. A great number of questions are posed and left unanswered.

In the end, I love this book because it expressed a part of myself I've never had words for, and it gave meaning to a set of experiences that - lacking expression - I had misunderstood as meaningless.(less)

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Mar 01, 2008 Mom rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes I enjoy reading books written by an author who lived during a different time period than what I have lived. The writing style and language are different, I have to pay more attention and look deeper while I am reading. I also enjoy envisioning what my life might be like during this different time period or in a different region of the country. Books like this tend to take me away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I enjoy adding this variety to my reading.

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Jan 09, 2013 Tombom P rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american, fiction

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. (view spoiler)...more 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. (view spoiler) 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 - (view spoiler) 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. (less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Jim Leckband rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't believe the ending happened just because the wedding was over. It happened because Welty finally ran out of aunts and houses.

After further rumination of this unsatisfying novel, I came to the realization that something was missing:

Zombie Delta Wedding

Eudora Welty did not have good luck with her editors. Here she had written the first cross-genre teen romantic paranormal novel (well, second, if you count Little Undead Women as first.) Her concept was brilliant. What starts out as a presum...more I don't believe the ending happened just because the wedding was over. It happened because Welty finally ran out of aunts and houses.

After further rumination of this unsatisfying novel, I came to the realization that something was missing:

Zombie Delta Wedding

Eudora Welty did not have good luck with her editors. Here she had written the first cross-genre teen romantic paranormal novel (well, second, if you count Little Undead Women as first.) Her concept was brilliant. What starts out as a presumably boring trip of a little girl named Laura being sent to a strange place for a relative's wedding soon ends up in horror. But the editors ripped out all of the good Lovecraftian stuff and missed the whole point of the novel.

The editors seemed to think that the wacky tale of a loony Southern extended family in the Delta consisting of 7392 aunts was titillating enough for that time's readers. But did they ever miss that hanging Kudzu curveball that is all melting pork fat over the plate. The Delta? Voodoo! Duh! Graveyards and abandoned houses? Zombies! Double Duh!

The editors tried to excise all the references to Zombies and Voodoo, but like the brains that preternaturally untidy zombies leave behind, the clues are out in the open. Laura doesn't drop in on Shellmound (!) and her Zombified aunts, uncles, cousins and servants to visit - no, like Buffy, she has come to slay.

Forgetful (because she has no brain?) Aunt Ellen? Bully Aunt Tempe? Drama Queen Dabney? Mad Aunt Shannon? All are zombies created by Aunt Partheny's voodoo spells. The clues still remain in the book. Aunt Partheny ("I ain't studyin' you" - in other words, she hasn't zombiefied you yet) gives a patticake baked with animal blood to one of her girl zombies. Hello? Was the editor himself stupified when he let that one go?

Laura is overwhelmed and seduced by the Fairchild Zombie clan. She is vulnerable because her own mother has died and will very probably come back as a zombie, as her grave is still fresh. But after concluding that the Fairfield's obsession with Death and the Delta is too much, Laura decides that she will have to leave, but she won't destroy them. But it is too late! Somehow Aunt Partheny's spells had got to Laura! The last line is one of the most horrific in Zombie Lit to date:

"She turned again to them, both arms held out to the radiant night."

AAAHHH! THEY GOT LAURA TOO!(less)

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Nov 25, 2009 Sarah Ryburn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: southern-lit, modern-classics

well, i enjoyed the first third or so immensely. i thought of it as rather faulkner-esque. now i've reached the end, and honestly but painfully i must confess that i just think welty could have cut 50-75 pages. this piece would have made a better short story or novella. welty's short stories are just so much "tighter" than her novels. i enjoyed both the robber bridegroom and the ponder heart , but the shorts are her true genius.

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Aug 14, 2010 Lucinda Mcintyre rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love to read Eudora Welty in the summer when the cicada bugs are buzzing away and the heat is nearly enough to make you crazy!
A big, loud Southern family gathers for a wedding in 1920's Mississippi. Not much else really happens - but don't let that stop you from reading.
I started reading this book by trying to carefully figure out every paragraph - keeping straight who was who - and who was talking and to whom - and was really struggling. I finally realized that I needed to just let my eyes ru...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Bettie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: winter20092010, published-1946

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 22, 2013 Amanda Shelburne rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the South, family gatherings are “The Thing”. Reunions, funerals, and weddings (especially weddings) usually mean lots of food and the airing of dirty laundry. Set on a Mississippi plantation in the 1920s Mississippi Delta, young Miss Laura McRaven is set to be the flowergirl in her cousin Dabney Fairchild’s wedding. The Fairchilds are your typical Southern family, full of love and drama, and Delta Wedding is full of the same. It’s a tale of family, of hopes and dreams, of sorrows and regrets...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Louise rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, classics, didn-t-finish

Eudora Welty is supposed to be one of 20th Century America's great defining authors, but honestly, I just couldn't stick with this book. Although the writing was beautiful, after two chapters, nothing of consequence had taken place. The jacket referred to "drama upon drama, revelation upon revelation", but I read nothing that made me think this was going to happen.

Furthermore, the highly rated reviews from other readers mostly referred to their experiences as children. I know enough about growin...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Delta Wedding" (1945)recalls the comings and goings of a large, extended Fairchilds family as they prepare for the wedding of their daughter Dabney in September 1923. Their eight-year old cousin, Laura McRaven, arrives from Jackson, a week before the big day. She tries to blend in with her cousins and all the preparations, but she is still in mourning for her mother who had died the previous winter. Eudora Welty creates complex, conflicted characters who have different ideas about the family's...more

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Jul 21, 2009 Marsia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eudora Welty never fails to satisfy, but this tale is especially rewarding. I usually dislike or skim over descriptive passages, but when it comes to her vivid descriptions, I read and savor every word, which she chooses like a poet does: with great care. This story of a privileged family, gathering for a wedding in the Mississippi Delta of the 1920s, captures the essence of family feeling from various points of view, including that of a thirteen-year-old girl whose mother recently died and of a...more

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Sep 23, 2008 Alec rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really love the way Eudora Welty captures the cadences of Southern speech and the deceptively-slow appearances which obscure such swirling complexities of depth in the character's experiences.

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Aug 04, 2009 Rnlockett rated it 3 of 5 stars

From a literary criticism standpoint, I struggled with this book a bit. I always try to analyze the structure of a story - the conflict/resoulution, the antagonist and protagonist, etc... I am sure this book has all of those elements, but I still cannot pinpoint with certainty what they are. That bothers me a bit.

And yet, I loved it! The language and writing style are so indulgent, so decadent. Almost like an incredibly rich and intricately decorated dessert. You have to savor this book and enjo...more

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Sep 16, 2009 Emily added it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009, favorites

I've been writing a lot lately about feminist musicologist Susan McClary and her ideas about the need for an alternative narrative practice. McClary goes in search of a mode of storytelling that does not dwell in a land of perpetual desire, of constant striving for a climax or resolution which, once achieved, spells the end of the story (the so-called "phallic" or "heroic" narrative arc), but that instead stresses pleasure over desire, that glories in what McClary calls a "voluptuous 'being-in-t...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Mmars rated it 3 of 5 stars

Soooo wish there were half stars on goodreads! 3 is too low, but if I give it 4 there's less wiggle room for near misses.

I agree with readers who felt awash in characters, but this was about a wedding and the family gathering. Probably not a wise thing to do in a first novel, so I can give some leeway there.

My biggest beef is that the story was slight and therefore, combined with the confusing characters, it was not compelling.

On the other hand, her descriptive writing is phenomenal. If you enj...more

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May 10, 2009 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eudora Welty writes prose like no one else. Her dialogue is always spot on and her descriptions are so pastoral and beautiful. I read the book all day, but took a couple naps. When I woke, I felt like I was in my old home in New Orleans. She brought me back to that feeling of being at home in the South. Her ability to draw out suspense in conversation through well placed descriptions is so smart. I stopped and thought about it for a while and marveled.

That said, this is also a magnificent book...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading-goals, read-in-2012

Look, I liked it, ok? Sort of pretty; sort of odd (particularly that runaway girl!). But come on. Do the comparisons to Woolf really carry any water?

Sorry, still feeling bitter about the class discussion we had around this novel. There's a wedding a comin'! It's in the South! There's a freakin' HUGE southern familial dynasty. You may as well not even bother trying to keep the family members straight. For some reason, we're supposed to buy that George is heroic and, like, noble and masculine or...more

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May 18, 2012 Fräulein Flora rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: southern-appalachian

[Libro assolutamente fuori catalogo. Vi consiglio di cercarlo in biblioteca]
Il romanzo descrive la vita della benestante famiglia Fairchild durante settimana che precede le nozze della diciassettenne Dabney e i giorni immediatamente successivi, nel settembre dei ‘23. In questo lasso di tempo accadono pochissimi eventi veri e propri, alla Welty interessano piuttosto i personaggi: li immerge in un microcosmo protetto, separato da tutto il resto, quasi estatico e li osserva vivere. Non troverete l...more

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Dec 24, 2010 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Boy, it took me a really long time to read this book. I had wanted to read something by Eudora Welty for a long long time and that is how long it took me to finish. A long long time, a really long long time. I found this a very difficult read. I had to keep re-reading parts to understand what was going on, who was who, etc. I found Welty's voice hard to understand (she had a very different way of expressing thought that I had to try again and again to hear) but quite interesting once I approched...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Alisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this book. I've read it 4 times, and I still don't quite understand it, but viscerally, it is nothing but a pleasure. I went to Mississippi, to Eudora Welty's house & grave & the banks of the Yazoo River to try and capture the essence of what she writes. The story weaves in and around the Fairchilds family on the days leading up to the 2nd-oldest teenaged daughter's wedding to a much older man (also the white working-class overseer of their cotton plantation), and tells the storie...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Darcy rated it 5 of 5 stars

So beautifully written, I could feel the heat and humidity of the delta in her prose. I loved that it was somewhat rambling, in the sense that things happened that just happened and didn't resolve themselves into an ending. No real closure in certain parts of the story, but that's like life--things happen that don't have a beginning and ending or any explanation. I also loved that I didn't understand everything, or everybody's point of view. Very beautiful story.

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Apr 05, 2009 Julie Whelan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booksread

This is a great rollicking tale. Wonderful poetic descriptions of the countryside, the towns and fields, and the houses. The characters are well drawn and play against the backdrop of southern culture where family, manners and tradition are most important. A young cousin whose mother has died is sent to join the family as they prepare for a beautiful daughter's wedding to the overseerer. At times it feels like you are reading Jane Austen. George, the charismatic but troubled uncle who married be...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit, I did not love this as much as I love The Optimist's Daughter. At times, it feels like watching an Altman movie (in a good way), swinging from character to character, dropping in on beautiful little bits of description and perfect dialogue, but at other times it feels like she needed better editing. Too much repetition of the same themes, too many abstract ideas put into characters' mouths in an implausible way.

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Oct 01, 2009 A rated it 3 of 5 stars

A gentle, slow moving story about a southern family set in the early 1900's (??) about a young girl who goes to be with extended family as they prepare for a wedding. It is more of a portrait than a compelling narrative, a story that unfolds through the characterizations of people set in a particular place and time. An interesting read, but you can't be expecting a dramatic plot line. It's a novel of place, time and character.

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Aug 31, 2012 Connie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-addicts-challenge-2012, classics, challenge

I love this passage: "Her nose in the banana skin as in the cup of a lily, she watched the Delta. The land was perfectly flat and level but it shimmered like the wing of a lighted dragongly. It seemed strummed, as though it were an instrument and something had touched it.
--Eudora Welty

I have never read a more beautiful description of the Mississippi Delta. Welty has the most lovely turn of language. Even a thank you note in her hands is a thing of incredible beauty and awe.

Laura McRaven, a nin...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Janis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Where have I been the last few days? Caught up in a fever dream of Eudora Welty's Shellmound plantation family. She made me feel the heat of the Mississippi Delta, hear the moths against the doorscreen, see the blinding white of the cotton crop as she presented her story from the point of view of various members of the extended Fairchild family. I found reading this book almost a physical experience.

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Jun 21, 2012 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book gets five of my stars. The writing is as lush as the kudzu vines in the Delta. The southern reader hears the cicadas, feels the sweltering heat, and tastes the sweet lemonade. I thought it was a little bit hard to follow Eudora Welty's sentence structure at times; but it was worth the effort to reread. I especially enjoyed the conversation. I thought it was a prefect depiction of a house full of family and extended family celebrating a special occasion.

If you enjoy reality TV and life...more

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About Eudora Welty

Eudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.

Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a sig...more Eudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.

Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.

During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.

Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.

Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.(less)

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