Eudora Welty was around 30 when the first of her writing was first published. And in those early stories and novels, you can see the develop of the voice and mind at work. She’s never naive, and in fact is especially sharp, especially in stories like “The Wide Net” and “A Petrified Man” both of which show both a wisdom and irony about relationships. In this collection, she’s clearly older. She’s expanded beyond her Mississippi roots in trying to capture other places in the world and characters from other parts of this character.
The title story doesn’t read like a Welty story at all. The Innisfallen is a cross-Atlantic ship taking a young bride to Ireland to be married. And the story shows the kind of sadness and intrigue her position inspires in the crew and fellow passengers. In the opening story, we see a young married couple from the North coming to New Orleans on their honeymoon and be completely out of their element in the Southern (and quite queer) city. In another story, we meet the white head of a plantation during the Civil War humorously refuse to surrender her home to be burned by Sherman’s troops.
And there are others. What strikes me most is that a lot of Southern literature characterizes the South and elicits a kind of curiosity in its non-Southern readers. And these stories refuse to participate in the kinds of gawking this sometimes creates. The South is often the target of the entire ire of the country (and it’s not undeserved obviously) but most Southerners recognize similar warts in other parts of the country. I liked this more than The Wide Net, but less than A Curtain of Green.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Bride-Innisfallen-Other-Stories/dp/0156140756/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1550331766&sr=8-1-fkmrnull)