num_pages: 180
description: Laurel Hand, long absent from the South, comes from Chicago to New Orleans, where her father dies after surgery. With Fay, the stupid new young wife of her father, Laurel returns to her former Mississippi home and stays a few days after the funeral for reunions with old friends. In a night alone in the house she grew up in, she confronts elements of the past and comes to a better understanding of it and of herself and her parents.
language: English
title: The Optimist's Daughter
titlecomplete: The Optimist's Daughter
characters: Laurel McKelva Hand, Judge Clint McKelva, Miss Adele Courtland, Tish Bullock, Fay Chisom McKelva, Miss Tennyson Bullock
genres: 20th Century, Literature, American, Classics, Literary Fiction, Womens, Novels, Southern Gothic, Southern, Fiction
ratings_count: 13431
places: New Orleans, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mount Salus, Mississippi, The United States of America
awards: awardedAt: 94723200000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 94723200000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction
publisher: Vintage International