<\/p>\n

Inspired by my recent reading of Patti LuPone’s memoir, I decided it was time to dig out that copy of Eudora Welty’s The Robber Bridegroom<\/a><\/em> and give it a go finally. One of LuPone’s first musical gigs was playing Rosamond in the musical adaptation of Welty’s story. <\/p>\n

I feel rather badly about this post because I really didn’t like this story at all. I can’t find any objective fault with it. Welty was a skilled writer and her story was imaginative and whimsical…a Brothers Grimm-inspired fairytale embedded into the mythology of Americana by way of the Deep South. <\/p>\n

True, there were aspects and attitudes of the tale that I found questionable at best and deplorable at worst, but I know they are merely reflections of attitudes and actions that were at one time considered acceptable by many within this country. Still, Welty was progressive in many aspects of this tale, particularly taking into consideration that she was writing this fairytale as a woman from Mississippi in the early 1940s, a time in which prevailing attitudes toward women’s roles in all aspects of American life were being reevaluated and readjusted, thanks in part to the shift in responsibilities brought about by World War II. <\/p>\n

All that being said, I simply don’t like this story. I felt no kinship or connection to any of the characters, I’m not particularly enamored of the particular time in American history during which this story was set, and I simply couldn’t be bothered to feel any degree of enthusiasm at any time while reading this novella. Thank the prophets it’s not long; I don’t think I could have made it through had it been longer than it was. <\/p>\n

Final Verdict: <\/strong>I’m sure that those who are fond of Americana and\/or fairytales turned slightly on their ears will enjoy this story. However, I’m releasing Ms. Welty’s Robber Bridegroom and all his quirky friends to more welcoming pastures than mine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by my recent reading of Patti LuPone’s memoir, I decided it was time to dig out that copy of Eudora Welty’s The Robber Bridegroom and give it a go finally. One of LuPone’s first musical gigs was playing Rosamond in the musical adaptation of Welty’s story. I feel rather badly about this post because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}