Losing Battles
Eudora Welty

A family reunion in small-town Mississippi is the setting for Losing Battles by Eudora Welty. The reunion is in celebration of Granny Vaughn’s 90^th birthday and her grandson’s release from prison.  While the tale, which is told through conversations between the generations in Southern dialect, is at first a bit difficult to follow it is an effective way to convey the essence of the novel which is the importance of roots and family.  Welty is a master at expressing, through her characters, small town humor and ignorance which is commonly found in the rural Southern culture of the time.