Safe Return Doubtful

American Literature – published in the Southern Review 1939

In this memorable Welty short story a travelling salesman picks up two hitchhikers but ends up regretting the decision after his night turns to chaos and violence. One of the hitchhikers has a guitar and tells the salesman a story from his childhood. The salesman listens without thinking, as it’s what he does. It is the story of the man’s mother, who used to sing ballads..

Long ago dead an’ gone. Pa’d come home from the courthouse drunk as a wheelbarrow, and she’d just pick up an’ go and sit on the front step facin’ the hill an’ sing. Ever’thing she knowed, she’d sing. Dead an’ gone, an’ the house burned down.

As usual when Welty writes, there’s a lot going on. In a way it’s the story of the loneliness of the travelling salesman, pointless, a means to an end but with no end. Then also it is about random encounters, and also about a decent guy desperate for social interaction with misplaced sympathies.
It is also a remarkable insight into a way of life that has long gone. Though in many ways a sad tale, with Welty’s language it is completely gripping.

It was named by John Updike as one of the ‘Best American Short Stories of the 20thCentury’.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5