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goldenabs's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
habeasopus's review
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
loud_purrbox's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I loved this story. I thought it was very funny and well-written. It’s a real flow of words and had some good twists and turns like the rapids in a river.
msjoanna's review against another edition
4.0
The narrative voice in this book is wonderful. I've never read anything else by Eudora Welty, but this makes me want to read more. The narrator for the audiobook captured the tone beautifully. Highly recommended.
johndomc's review
I’d just read Delta Wedding, but the Ponder Heart felt very different, in the first person; not the voice I’d loved in Delta Wedding. And I was at the beach, had other books I wanted to get to, so I figured I’d rather savor the one Welty, no need to mix in another.
cmbohn's review against another edition
Just couldn't get used to the reader. Very slow.
vasha's review against another edition
3.0
Edna Earle Ponder, the narrator of this story, runs the Beulah Hotel, a surprising career for someone as xenophobic as she is. But then, she didn’t choose the hotel; her Uncle Daniel gave it to her. Uncle Daniel has two simple goals in his head: to be the center of attention, and to get people to like him, which he tries to accomplish by giving things away. Edna Earle, for her part, lives by the principles that everyone and everything has a place established by tradition and inheritance, that you can and should be able to predict their behavior that way, and that you can’t trust people who neither know nor respect your traditions. Her mission in life (in spite of stray thoughts of getting married herself) is to protect and indulge Uncle Daniel.
The plot makes comic hay out of the complications that this mission is bound to bring with it, especially when Uncle Daniel takes a mind to marry. Naturally, Edna Earle often has to deal with people who just don’t behave like she thinks they ought to. In spite of comedy, the novel ends on a surprisingly down note. Edna Earle's hopes of marriage are squashed. The Ponder family is dwindling away, in both offspring and influence, and so is the town of Clay, now that a new highway has strangers simply shooting through it at high speed. And Uncle Daniel’s giving habits finally wound up "coming between" him and other people rather than making friends, leaving him lonely.
Readers may not be sorry to see the Ponder way of life go, after all; but the ambiguously dark implications here favorably set Eudora Welty apart from legions of "southern cozy" writers that she was a major inspiration for (who I’ve complained about in reviews of Fanny Flagg, for example).
The plot makes comic hay out of the complications that this mission is bound to bring with it, especially when Uncle Daniel takes a mind to marry. Naturally, Edna Earle often has to deal with people who just don’t behave like she thinks they ought to. In spite of comedy, the novel ends on a surprisingly down note. Edna Earle's hopes of marriage are squashed. The Ponder family is dwindling away, in both offspring and influence, and so is the town of Clay, now that a new highway has strangers simply shooting through it at high speed. And Uncle Daniel’s giving habits finally wound up "coming between" him and other people rather than making friends, leaving him lonely.
Readers may not be sorry to see the Ponder way of life go, after all; but the ambiguously dark implications here favorably set Eudora Welty apart from legions of "southern cozy" writers that she was a major inspiration for (who I’ve complained about in reviews of Fanny Flagg, for example).