Eudora Weltys The Ponder Heart :: Eudora Welty The Ponder Heart

Eudora Weltys The Ponder HeartThe New York Times posted a review of Eudora Weltys The Ponder Heart on January 10, 1954. V.S. Pritchett wrote the review titled Bossy Edna Earle Had aWord for Everything.Pritchett gives ample credit to Welty for her novel The Ponder Heart explaining it takes a good deal of experience to write such a story that deals with a complex position in the record (para 4). Pritchett describes the character, Edna Earle and he is intrigued by her narrative role.Identifying the characters, certain events, and the type of environment thestory takes place in Pritchett sets the stage of The Ponder Heart. He identifies thispiece as a lighter work, simply adds there is not a mistake in it (para 7). This phraseis crucial to the review because without it a reader may believe the story has littlesubstance. The line of reasoning there is not a mistake in it intrigues the mind to seewhat this book is all about.Pritchett begins the review using complex sentences that appear to be winningthe reader nowhere, making the review weak from the very beginning. In fact, thefirst paragraph makes one believe they are reading the wrong review. Thisparagraph dialog about the Irish revival and Scottish and Welsh regionalism,appearing to have nothing to do with Welty. Eventually, Pritchett ties this paragraphinto Welty comparing her as an American Southern regional writer.Pritchett states, Sometimes a regional writer becomes the professionaltopographer of local oddity. With one sophisticated foot outside his territory, he setsout to make his folk olde worlde or nonconcentric, and he can be said to condescend to and even exploit them (para 2). The Ponder Heartis filled with oddity, as well as quaint and freakish folks making this statement definitely relevant.Describing The Ponder Heart, Pritchett does no more than give a summary ofthe story, with a few exceptions, rather than a critique. perhaps the book is thatsimple, although I dont believe so.