The Ponder Heart is a comical story, portraying the conflicts between the socially established (and hence "elite") in a small southern town and the less elite from a nearby town. The Ponders have trained their children for generations to appreciate their social superiority — they raise money for the poor, teach Sunday School, and own the one hotel in town. The problem is, the only people left in this once proud line are the unmarried Edna Earle and her uncle Daniel. By quirk of birth, Daniel is just a few years older than Edna Earle chronologically and much younger mentally. As she observes, "They had him late — mighty late.

They used to let him skate on the dining room table." When Daniel chooses to marry, he selects Bonnie Dee Peacock, who, like the rest of her prolific clan, lacks breeding, taste, and scruples. She has...