Book Rec: "The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax" by Dorothy Gilman

[cinaed]

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman is the first book in the Mrs. Pollifax mystery series, written and set in the 1960s. 

In our opening chapters, we meet Mrs. Pollifax, an older woman who has been widowed for eight years, whose children are grown and have children of their own and live far away, and whose life consists of helping one charity after another. It’s a good life, though a thoroughly unsatisfying one. 

When Mrs. Pollifax begins contemplating how easy it would be to step off her roof while watering her geraniums, she visits a doctor, who pronounces her in the best of health and asks, “Isn’t there something you’ve always wanted to do?” 

Mrs. Pollifax looked at him. “When I was growing up—oh for years—I planned to become a spy,” she admitted.

The next day, Mrs. Pollifax packs her things and heads to Washington, D.C., where she politely and cheerfully harasses her congressman into writing her a reference letter, and then to Langley, Virginia, where she presents herself at the recently opened C.I.A. building and asks if they have need of a spy. 

It just so happens that they do, a courier job that needs an unknown face to pick up a package. It’s a simple enough job— wander around Mexico City pretending to be a grandmotherly tourist for two weeks, and then on a certain day go into a certain bookshop and ask for a certain book. A simple job that gets complicated, and Mrs. Pollifax finds herself kidnapped and spirited away to places unknown. 

But never fear! Mrs. Pollifax is not going to take being kidnapped and threatened with death lying down! No, sir! You can just ask the long-suffering actual spy who has been captured with her, who finds himself asking the following questions:

"Ma’am, are you befriending our jailers?"

"…Ma’am, are you giving one of our jailers a back-rub?"

"…Ma’am, are you trying to convince our jailers that democracy is awesome? Okay, as an agent of the United States I should approve of that, but do you have to do that while taking nice long walks with the jailers?"

"…..Ma’am, did the jailers just invite you to a party? With singing? And alcohol? Ma’am?" 

It is a great book, with caveats for this being very much a pro-democracy stance and violence and murder and some torture because, well, spy stuff. But I read it in one sitting and am definitely looking forward to the rest of the series even if my library doesn’t seem to have the second book….

Comments

[skygiants]

MRS. POLLIFAX IS SUCH A DELIGHT. I have read almost all the books except -- two I think? -- over the past few years, and while the cheerful exoticization of the places she goes gets more problematic as the series goes on, Mrs. Pollifax herself is never anything less than wonderful and charming.

[cinaed]

SHE IS SO GREAT.

I knew I was going to love her the minute she recalled that time a con-woman came to her house and told her a sob story and she listened and cried and said, "Now, dear, a word of advice-- you'll want to call that street this particular name, because anyone who's lived there would pronounce it that way." And they sit down for tea and chat cheerfully for an hour or two, and then Mrs. Pollifax sends her off to the next house to grift someone else, hahaha.

[genarti]

Yesssssssssssss. I am so delighted every time a friend encounters Mrs. Pollifax, whom I was lucky enough to discover as a teenager, because -- yeah, the books are not without flaws and problematic aspects, especially some of the later ones, but there is so much about them that is just pure delight. Especially Mrs. Pollifax herself. I love her to bits.

In a later book, we find out in an offhand comment that she reacts to governmental scandals by... angrily refusing to send Christmas fruitcake to CIA agents. <333 for her forever.