Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy the Hardcover
Review: A woman who seems lonely and distant starts making a "shopping list" as she lets her imagination run where it will. Mrs. Hollingsworth is one of those homemaker type women who doesn't quite seem to understand moderization and who has grown weary of things in her lives that symbolize her unhappiness.Consequently, her daughters find her in a "surreal fog," and the chapter entitled the same is the most amusing of the book. Mrs. Hollingsworth has become disillusioned and her "shopping list" is a list of the things she believes would make her life more authentic. There isn't any great plot in this book, though its quite esoteric.
Rating:
Summary: There Is A Line
Review: And it is a line that should be crossed and crossed again by anyone exercising free speech. The fashion of late is to label as Politically Correct anyone who takes issue with anything, be it a speech, a book, a bumper sticker. Respect can generally replace Politically Correct. This book that features General Nathan Bedford Forest on its cover is interesting and well written for what it appears to strive for. The subject is not the issue so much as the manner it is delivered. Commentary along the lines of this book as, a wonderfully constructed web of existential surrealism with a postmodern retro flare, is both fine and meaningless. The book is clearly the work of a talented Author and if you can strip away all the nonsense it has its moments. Generally it is just a heavy-handed satire (I hope) to take down mass media, and along the way restore a woman to reality for at least one page. I don't find the Civil War or one of its greatest advocates amusing especially when his record is selectively used. Great General and so on, but oops forgot the part about his founding of The Klan. You see the retired General brought us that triple K group with double digit I.Q.'S, quite a legacy. A hologram of this historical figure projected by characters whose real life counterparts are a sociopath and an assassin round out the majority of the group. There are myriad ways of making a point including the use of dark or humor that stretches the very limits of what can pass as social commentary hidden in humor. However there is also this style with remarks like, "a man would be fiduciarily negligent unto himself not to market a gold-colored phone exclusively to the brother". I would probably enjoy this Author's work if he chose a different way of expressing his thoughts. Being outrageous for its own sake is no sort of an accomplishment regardless of the adjectives used to dress it up. So call it surreal, call it insane; it still does not make it worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a winner-funny too!
Review: Deep in the South, middle-aged Mrs. Hollingsworth sits at her table in her kitchen, writing out a grocery list. However, her list includes items she has and things she lacks, but nothing on her list is remotely like a grocery item. Failing with her spouse, Mrs. Hollingsworth draws a list consisting of infamous men of history. Diving deeper into her imagination, the lonely woman dreams of Lost Cause Confederate General Nathan Forrest and serial killer Ted Bundy, etc. She sees this crowd as more real than her so-called husband. Mrs. Hollingsworth's perfectly eerie "Tupperware" daughters believe their mother is going insane. They think that their mother has lost her mind and needs help, perhaps in a plastic hermetically sealed hospital. Mrs. Hollingsworth feels they might be partially right, but writing down her list provides her with mental stability in a world that her gone wrong, at least in her mind. Padgett Powell focuses on the absurd excesses of modern day society through a Walter Mitty daydreamer seeking solace in those dubbed by history as losers. Mrs. Hollingsworth is a great character, as her mind serves as a battlefield between reality vs. surreality, romanticism vs. pragmatism, and sanity vs. insanity. Often humorous and satirical, the story line may not be for everyone. However, those fans who enjoy a bit of irony and are tired of disingenuous presidential ads leaving voters feeling bushed and gored, will find fresh solace in this weird, but wonderful novel. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: This is a winner-funny too!
Review: Deep in the South, middle-aged Mrs. Hollingsworth sits at her table in her kitchen, writing out a grocery list. However, her list includes items she has and things she lacks, but nothing on her list is remotely like a grocery item. Failing with her spouse, Mrs. Hollingsworth draws a list consisting of infamous men of history. Diving deeper into her imagination, the lonely woman dreams of Lost Cause Confederate General Nathan Forrest and serial killer Ted Bundy, etc. She sees this crowd as more real than her so-called husband. Mrs. Hollingsworth's perfectly eerie "Tupperware" daughters believe their mother is going insane. They think that their mother has lost her mind and needs help, perhaps in a plastic hermetically sealed hospital. Mrs. Hollingsworth feels they might be partially right, but writing down her list provides her with mental stability in a world that her gone wrong, at least in her mind. Padgett Powell focuses on the absurd excesses of modern day society through a Walter Mitty daydreamer seeking solace in those dubbed by history as losers. Mrs. Hollingsworth is a great character, as her mind serves as a battlefield between reality vs. surreality, romanticism vs. pragmatism, and sanity vs. insanity. Often humorous and satirical, the story line may not be for everyone. However, those fans who enjoy a bit of irony and are tired of disingenuous presidential ads leaving voters feeling bushed and gored, will find fresh solace in this weird, but wonderful novel. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Wouldn't Walter Mitty Be Proud?
Review: I wanted to check out the library copy before buying. I found this book a little surreal. It's a little different and with a bit of a twist. The lonesome lady makes out a creative, outrageous grocery list. Letting her imagination run wild it takes on the mind of Walter Mitty. The man of her idol fantasies are those of Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest. And what is this thing for burning mules? But let a woman think what she wants to think. To escape the reality of utter boredom and loneliness. Sure got me though I'm the female gender myself.
The author seems to had fun writing this cute little daydreamer's delight. It had it's funny moments. A pretty artful provocative fantasy with a smothering of Civil War history thrown in. I think if I had a magical want list, Clark Gable and a flying RV with a smoking camel. But I think I could find a better alternative remedy. In other words, I'd find it more entertaining to read Walter Mitty or go to the grocery store to meet guys! It could be missing something, but then again use your imagination!
Rating:
Summary: another work of genius
Review: Okay, I'll be honest. I chose this book because it was short, and I have two toddlers at home: I figured I had a chance of finishing it sometime this year. And, I did finish it. I read the entire thing, and really enjoyed the ending, but (maybe because I'm not attuned to Great Literature), I just didn't understand a lot of it. Good enough to read? Yes. Good enough to buy? Well, if you like Deep Hidden Meanings, Yes. Otherwise, stick to the popular stuff from popular authors that gets made into movies.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining, but beyond me
Review: Okay, I'll be honest. I chose this book because it was short, and I have two toddlers at home: I figured I had a chance of finishing it sometime this year. And, I did finish it. I read the entire thing, and really enjoyed the ending, but (maybe because I'm not attuned to Great Literature), I just didn't understand a lot of it. Good enough to read? Yes. Good enough to buy? Well, if you like Deep Hidden Meanings, Yes. Otherwise, stick to the popular stuff from popular authors that gets made into movies.
Rating:
Summary: another work of genius
Review: Padgett Powell again reveals his unique literary gifts in this remarkable tour de force of a novel, my favorite of all his books. Witty, graceful, troubling, brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: South?
Review: Padgett Powell is an unacknowledged genius of American literature. His A WOMAN NAMED DROWN is undeservedly out of print; a masterpiece of the steadfast drop-out genre, mixing the contemporary Southern idiom into the voice of a man with serious American malaise. He transcends the Southern wing of American letters by showing a South which, believe it or not, really has integrated--and poses the question: "Where has it gotten us?" Not because the South didn't need desperately to change, but because the South needed to hang on to what was best and unique about it while losing the racist baggage. The New South of Powell's work is not yet rid of that baggage--and herein lies the rub: the author's stubborn desire to tell the truth about the New South (and the rest of the country) is what's allowed him to be left behind his peers.
Flannery O'Connor wrote hilariously as a Catholic "outsider" observing the Protestant local yokels; Faulkner worked from deeply within, like an earworm whispering into our consciences. Powell in all his work has deployed the playfulness and deadly serious listening skills of his former teacher and great master Donald Barthelme to get at the absurdity of life as a roofer or an old spinster in a small Southern town. His work is meant to be read aloud, slowly, as if on a hot summer's night on the porch when an uncle tells a tall tale. He's fun and gulp-out-loud compelling. Like his excellent and daring book of stories ALIENS OF AFFECTION before it, MRS. HOLLINGSWORTH'S MEN stretches the idiom he's always worked with, this time combining occasional research with the sillinesses of our make-nice culture (which only covers up or drowns out the hard questions left for us to ask ourselves). It's an anti-Civil War novel--against the romance of Civil War novels, and against the very idea, the sheer impossibility, of truly being able to write one. It feints in one direction, while lunging for real in the least expected one--our own smug liberal Reconstructive natures. Like Mrs. Hollingsworth herself, we think we can achieve decency through language and behavioral modelling. Oh, and did I mention it's a comedy?
Rating:
Summary: South?
Review: Padgett Powell is an unacknowledged genius of American literature. His A WOMAN NAMED DROWN is undeservedly out of print; a masterpiece of the steadfast drop-out genre, mixing the contemporary Southern idiom into the voice of a man with serious American malaise. He transcends the Southern wing of American letters by showing a South which, believe it or not, really has integrated--and poses the question: "Where has it gotten us?" Not because the South didn't need desperately to change, but because the South needed to hang on to what was best and unique about it while losing the racist baggage. The New South of Powell's work is not yet rid of that baggage--and herein lies the rub: the author's stubborn desire to tell the truth about the New South (and the rest of the country) is what's allowed him to be left behind his peers. Flannery O'Connor wrote hilariously as a Catholic "outsider" observing the Protestant local yokels; Faulkner worked from deeply within, like an earworm whispering into our consciences. Powell in all his work has deployed the playfulness and deadly serious listening skills of his former teacher and great master Donald Barthelme to get at the absurdity of life as a roofer or an old spinster in a small Southern town. His work is meant to be read aloud, slowly, as if on a hot summer's night on the porch when an uncle tells a tall tale. He's fun and gulp-out-loud compelling. Like his excellent and daring book of stories ALIENS OF AFFECTION before it, MRS. HOLLINGSWORTH'S MEN stretches the idiom he's always worked with, this time combining occasional research with the sillinesses of our make-nice culture (which only covers up or drowns out the hard questions left for us to ask ourselves). It's an anti-Civil War novel--against the romance of Civil War novels, and against the very idea, the sheer impossibility, of truly being able to write one. It feints in one direction, while lunging for real in the least expected one--our own smug liberal Reconstructive natures. Like Mrs. Hollingsworth herself, we think we can achieve decency through language and behavioral modelling. Oh, and did I mention it's a comedy?
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