Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men

Review of Contemporary Fiction, The, Spring, 2001 by Alan Tinkler

Padgett Powell. Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men. Houghton Mifflin, 2000. 144 pp. $20.00.

Padgett Powell's splendid new novel begins: "Mrs. Hollingsworth likes to traipse." And traipse the novel does, through wonderfully imaginative fog, surreal and real. The novel starts by situating Mrs. Hollingsworth at her kitchen table, ostensibly to consider a shopping list. What she manages, however, is the construction of a narrative surrounding her desire to identify the ideal of Southern masculinity. To come to terms with the new Southern male, Mrs. Hollingsworth looks back to the Civil War, specifically to Nathan Bedford Forrest, a notorious Confederate general. Mrs. Hollingsworth's shopping-list narrative, however, does not restrict Forrest to the past. In fact, he pays her a visit near the end of the novel, and earlier in the narrative he meanders around as a fifty-foot hologram. The surreal environment of the shopping list narrative is anchored by the reality of Mrs. Hollingsworth's life: the real fog. She is a realtor, a mother of two, and a wife. While her family questions her sanity, Mrs. Hollingsworth relishes her moments alone with her shopping list: "Mrs. Hollingsworth retook her kitchen, headquarters for her recent lovely campaign." Given the mundanity of her daily life, Mrs. Hollingsworth relishes her imaginative exploits. Padgett Powell's text, however, is more than just an investigation into what it means to be a housewife in the new South. Powell's text is also about language. By way of beautiful prose, Powell has produced an imaginative novel of remarkable fluidity. There is no moment in the book that isn't delightfully crafted. Given the strength of the language alone, Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men would be worth reading. Since there is also a compelling narrative drive, Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men should be placed at the top of every list.