{"id":1496,"date":"2014-10-28T14:30:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T20:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2014-10-28T14:30:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T20:30:55","slug":"a-short-tribute-to-mrs-pollifax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/a-short-tribute-to-mrs-pollifax\/","title":{"rendered":"A Short Tribute to Mrs. Pollifax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/unexpectedmrspollifax.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1497\" src=\"\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/unexpectedmrspollifax.jpg\" alt=\"unexpectedmrspollifax\" width=\"150\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a>I have been feverishly re-reading Dorothy Gilman\u2019s Mrs. Pollifax books \u2013 it\u2019s been long enough that I don\u2019t remember the particulars, but I do remember how much I enjoyed Mrs. P, though in my memory she was a bit softer than she actually is on the page. Gilman\u2019s portrayal of her in the very first book, <em>The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax<\/em> (1966), is one of the best first mysteries ever. The set-up is clever \u2013 an older woman, unsatisfied by life, goes to the CIA to volunteer her services. When the CIA\u2019s Carstairs sees her in the waiting room he thinks she would be the perfect innocent abroad. And through 13 books, she was. Gilman lays down her adventure story format leavened with Mrs. Pollifax\u2019s generous yet knowledgable heart in the very first book and the formula holds. Gilman often provides the reader with surprisingly penetrating insights into human behavior, courtesy of Mrs. P; one of my favorite moments involves a Whirling Dervish (<em>Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish<\/em>, 1990). Re-discover her for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been feverishly re-reading Dorothy Gilman\u2019s Mrs. Pollifax books \u2013 it\u2019s been long enough that I don\u2019t remember the particulars, but I do remember how much I enjoyed Mrs. P, though in my memory she was a bit softer than she actually is on the page. Gilman\u2019s portrayal of her in the very first &#8230; <a title=\"A Short Tribute to Mrs. Pollifax\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/a-short-tribute-to-mrs-pollifax\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about A Short Tribute to Mrs. Pollifax\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}