The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman, first published way back in the 1960s, is one of my favorite books, and frankly rather an inspirational one.

The 60-ish Mrs. Pollifax is all alone, her husband dead, her children moved away, and she's feeling unwanted and unused. After reading about a 60-year old woman who finds a new career as a character actress, Mrs. Pollifax decides to follow her own dream - to be a spy.

She goes to the office of the CIA, and is ushered into a room where she is interviewed. However, her interviewer leaves the room, and the next man who enters mistakes her for the woman he's asked for - someone to act as a courier to bring some microfilm out of Mexico.

From there, Mrs. Pollifax is sent on a deadly (if light-hearted) adventure, in which she finds out that life is indeed worth living, and women in their 60s "still" have much to give.



I tried to listen to the audio version of this, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat (who also does the Elizabeth Peters books), but I confess I couldn't. Oh, there was nothing in particular wrong with her voice. Although she really didn't "gruff up" her voice when doing male characters, she did use diffent tonal inflections, etc. etc., so that part was all right. The problem is... she pronounces Mrs. Pollifax.... Mrs. Pollyfax, and I just couldn't stand it. (It's Poll-eh-fax, as far as I'm concerned!) Once or twice per chapter would be fine... but Mrs. Pollifax is referred to as Mrs. Pollifax on every single page, and I just couldn't stand it!