Stars: 3 out of 5Pros: Mrs. Pollifax, much of the second half
Cons: Starts very slowly with flat supporting characters and
too much travel information
The Bottom Line:
The plot plods along
Second half does get better
Needed more action
Mrs. Pollifax's First Trip to the Orient is Also Her First Disappointment
I have only read Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station once,
back in 1996. I really didn't remember
much about it other than feeling like there was very little story to the
book. I thought maybe going into it
expecting less would make it a better book.
The reality matched my expectations.
The book opens with Mrs. Pollifax getting her latest
assignment from Carstairs, her boss at the CIA.
See, Mrs. Pollifax fills her spare time with garden club meetings,
karate, and the occasional job as the most unlikely spy ever. This time around, she's heading to China . She's joining a tour group. All she has to do is break away from the tour
in Xian long enough to find the barber beneath the Drum Tower
Once she arrives, Mrs. Pollifax quickly realizes that her
assignment will not be easy. The group
is under constant surveillance by their guide, a member of the China Travel
Service. And Mrs. Pollifax begins to
suspect that, even if she can get the information, her partner may not be able
to sneak away from the tour group to use it.
Will this mission be successful?
This was the sixth book in the series, and came out in
1983. As usual, the events are shaped by
the political realities of the time.
There is lots of talk about the changes, or lack there of, taking place
in China
as a result of Mao's death. The
interior, where most of the book takes place, had just recently been opened for
tourists. Details like that always make
these books interesting.
Unfortunately, those details also slow this book down. The first half reads more like a travelogue
than a spy adventure. Even when the plot
picks up in the second half, it is still bogged down by travel. The few twists are either telegraphed well in
advance or so clumsily handled that they feel forced into the story from
another book. The climax is over almost
before it begins.
Fortunately, Mrs. Pollifax herself is still very fun to
spend time with. She is her normal,
charming self. The growth she's
developed by this point in the series is rather obvious by how she handles some
events later in the book. The rest of
the cast only really starts to take shape later in the book. I had trouble keeping them all straight early
in the book, and one or two never fully form as characters. The rest don't come into their own until the
second half, making this a second half book in every way.
I have no proof, but I have long suspected that author
Dorothy Gilman had tired of the character.
True, it was only book six, but those six books were written over a 17
year period. I feel like she signed a
contract for another book intending to make it the last and then couldn't come
up with a decent plot, padding the first half with the travelogue. The Mrs. Pollifax's character growth and the
end of the book definitely feel like a conclusion, and if the series had ended
here, I think most fans would have been satisfied. Of course, since the author went on to write
8 more books about the character, maybe I am wrong.
Either way, the second half is barely enough to give Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station a recommendation for fans. But if you have yet to meet this charming,
engaging character, you'll be better served by picking up one of the earlier
entries in what is one of my favorite series.
While this is a let down, you'll enjoy reading others in the Mrs. Pollifax series in order.
I actually REALLY like this book! I guess it depends on ones point of view, but remember that most North Americans knew nothing about China in 1983 *(still don't to be honest) besides a few sterotypes and statistics. I think Mz. Gilman makes the country come alive when she describes it rather than getting down to spy stuff. My one problem is that at times I couldn't keep Jenny and Iris apart (but that might just be me)
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