Typical [Paperback]

Padgett Powell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1992

Ida Fink's first collection of stories, A Scrap of Time, was universally hailed as a masterpiece. Traces continues Fink's portrait of life in Nazi-occupied Poland, of men and women otherwise buried in the anonymous statistics of war and genocide.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Having a first novel ( Edisto , LJ 3/15/84) nominated for an ABA award is a hard act to follow, but Powell's subsequent works continue to establish his reputation as a literary wordsmith of the first order. Typical is anything but a typical collection of short stories--it's a dazzling display of verbal pyrotechnics and literary lunacy, mordantly outrageous Southern Gothic wit, and incidents that transcend reality and take on an irrepressible logic of their own. The title story, selected for The Best American Short Stories of 1990 , is a gem of modern madness played out by a down-and-out Texas realist. "The Winnowing of Mrs. Schuping" is a Florida-based love story unlike any other romantic tale, yet the characters are so real and true that they linger in the mind. Powell rises above the easily applied label "Southern writer"; he is a brilliant crafter of words. Recommended.
- Judith F. Bradley, Acad. of the Holy Cross Lib., Kensington, Md.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

This first collection by the author of Edisto and A Woman Named Drown is an odd and arresting mix of full-length stories and lots of little pieces--none of them conventional by any means, and all of them typical of Powell's goofy, southern-inflected lust for language. Powell's snippets include a number of fractured profiles of strange people and places gone weird. There are: ``Dr. Ordinary'' and his litany of the things he finds odious; ``General Rancidity,'' hated all over his military base because ``only the truly rancid themselves could run with him''; ``Mr. Nefarious,'' who smiles about his girlfriend and a fancy outdoor bench; ``Mr. Desultory,'' who gives in to regression because he cannot do things in succession; and ``Miss Resignation,'' who loses at Bingo so much she decides to smoke the cards. Powell clearly agrees with the notion voiced here that ``character is nothing but warts.'' Place fares poorly too: ``Kansas'' is defined by the absence of farming; ``Texas'' is a list of things done and some know-nothing aphorisms; ``South Carolina'' finds the pickup-driving narrator molesting a belle at a fancy cotillion; and ``Florida'' is a drunk lament about what used to be. In Powell's mordant and absurd world, you watch a flood (``Flood'') and a body floats into your arms; you work as a roofer and your buddy decapitates himself in a fall on the job (``Wayne's Fate''); you ramble and drink in the woods, and someone offers perversion (``Proposition''). Faulknerian style and subject come in for some direct ribbing. ``Wait'' sidetracks a rococo turn about a bulldog and a corncob with some plain talk; and ``Lebove and Son,'' a postscript to The Hamlet, considers the consequences of literary revelation. Not quite so academic, but metafictional in their own bizarre way, are ``Mr. Irony,'' a tale of ``low-affect living edged with self-deprecating irony''; and ``Mr. Irony Renounces Irony,'' the confessions of a style abuser. The much- reprinted title story is the narrative of a true underground man, an admitted ``piece of crud'' and unemployed steelworker who thinks he's just ``Typical.'' Lyrically intense and full of the surreal juxtapositions you find in the flotsam of floodwaters: stories at once edgy and exuberant. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt; First Edition edition (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805071229
• ISBN-13: 978-0805071221
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beckett by way of a hurricane?, October 27, 2002

By 

R. Morell "Frostwolf" (Albany, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Typical (Paperback)

I was first exposed to Mr. Powell's writing in a class I'm taking called "Progressive Fiction." Though the book was a bit difficult to find, the pursuit was well worth it. I'm not sure the best way to do this author justice, actually. He has a bit of Beckettian absurdity, but also a Raymond Carver sense of the downtrodden. Putting the two together results in some idiosyncratic insights. I also appreciate that he seems to be a "geographical" writer. His short-short stories with titles like "Texas", "Kansas", South Carolina" evoke a sense of place that really doesn't need more than the 2 or 3 pages he takes to convey it. My favorite stories were the title story, "Mr. Irony" and "Wayne's Fate," but the story "Texas" actually inspired me to write something of my own along the lines he set out. A must-read for any fiction writer as well as any reader who appreciates formal and linguistic play.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The dregs of some writers' workshop in hell., January 10, 2008

By 

David M. Giltinan (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Typical (Paperback)

In every cheesy horror or sci-fi movie involving aliens or demons or pod people, there's the almost-obligatory scene where the hero(ine), having successfully slain the last(?) of the evil critters, falls into the arms of his or her sidekick/romantic interest/significant other, only to come to the sickening realization that the person they are embracing has been taken over by the forces of darkness. The music crescendos in ominous cacophony; the camera zooms in as the horrifying realization dawns across the protagonist's face ....

As I read this collection of stories, the third book by Padgett Powell, I experienced that exact same sinking feeling. Here's an author whose first novel, "Edisto", was one of the most enchanting books I had read in 1984, the year it was published. So when I came across this collection in the second-hand book store, buying it seemed like a no-brainer. Caveat lector! As it says in those indigestible mutual fund prospectuses that clog my mailbox daily, "past success is no guarantee of future performance".

In this case, the warning signals were loud and clear. Had I just taken the time to do a little skimming in the store, I would have surely seen the warning signs. "Stories" with titles like "Mr. Irony Renounces Irony", "Dr. Ordinary", "General Rancidity", "Mr. Nefarious", "Miss Resignation". These sound like homework assignments from a graduate writing workshop in hell, and that's pretty much the way they read as well. Mr. Powell apparently thinks this kind of thing may be passed off as writing:

"Dr. Ordinary found solace in nothing. He found his shoes untied during surgery. He found his mother once, when she was in her sixties, naked in the bathtub calling for a fresh martini. He found bluebirds too far south. He found pies too sweet to eat. He found God with no difficulty, but locating his belief another matter. "

And so on, for a total of three wretched pages, and sixty repetitions of the phrase "He found..". If this kind of thing strikes you as insufferable, you are unlikely to find "General Rancidity", which is just more of the same with the verb `run' instead of the verb `find', any better.

It gets worse. Four of the `stories' are named for states: Kansas, Texas, South Carolina and Florida. Here is the first 30% or so of `Texas':

"I fell off the lightning rod. I entered the sweepstakes. I lost control. I became beautiful. I charmed a queen. I defied gravity. I moved mountains. I bowled. I wept, mourned, moped, and sped about town in a convertible, progressively irascing the gendarme until I was charged with exhibitionist speed."

Progressively irascing the gendarme? What a crock!

My feelings about this toxic insult to the intelligence may be summed up as follows:
Dr. Giltinan found this book to be worthless dreck.
Or, if you prefer:
I wanted my money back.