Indigo

by Padgett Powell

The first collection of nonfiction by "one of the few truly important American writers of our time" (Sam Lipsyte).

Gathering pieces written during the past three decades, Indigo ranges widely in subject matter and tone, opening with “Cleve Dean,” which takes Padgett Powell to Sweden for the World Armwrestling Federation Championships, through to its closing title piece, which charts Powell’s lifelong fascination with the endangered indigo snake, “a thinking snake,” and his obsession with seeing one in the wild.
 
“Some things in between” include an autobiographical piece about growing up in the segregated and newly integrated South and tributes to writers Powell has known, among them Donald Barthelme, who “changed the aesthetic of short fiction in America for the second half of the twentieth century,” and Peter Taylor, who briefly lived in Gainesville, Florida, where Powell taught for thirty-five years. There are also homages to other admired writers: Flannery O’Connor, “the goddesshead”; Denis Johnson, with his “hard honest comedy”; and William Trevor, whose Collected Stories provides “the most literary bang for the buck in the English world.”
 
A throughline in many of the pieces is the American South—the college teacher who introduced Powell to Faulkner; the city of New Orleans, which “can render the improbable possible”; and the seductions of gumbo, sometimes cooked with squirrel meat. Also here is an elegy for Spode, Powell’s beloved pit bull: “I had a dog not afraid, it gave me great cheer and blustery vicarious happiness.”
 
In addressing the craft of fiction, Powell ventures that “writing is controlled whimsy.” His idiosyncratic playfulness brings this collection to vivid life, while his boundless curiosity and respect for the truth keep it on course. As Pete Dexter writes in his foreword to Indigo, “He is still the best, even if not the best-known, writer of his generation.”

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2021

About the author

Padgett Powell is the author of four novels, including Edisto, which was nominated for the National Book Award. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications, as well as in the anthologies Best American Short Stories and Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, where he teaches writing at MFA@FLA, the writing program of the University of Florida.

Reviews

[Ron S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collected short non-fiction profiles and essays from the author of Edisto.

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

finished this afternoon 13th november 2021 good read four stars really liked it kindle owned by chance a month or so ago i wondered if padgett has anything new coming out, or out already, so i looked and lo and behold, lo and behold (dylan or zappa?) he has this available...same time maybe because amazon so helpful customers who bought this also bought these items...michael connelly had one coming out, too. they arrived to the kindle same day. connelly, if i have that right, graduated from u/f with a journalism degree...and lo and behold, lo and behold, gotta get me some of that lo and behold, turned eventually to writing. powell taught there for some years...many...and he has this quote from the interrogative mood that i have since taken and have applied to my self try to recall the person you thought you were and the moment you began to realize you are not that person, and try to grasp and appreciate the high quality of lunacy required for you to have ever thought you were that person.

as a kid it was bobby orr, fastest defenseman in swampers, chook, and choppers, friends and i swatting hockey sticks in the driveway...same time of year a few years later, pistol pete maravich, he shoots he scores! and for many years it was whatever writer happened to be at the top of my hit parade and there have been many, powell among them. i've tried and i can say that i cannot write like padgett powell who can surprise you with his coinage, enlighten and baffle, get all the big talking heads spinning.

after 30+ years of....drumroll please..."licensed contracting"...i install windows, 321 by year end this year, 264 last year...and for a good percentage of the year window installation falls by the wayside as we also get 200" of snow in an average winter. people are disinclined to have you traipsing past their mudroom in your swampers, chook, and choppers, even if it means saving energy. might we best wait for a better day? you think?

so i only occasionally revert to form, usually winter, when i have time but the long and the short of it is i'm only spinning my wheels, lunacy at best. until the snowplow makes another pass. still, if you like words and how one can use them, you really ought to give padgett a visit. use the greyhound, it might pay off in the end.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to review it for an issue of an academic journal coming out in 2023, so I will hold off reviewing it here until after that review is published.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I was going to recommend skipping entirely the meandering, self centered Foreword by Pete Dexter, and I am still something of that mindset, but in truth, it probably IS a rather noteworthy opening to this book, which is more of a collection of various and sundry nonfiction efforts by Padgett Powell, wordsmithy extraordinaire. From a profile of a world champion arm wrestler's return (not to competition weight, but to the industry), to a craft talk reeking of contractual obligation, to snippets on writers meaningful to Powell. So there is almost no reason to read this in the order they are offered, nor in any rush. That way, you may soak in a sequence like the following, from the memoirish piece, "Hitting Back": "One day, wearing this natty outfit or one like it, I had been playing with my disapproving friend, and after play, inside, discovered dog sh*t in the pocket of this handsome blouse. What was particularly galling was my mistaking the matter for dirt until virtually tasting it in the course of my assay. I concluded that my friend Don had put the sh*t in my shirt: it must have slid off the hoe when he hit me in the head with the hoe. That--being struck--was regular and acceptable. But this fouling of one's wardrobe was a bit wide of beam, perhaps even my mother was besmirched, and I recall this moment as my very first instant of moral outrage. I did nothing about it."

[Vic Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while for me to warm up to Powell but by the end of this collection I was a fan. His interviews and observations of others tell us as much about our author as it does his subject. By the end of the book you've come to know Powell better then any of his subjects.
I enjoyed his exploration of gumbo, the proper preparation of squirrel, road tripping with an arm wrestling pro (?), his stories connecting him to Lynard Skynard (childhood/teenage friend of Allen Collins). They're all a peek into Powell's psyche.
Powell brings a unique light to his subjects as well. There is a undisguised truth there. You can take Powell's word for it. And yes, puppies probably do taste delicious.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diverse, sometimes meandering essays held together with insight and punch. Often you don't know where you're going until you get there. For instance, "Hitting Back" begins with psychological insights from family photos but proceeds to poignant, powerful moments not caught in photos. From there it explores "hitting back" through the written word.

[Jim Willse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of reported essays in the Southern baroque style, a little heavy on the baroque, you ask me. Too precious. Although his description of Cleve Dean’s night table is pretty special. Advice: don’t bother with the foreword by Pete Dexter - it’s a waste of time.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad I read this book. Mainly because of the playful swagger with which the writer writes. He is quick and facile with words. Sometimes because of the speed at which his prose moves it lost me. Yet it was fun and interesting and overall worth the ride.

[Sean Kinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out my review on Chapter.16.:

https://chapter16.org/hard-honest-com...

[Ajay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a compilation of stories and events in the author's personal life. My favorite chapters were about Cleve Dean the heavyweight arm-wrestling champion and the indigo snake. The author is very talented and is excellent at describing details about his experiences. Mr. Powell is funny and introspective in his stories. Some of the chapters are more fun than others. Most of the stories take place in the southeast U.S. This is the first book I've read by Mr. Powell and would consider reading another book by him.