The Postmistress
off32 | Mar 08, 2010 | 5 comments
- ISBN13: 9780399156199
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Those who carry the truth sometimes bear a terrible weight…
It is 1940. France has fallen. Bombs are dropping on London. And President Roosevelt is promising he won’t send our boys to fight in “foreign wars.”
But American radio gal Frankie Bard, the first woman to report from the Blitz in London, wants nothing more than to bring the war home. Frankie’s radio dispatches crackle across the Atlantic ocean, imploring listeners to pay attenti… More >>
Filed Under: Books
I love the poetic writing and the great evocation of the historical time period. I’m interested in the role of women in WWII and I think the themes of this book have great potential. I also quite liked the jumping around from characters to characters. This made the reading quite interesting. As in the case of many modern novels, I was very disappointed with the sudden and seemingly random sexual episodes. While the author embraces the pretense of writing high-brow literature with beautiful prose and stunning images, these episodes lower the tone of the novel to mere popular fiction. I’m not trying to sound elitist because I think there is room for the Dan Browns of the fiction world. My disappointment came from the uneven tone of the novel that ranged from high elegance to sloppy and unnecessary realism. I kind of got the feeling that the editors said “Add some spicy scenes to the story” to sell books. It’s a shame because I think the writer has talent and could have written a modern classic. I hope she learns that less really is more.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is a gripping, beautifully written novel. I couldn’t put it down! Well done, Ms. Blake.
Rating: 5 / 5
I just got this book and was very excited until I started reading that it was set on Cape Cod in the town of Franklin, MA. I’ve lived in MA for my entire life and frequently spend summer weekends down “The Cape.” It’s very hard for me to take this book seriously knowing that Franklin, MA is about as far away from Cape Cod as Boston is! I’ve read the first two chapters and am having a very hard time finding it believeable with such a ricdulous, fictional location. What a bummer.
Rating: 3 / 5
In a small town on Cape Cod, a year before the United States becomes a combatant in World War II, the town’s postmistress, Iris, and the doctor’s new young wife, Emma listen to a third woman — Frankie Bard — tell them tales of London during the Blitz over the radio. Soon, all three of their lives will be intertwined in ways that none of them could have expected.
I wanted to love this novel, because the writing was often extraordinarily good and the characters and the situations in which they found themselves fascinating. Sarah Blake does an astonishing and gut-wrenching job of imagining and then describing what it must be like to be in the midst of an air raid in London, or riding a train along with a host of refugees, and it’s at moments like this that the novel shines. Similarly, Iris is an intriguing and complex character, whose life is devoted to the mail — not just its mechanics, but the spirit behind it. “To protect the words passing across time and distance, that was her special charge, especially now when the letter writers might come to harm.” Meanwhile, Emma has found an identity of sorts for herself as the doctor’s wife in this small community.
The problem lies with the improbable ways in which the three characters’ lives end up intertwined. So complex is the plot that it felt sometimes, reading this novel, as if the plot existed only for the author to set up a situation that she could then mine for philosophical content and insight into her characters. In a lot of novels, character takes a back seat to plot (and stock characters substitute for ‘believable’ individuals); in this, however, the reverse is true. I found all three women convincing in their individual quirky ways, and yet the plot seemed to exist only as a backdrop. That became particularly true because the central premise of the plot is presented in the first pages as being a postmistress’s failure to deliver a crucial letter — and yet I felt that wasn’t central to the plot. But then — what was the plot? The randomness of fate, especially in times of war? The futility of trying to forge relationships with others in times of war? The book completely came apart for me in the concluding chapters, when all three women are on Cape Cod and encountering each other in person. My credulity was stretched past the breaking point at this stage.
There are elements of a strong book in this novel, and segments that are poignant and well-written, but nothing ever clicks. Ultimately, it felt like a self-conscious novel, one trying hard to be something that it isn’t. I was always aware that I was Reading a Novel, not living through a series of experiences with characters that I awaken to find aren’t real at all when I finish, to my bemusement.
I’ve rated it 3.5 stars, but rounded it down because of the unconvincing plot lines. I’m sure there will be an audience for it — it’s a woman’s novel, and may make a good book club read given all the different philosophical elements that are tossed in there — but at the end of the day, I’d rather spend a few hours reading a lively chick lit book that doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
Rating: 3 / 5
What a beautifully written book. The author’s storytelling vividly brought to life the sleepy little town of Franklin, Massachusetts and World War II Europe. The characters were rich and multidimensional, and Sarah Blake took the time to develop each thoroughly. The language is perfectly descriptive, delivering the reader to a historically accurate 1940s.
As other reviewers have noted, however, there appears to be a discrepancy between the undelivered letter noted in the book flap, the introductory chapter, and the main events of the book. This is more like a hiccup in the story than a speed bump, however, and did not distract from the otherwise magnificent storytelling.
Rating: 4 / 5