Final Thoughts

[letsread2SC]

My strongest impression was the depiction during bombings when Frankie spent time with families huddled together in the shelters. More gripping was her time with the crowds loading and on the train. The children being bustled and separated from their parents was tragic. I caught my breath as I read of Thomas as he risked his life for Frankie and then lost it.

[blkeyesuzi]

I completely agree!  I feel that I didn't enjoy the book as much, since the book turned out to be something completely different from what I was anticipating. 

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Zia01 wrote:

I've been waiting for this thread for a long time because what I'm am getting ready to say has been bugging me since I read the book and there never has been a good spot to discuss it.

I would have enjoyed this book so much more if the jacket blurb and even the synopsis on this website, hadn't been so misleading.

Here's the B&N synopsis:

Filled with stunning parallels to today's world, The Postmistress is a sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women-and of two countries torn apart by war.
On the eve of the United State's entrance into World War II in 1940, Iris James, the postmistress of Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, does the unthinkable: She doesn't deliver a letter. (this doesn't even happen until Pg 243 in 1941 near the end of the book)In London, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, reporting on the Blitz. One night in a bomb shelter, she meets a doctor from Cape Cod with a letter in his pocket, a letter Frankie vows to deliver when she returns from Germany and France, where she is to record the stories of war refugees desperately trying to escape. (This makes it sound as if she is granting a dying wish from Will. Once you read the book this is found to be inaccurate.)
The residents of Franklin think the war can't touch them- but as Frankie's radio broadcasts air, some know that the war is indeed coming. And when Frankie arrives at their doorstep, the two stories collide in a way no one could have foreseen. The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.

But what bugged me the most more than anything is the assumption the reader is led to believe about Iris taking the letter. The blurb and the jacket both make you think it's the main plot line of the book. In reality it is not. I spent the entire book looking for this letter and wondering what the heck it had to do with anything in the story. If I hadn't been given the wrong impression, I would have really enjoyed this book.

I thought I was being overly sensitive to it but a friend who also read for this book club felt the same exact thing. She kept waiting for the plot to happen.

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[blkeyesuzi]

I wish I had gotten that advice.  I spent the whole time waiting for the plot to thicken.  I wish I hadn't known anything about the letter or read the book jacket for that matter.  What I read in the description was exactly the type of novel I enjoy reading.  For me, this book came up short delivering on its promise.

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amt19 wrote:

I have to agree that I too kept waiting for the letter which wasn't coming and was making the story drag

Once my friend told me to forget the letter the story pace picked up and  I enjoyed the rest of the book.

Had I not had that advice I would have spent the entire book waiting for the plot.

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[ssizemore]

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JaneM wrote:

I agree with others that the inside front cover is misleading as is the title.  It clearly states Iris is the postmistress, but in some of our discussion topics we have heard that Iris is in fact the Postmaster, intimating that Frankie is the postmistress.  But in the first chapter written by Frankie, she called herself the postmistress who does not deliver the letter which in turn becomes the story of her time in the war and in Franklin.  This is contradictory and misleading for those who rely on such things to lead them through the narrative.

However, personally, I had forgotton both of those things, and just jumped into the story feet first and really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed the characters, the pathos, descriptions and ultimately felt the resolution was satisfying.  My thanks to Sarah and B&N for the reading experience.

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This is the answer to the title in my opinion.  So many people were delivering messages--and so many were not receiving them.  I even think Otto was trying to deliver a message to his family when he stared across the ocean.  He delivered the message, but it was never received.  The news team was trying to deliver messages back to the states, each in his own way.  Were the messages received?  The hearer would decide that.  Of course, Frankie and Iris were to deliver messages that appeared as letters, but Frankie was delivering an astounding message with her recordings.  Maybe we were to understand that we all send messages of all kinds and receive messages of all kinds and it is whether or not we recognize it that matters.  This all could be a stretch, but I see more messages than those written on paper.

I loved this book and can't wait for my friends to experience it!

Sandy

[T-Mo]

I agree completely. The synopsis is very misleading, and the book is a huge disappointment. Many of the minor details have no bearing whatsoever on the story and perhaps instead of including such nonsense the author could have focused more on telling an actual story as opposed to so many disjointed tales. There is so much more going on in the story than what the synopsis alludes to. Therefore, as you said, the synopsis gives a completely wrong impression of what the book is about. This book was a huge disappointment. There was too much going on, and not enough connection to all of it. Further, Frankie’s failure to deliver the letter is insignificant. She was a coward. Her letter in the end meant nothing because the message was, ultimately, delivered by Iris. I was so frustrated with so much of this book. I’m not sure what all the hype is about and why so many people are raving about it. I thought it was terrible. There were a couple of good parts, but not enough to say I liked the book. The construction of the story is so scattered- it seemed like the author just could not get a handle on what type of story she was trying to tell so she threw together a bunch of little stories- and unfortunately it did not mesh well. 

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Zia01 wrote:

I've been waiting for this thread for a long time because what I'm am getting ready to say has been bugging me since I read the book and there never has been a good spot to discuss it.

I would have enjoyed this book so much more if the jacket blurb and even the synopsis on this website, hadn't been so misleading.

Here's the B&N synopsis:

Filled with stunning parallels to today's world, The Postmistress is a sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women-and of two countries torn apart by war.
On the eve of the United State's entrance into World War II in 1940, Iris James, the postmistress of Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, does the unthinkable: She doesn't deliver a letter. (this doesn't even happen until Pg 243 in 1941 near the end of the book)In London, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, reporting on the Blitz. One night in a bomb shelter, she meets a doctor from Cape Cod with a letter in his pocket, a letter Frankie vows to deliver when she returns from Germany and France, where she is to record the stories of war refugees desperately trying to escape. (This makes it sound as if she is granting a dying wish from Will. Once you read the book this is found to be inaccurate.)
The residents of Franklin think the war can't touch them- but as Frankie's radio broadcasts air, some know that the war is indeed coming. And when Frankie arrives at their doorstep, the two stories collide in a way no one could have foreseen. The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.

But what bugged me the most more than anything is the assumption the reader is led to believe about Iris taking the letter. The blurb and the jacket both make you think it's the main plot line of the book. In reality it is not. I spent the entire book looking for this letter and wondering what the heck it had to do with anything in the story. If I hadn't been given the wrong impression, I would have really enjoyed this book.

I thought I was being overly sensitive to it but a friend who also read for this book club felt the same exact thing. She kept waiting for the plot to happen.

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[Lil_Irish_Lass]

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T-Mo wrote:

I agree completely. The synopsis is very misleading, and the book is a huge disappointment. Many of the minor details have no bearing whatsoever on the story and perhaps instead of including such nonsense the author could have focused more on telling an actual story as opposed to so many disjointed tales. There is so much more going on in the story than what the synopsis alludes to. Therefore, as you said, the synopsis gives a completely wrong impression of what the book is about. This book was a huge disappointment. There was too much going on, and not enough connection to all of it. Further, Frankie’s failure to deliver the letter is insignificant. She was a coward. Her letter in the end meant nothing because the message was, ultimately, delivered by Iris. I was so frustrated with so much of this book. I’m not sure what all the hype is about and why so many people are raving about it. I thought it was terrible. There were a couple of good parts, but not enough to say I liked the book. The construction of the story is so scattered- it seemed like the author just could not get a handle on what type of story she was trying to tell so she threw together a bunch of little stories- and unfortunately it did not mesh well. 

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 T-Mo -

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I still feel that the concept lended itself to a great story being told but that Blake came up very short in the execution of it. So much so that I barely participated in the discussion since I had nothing to discuss other than the fact that I was not enjoying this novel.

I get that she was trying to tell multiple stories simultaneously but when one paragraph flows in to another and neither are connected in place or involving the same person it winds up just being confusing. There were multiple times where I ended up having to go back and re-read paragraphs so I could figure exactly what I was reading about in that moment. A basic concept taught to school children are paragraph transitions when composing essays, it seems like Blake forgot that simple rule in this novel.

I too am not sure why so many people are loving this novel, but I'm glad at least they enjoyed reading it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that.

[cmmn]

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to read The Postmistress.  I had trouble getting into the book at the beginning.  I couldn't say exactly why until I read the previous post.  I think after reading the jacket I expected something different.  I almost quit reading but I'm glad I didn't.  Once I got to Frankie's travels in Europe I was thoroughly hooked and from then on enjoyed the book immensely.  The author made me feel like I was in the train car too.  Thank you to Sarah Blake for an enjoyable read.

[Peppermill]

To all of you who had difficulty with transitions and meaning and expectations in The Postmistress, I am going to suggest reading Nuruddin Farah's Maps.  I can almost guarantee you won't "like" it, but if you are an avid reader, it may be another look at novelistic style that is somewhat different from our expectations of a straight forward story and plot.  With its look at Somalia, I do believe Maps is on a topic that probably "should" be of interest to more of us than it probably is.

There is no question that reading Maps just before and concurrently with The Postmistress impacted my response to Blake's novel -- for me, The Postmistress was a lot easier to read and understand, although Maps is without question a significant book by a very strong author.

Pepper

PS-- "Add Product" doesn't seem to be working this morning!!!  ( I will say the description on the book page is more straightforward than reading the novel -- perhaps I should have started there and those of you who expect not to be perhaps deceived or misdirected by "advertising" should have less of problem from that perspective.)

[BookWoman718]

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ssizemore wrote:

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This is the answer to the title in my opinion.  So many people were delivering messages--and so many were not receiving them.  I even think Otto was trying to deliver a message to his family when he stared across the ocean.  He delivered the message, but it was never received.  The news team was trying to deliver messages back to the states, each in his own way.  Were the messages received?  The hearer would decide that.  Of course, Frankie and Iris were to deliver messages that appeared as letters, but Frankie was delivering an astounding message with her recordings.  Maybe we were to understand that we all send messages of all kinds and receive messages of all kinds and it is whether or not we recognize it that matters.  This all could be a stretch, but I see more messages than those written on paper.

I loved this book and can't wait for my friends to experience it!

Sandy

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I was drawn into this book immediately and finished it within days of receiving it.   I think it is one of the finer books we have seen in First Look, a wonderful evocation of a time when the world could have tipped either way.  Before the US entered the War, many people believed Britain would be the next to fall to the Nazis' relentless march.    What feels inevitable to us now, our victory, was really not, then,  when these characters were living it.   The scenes on the trains were so painful, in part, because these tragic refugees were the lucky ones who had a chance of getting out,  We know now what befell those they had been forced to leave behind.   A quick death from a bullet was probably a blessing.   

I think the prologue to the book was a wonderful set up;  it made me, at least, want to hear the rest of this dinner table anecdote that turned into a powerful story of intertwined lives over two continents.  The undelivered letter was in the back of my mind, like a clue to be watching for, but it never dictated where my interest would go, and much of the time, I forgot it entirely as I was drawn into the immediacy of the story - or rather stories.  Sometimes, as I resurfaced from one of the other scenes - the birthing, for instance, or the cowering underground comforting strangers - we would come back to the post office, and I would think, oh yes, now is this where the mysterious letter comes in? 

I think those who see Frankie as the postmistress are probably right - although Iris' one dereliction of duty after decades of rigid adherence to official Post Office regulations might imply that in this instance she acted as something less than the postmaster she prided herself on being.   I don't know, maybe it's a little of both.  Were Iris and Frankie right or wrong in their decisions?   What is the "right" thing to do, and in which circumstances - and who gets to decide?  That's one of the central questions of 21st century living, isn't it?   And as we see in this book,  those decisions often dominated lives during the immediate pre-war years, too.   (Should a man leave his bride if he can be useful saving lives in a desperately besieged situation elsewhere?   Some of you thought not.  I thought he was heroic, no matter what the impetus was that made him go. But maybe that's because I knew, after the war, men who made similar decisions, left wives, small children, not because they were drafted, but because they wanted to defend country, defeat a force that was clearly despotic and undemocratic, and simply "do their part."  It took millions of such sacrifices to give us a chance for the freedom that Europe has enjoyed for the past half century.)    

I, too, loved - and admire - this book and fully expect it to be well received wherever it is published. 

[liisa22]

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ssizemore wrote:

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This is the answer to the title in my opinion.  So many people were delivering messages--and so many were not receiving them.  I even think Otto was trying to deliver a message to his family when he stared across the ocean.  He delivered the message, but it was never received.  The news team was trying to deliver messages back to the states, each in his own way.  Were the messages received?  The hearer would decide that.  Of course, Frankie and Iris were to deliver messages that appeared as letters, but Frankie was delivering an astounding message with her recordings.  Maybe we were to understand that we all send messages of all kinds and receive messages of all kinds and it is whether or not we recognize it that matters.  This all could be a stretch, but I see more messages than those written on paper.

I loved this book and can't wait for my friends to experience it!

Sandy

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I didn't really think in terms of all the different types of 'messages'  that was really in there. Thanks for mentioning that. 

But still feel kinda disappointed, maybe cheated, with the book. 

I liked the message a teacher had for Frankie-  Remember.

[PiperMurphy]

I have mixed feelings about The Postmistress. I thought Frankie was a fascinating character. Her reporting of the London Blitz and the refugee train was interesting, compelling, and heartbreaking. I would have loved to read a whole book about Frankie and Murrow reporting the war in Europe. Frankie's story was beautifully told.

Harry and Otto were my favorite characters even though they had a supporting role. Harry understood America's vulnerability to foreign invasion when everyone else thought it could never happen. He quietly went about safeguarding his town, but suffers a heart attack from the shock when a U Boat actually surfaces. I wish he had survived. I liked Otto for his dignity. He was separated from his family and alone in a country where people were suspicious of him. Yet he didn't feel the need to explain himself. He didn't need to.

Unfortunately, I have a problem with Iris. I felt that Iris withholding the letter from the landlady was out of character. I didn't find her reasoning believeable. She prided herself in following the rules and regulations of the Post Office, but she not only did not deliver the landlady's letter, she opened it. That was not only ethically and morally wrong, it was illegal. Then when the telegram arrived, she was off the hook. There were no consequences for her actions. She had a piece of Will's story that should have been Emma's, but Emma would never know.  Likewise, Frankie had a letter from Will that she chose to hand deliver, but found out when she got to Franklin that Emma had not been notified of his death. She has to make a decision whether to give Emma the letter and deliver the news herself, or keep it and not say anything. She is also saved by the arrival of the telegram, but she had a very interesting dilemma that could have been more explored.

I thought that The Postmistress captured the atmosphere of the war in Europe and pre-war America beautifully. I wish that the book had been more about the contrast between the two without the mystery of the letter.

[joyfull]

I want to say thank you to Barnes and Noble for the opportunity to read The Postmistress. Thanks also to Sarah Blake for bringing her characters to life for us. I enjoyed the book and I'm now interested in reading more books about this era.

[Peppermill]

..she opened it.  That was not only ethically and morally wrong, it was illegal.

I doubt any of us can deny that opening the landlady's letter was illegal on Iris's part.  But please do say some  more about what makes it (clearly) ethically and morally wrong to have opened the letter, if you would, Piper. 

Given that Will had given Iris a letter to be delivered on his death, and which charge she accepted, along with a less formal one to keep an eye on Emma, that second aspect is more ambiguous for me, even though I do think Emma would have been okay receiving the letter at once, at least in the long haul.  I also don't know what Iris would have or should have done about the letter Will left her if she had delivered the letter from the landlady (without opening it).  I suspect I lean towards the view that Iris should have continued to hold Will's letter until Emma received further information and confirmation of his death, either because of inquiries Emma might then have instigated, or because the news came as it did.

Anyway, what ifs are always what ifs.

Thanks, if you indulge me, and us.

Pepper

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PiperMurphy wrote:

I have mixed feelings about The Postmistress. I thought Frankie was a fascinating character. Her reporting of the London Blitz and the refugee train was interesting, compelling, and heartbreaking. I would have loved to read a whole book about Frankie and Murrow reporting the war in Europe. Frankie's story was beautifully told.

Harry and Otto were my favorite characters even though they had a supporting role. Harry understood America's vulnerability to foreign invasion when everyone else thought it could never happen. He quietly went about safeguarding his town, but suffers a heart attack from the shock when a U Boat actually surfaces. I wish he had survived. I liked Otto for his dignity. He was separated from his family and alone in a country where people were suspicious of him. Yet he didn't feel the need to explain himself. He didn't need to.

Unfortunately, I have a problem with Iris. I felt that Iris withholding the letter from the landlady was out of character. I didn't find her reasoning believeable. She prided herself in following the rules and regulations of the Post Office, but she not only did not deliver the landlady's letter, she opened it. That was not only ethically and morally wrong, it was illegal. Then when the telegram arrived, she was off the hook. There were no consequences for her actions. She had a piece of Will's story that should have been Emma's, but Emma would never know.  Likewise, Frankie had a letter from Will that she chose to hand deliver, but found out when she got to Franklin that Emma had not been notified of his death. She has to make a decision whether to give Emma the letter and deliver the news herself, or keep it and not say anything. She is also saved by the arrival of the telegram, but she had a very interesting dilemma that could have been more explored.

I thought that The Postmistress captured the atmosphere of the war in Europe and pre-war America beautifully. I wish that the book had been more about the contrast between the two without the mystery of the letter.

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[floreader]

I loved reading this book.  The sections that took place in Europe and the plight of the Jews were excellently written and very moving.  Frankie was my favorite character and I liked seeing her character mature throughout the story.  I did find the parts of the book set in Frankin a little boring, but I liked that the author was trying to show how people in America were so innocent of most of what was really going on in Europe prior to America's involvement in WWII.

[cornwall]

I must say I agree most with your review. Although there were flashes of brilliance, I never felt like I knew or understood most of the characters. Even if I don't like a particular character, a really great read for me includes feeling like I know the person. I'm sure not all readers felt this distance, but I did, with the possible exception of Frankie. However, as I do feel in my monthly book group, I'm alway's happy to have read something picked, even if it didn't work for me.

[Lil_Irish_Lass]

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cornwall wrote:

I must say I agree most with your review. Although there were flashes of brilliance, I never felt like I knew or understood most of the characters. Even if I don't like a particular character, a really great read for me includes feeling like I know the person. I'm sure not all readers felt this distance, but I did, with the possible exception of Frankie. However, as I do feel in my monthly book group, I'm alway's happy to have read something picked, even if it didn't work for me.

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Cornwall - I felt the same, to me they always were just names on a page, never a 3-dimensional person walking around somewhere in the literary world. I could pick it up and put it down and never cared about what happened to them.

You win some, you lose some... this was a loss and not a book I'll recommend. With some heavy editing and re-writing it could be a good novel though.

[bookowlie]

Here are my random final thoughts, in no particular order:

While there were parts of this book that I absolutely loved, the book didn't work for me as a whole.  There was too much going on that didn't connect together.  As Cornwall perfectly stated, there were "flashes of brilliance", but the sum of ithe book's parts didn't add up to a great book.  I would compare it to some ingredients in a recipe that are tasty, but don't mix together to make a delicious meal.

I think this book would make a good movie, in the hands of a screenwriter who edits and rewrites parts of the story.

I also felt misled by the title and book jacket description.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out when is the plot about the letter going to be discussed further and then I realized the letter was not that important in the overall story.  I don't think that Iris was even that important a character, other than to show, along with the other characters in Franklin, what was happening in America in contrast to Europe during that time period.

The parts that described the Blitz and the story of the Jews were very moving.  These sections of the story made reading the book worthwhile.

[thewanderingjew]

I enjoyed the book enormously. I thought the purpose Sarah Blake enunciated (in answering one of my questions), to show the impact of war on those directly involved and those indirectly involved, was served well. I liked the way the tale was told, taking me to and from different locales with their attendant issues. It opened a window into the lives of different people struggling to survive the effects of war and illuminated their sometimes doomed efforts.

I didn't mind the way the delivery of the letters was presented because, overall, i think their purpose was to point out how a small infraction or broken rule, impacts different people in different ways. Perhaps some rules are meant to be broken because human beings are not simply made of words as rules are; following them would cause more pain, unnecessarily. Each instance would have to be evaluated separately. I do believe that Frankie should have mailed her letter immediately. I sympathize more with Iris and her decisions since she felt charged, by Will, with the responsibility of protecting Emma if she could. I would really recommend this book to others.

[gold02]

Overall I enjoyed The Postmistress, although I did find myself wishing that there was a happier or more satisfying ending to the story.  It would have been nice to have more of a conclusion to what happens to Emma and the baby and Iris and Frankie.

The character I found most interesting was Frankie.  Her reporting from the trains in Europe definitely made me want to read more about the period.  This was the section of the book that made the deepest impression on me.

It has been great to jump in and read a book I might not otherwise have chosen for myself.  Seeing everyone else's thoughts, and the author's thoughts, made it a much richer reading experience.

Anne

[LKD_726]

I really enjoyed reading The Postmistress but I have to admit I would have preferred a happy ending for Emma.  I also wanted to know if she had a boy or girl and how she was going to begin her journey as a single parent. There was a good blend of history, suspense and romance in this book.

I thought the book was riveting, especially Frankie's journey on the train through Europe.  That was when the book drew me in and would not let go.  I think that Frankie also grew and changed quite a bit during her journey on the train.  The part where she unwittingly drew attention to herself and Thomas was heart pounding suspense and when Thomas was shot it was heartbreaking.