Friday, July 1, 2011

2011 - Book 16 - The Postmistress


Just finished reading Sarah Blake's novel The Postmistress. Here is write-up of what the book is about:
In 1940, Iris James is the postmistress in coastal Franklin, Massachusetts. Iris knows more about the townspeople than she will ever say, and believes her job is to deliver secrets. Yet one day she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn't deliver it.
Meanwhile, Frankie Bard broadcasts from overseas with Edward R. Murrow. Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly. Most of the townspeople of Franklin think the war can't touch them. Both both Iris and Frankie know better...
The Postmistress is a tale of two worlds-one shattered by violence, the other willfully naive-and of two women whose job is to deliver the news, yet who find themselves unable to do so. Through their eyes, and the eyes of everyday people caught in history's tide, it examines how stories are told, and how the fact of war is borne even through everyday life.
I give this two definite thumbs up. While it took me a bit to actually get into the story, but once I did, I had a hard time putting the book down. It was actually a very powerful book after having just been to the Holocaust Museum in DC.

1 comment:

Jaye said...

I think we saw a movie of this book...didn't realize it was a book, actually...was one of our Netflix choices that we had never heard of...pretty good!