Title: The Postmistress
Author: Sarah Blake
Genre: Fiction
About: (Goodreads 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 States’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.…more
My thoughts: An interesting idea for a novel and the author explains how she got the idea at the end of the book. Also included is information on her research which I appreciated since I wanted to know more about the war time press.
I’m not sure why but I just didn’t connect with the characters on the home front. I know they were connected in that they moved the plot but there was just something about them that made them seem more like caricatures. Maybe it has to do with the era, I’m not sure. Sometimes it seemed that their dialogue was trying too hard to sound “of the era”.
The part I liked most was when Frankie interviewed refugees on the trains heading west to France, Spain and Portugal. She recorded their voices telling their names and where they were going. It was haunting to read this section of the book.
I’ve read novels about the people (mostly children) who were sent out of London during the Blitz but never one that involved the people living in London not knowing each night if bombs would drop on them – or if their home would be intact when they came out of the bomb shelter. Their emotions were palpable. I think Sarah Blake depicted the fear and desperation of the refugees as well as the people in London in a completely believable way.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Source: I bought it.
Bookfan 