Helpful Score: 9
After reading the negative reviews, I was hesitant to invest my time into this book. I'm so glad I did! I don't think I could disagree more with the comments critical of the writer's style. I waited for those awkward sentences that would confuse me, but they never came. Instead, the story not only flowed but piqued my interest in the London bombings of WWII.
Helpful Score: 7
I am glad I read the other reviews after I started reading this book. The beginning is very slow and full of bizarre sentences that don't seem to mean anything. I almost quit this book but true to the other reviews, it gets pretty good after about the first 50-70 pages.
Helpful Score: 6
This book is more character- and context-driven than plot-driven, so if you're looking for a page-turner leave it on the shelf. While the characters were interesting conceived they were poorly developed. In the context of the lack of plot and characters that I did not care about, the poignant writing about the horrors of WW2 felt hollow. Overall, a dull read that I would not recommend.
Helpful Score: 5
started a bit slow and I wasnt sure where it was going but then it moved along and I couldn't put it down. The author weaves the different stories into a web of connections and makes us think about how we touch each other and what our time on this planet and our personal stories really mean.
Helpful Score: 4
The first 50 pages or so were hard to dig through but after that I was hooked and found the book very interesting. Very detailed descriptions that slowed the story down a little too much for me but still a good read.
Helpful Score: 2
I feel that the story had so much potential but the writing was awful. The first half of the book was the worst. Many of the analogies had me rolling my eyes, they were just plain dumb. The story jumped all over the place in the first few chapters and did not do a good job of introducing characters. Therefore the reader is left totally confused of what is going on. Finally, after the halfway point, it starts to get really interesting but the strange thing is the part that is so interesting isn't the main premise of the story. Anyway, the only reason I stuck with the book is because it was my book club read for the month, but we all felt the same way about it. Otherwise I wouldn't have made it past chapter 3.
Helpful Score: 2
I loved this book. The writing is absolutely beautiful and the story and characters are so believable. I plan to ask my book club to discuss this book and there is MUCH food for thought, and discussion, in it. I know they will all love it too.
Helpful Score: 2
I was impressed with the issues the author set out to explore in this book. Three American women in the early days of World War II each have to deal with the reality of their worlds changing forever. One woman, Frankie Bord, a radio news broadcaster, seeks out her change eagerly; the other two, Iris (a postmaster in rural Massachusetts) and Emma (a newlywed doctor's wife), are reluctantly dragged into theirs.
I felt that Iris and Emma each represent America in the days before Pearl Harbor--aware that something dreadful was happening, but desperate to avoid dealing with it. The men in their lives are more aware that war is unavoidable, and more willing to confront the war and take action.
The author does a great job of setting three microcosm stories against the macrocosm of the war and the Holocaust in Europe. The characters are sparsely drawn, but they stick with you nonetheless. It's fascinating to watch each character wrestle with his or her response to the war, knowing as we do what the years ahead held for American men and women and men and women all over the world. I very much enjoyed reading about this time of quiet in America before the storm.
I felt that Iris and Emma each represent America in the days before Pearl Harbor--aware that something dreadful was happening, but desperate to avoid dealing with it. The men in their lives are more aware that war is unavoidable, and more willing to confront the war and take action.
The author does a great job of setting three microcosm stories against the macrocosm of the war and the Holocaust in Europe. The characters are sparsely drawn, but they stick with you nonetheless. It's fascinating to watch each character wrestle with his or her response to the war, knowing as we do what the years ahead held for American men and women and men and women all over the world. I very much enjoyed reading about this time of quiet in America before the storm.
Helpful Score: 2
I really loved this book. The writing was so dense, for a while I would only read a chapter at a time, like pieces of good chocolate. Towards the end I couldn't help rushing to the end (thus eating the whole box!) Highly recommended.
Helpful Score: 2
This book revolves around the lives of three women, very different from each other, who's lives intersect as a result of WWII in the early 1940's before the U.S. became involved. Iris James, the postmaster in the small town of Franklin Mass., Emma Fitch, new wife of the town doctor, herself an orphan, and Frankie Bard, an American reporter broadcasting from London during the Blitz. Both Iris and Emma listen to The London broadcasts by Frankie unaware that their paths will eventually cross. The main, and most riviting character is Frankie. Through her eyes and voice, we can feel the reality of what is happening in Europe, which also fuels the tension at home. Her most notable achievement is a recording device which she uses to record the voices, ages and homeland of the frantically fleeing refugees, especially the Jews. She sees first hand the magnitude of their plight and experiences intense frustruation that the United States especially does not seem to understand the urgency to come to their aid. Hers are the most monumental and moving passages in the book. Emma's husband, the doctor, has felt a compelling need to go to London to help those injured in the bombing anad has a brief chance encounter with Frankie, one that leaves a lasting impression on her. She holds in her hand a letter to post to his wife, which in the end, she chooses to hand deliver. It is for this reason, I believe that SHE is the postmistress for which the book is named, not Iris, who considers herself a 'postmaster.' The paths of the three women cross when Frankie arrives in Franklin Mass. to deliver the letter to Emma. I liked the book immensly,
though I felt an inordinate amount of time was spent going over and over the same ground with Iris and Emma. Their characters were pale in comparassion to Frankie. She carried the whole book with her pluck and courage.
though I felt an inordinate amount of time was spent going over and over the same ground with Iris and Emma. Their characters were pale in comparassion to Frankie. She carried the whole book with her pluck and courage.
Helpful Score: 1
There are many novels and films whose plots will fit easily on the back of an envelope. Most of them fill in the spaces with lots of action or car crashes. This one does not; instead we we are smothered in more detail than is necessary to explain the plot. Believe you me, it was about enough to make me scream or at least take a stern red pencil to the pages of the novel.
A small-town doctor suffers guilt after a patient dies in childbirth. Said patient should have known enough to get to a doctor or hospital when her water broke, but that is an issue not addressed. This part of the story was much too drawn out, in my opinion. So anyway, the good and decent Dr. Fitch leaves his young wife to volunteer his services in London at the height of the Blitz.
I was going to say that the story follows two women in the days before the United States got involved in World War Two. But on second thought, there are actually three. The young wife of the above doctor, named Emma. The postmistress in the same small town that Dr and Mrs Fitch live in; her name is Iris James. Then Frankie Bard, the radio reporter who gets a minute or two on Edward R. Murrow's broadcasts to relate her stories.
The basic plot is that Dr. Fitch leaves a letter in the care of Postmaster James in case of his demise to give to Emma. But since the doc is overseas on his own, no one is responsible to report whether he is missing or not. The postmaster does receive a letter from Fitch's landlady in London, saying that he seems to be missing, but that letter is not delivered.
Well, needless to say the doc buys the farm fairly early in the novel. By chance, Frankie scoops up his last unmailed letter to his wife, intending to mail it to Mrs. Fitch. But Frankie is about to spend three weeks in France and Germany, riding the rails and recording people's stories. She never mails it, but after a rest, travels to the Fitch's hometown to hand deliver it.
Well! Is she ever stunned to realize that no one has told Mrs. Fitch that she is a widow. She never delivers the letter, but the postmaster finally delivers the doctor's letter that he had entrusted to her safekeeping.
A small-town doctor suffers guilt after a patient dies in childbirth. Said patient should have known enough to get to a doctor or hospital when her water broke, but that is an issue not addressed. This part of the story was much too drawn out, in my opinion. So anyway, the good and decent Dr. Fitch leaves his young wife to volunteer his services in London at the height of the Blitz.
I was going to say that the story follows two women in the days before the United States got involved in World War Two. But on second thought, there are actually three. The young wife of the above doctor, named Emma. The postmistress in the same small town that Dr and Mrs Fitch live in; her name is Iris James. Then Frankie Bard, the radio reporter who gets a minute or two on Edward R. Murrow's broadcasts to relate her stories.
The basic plot is that Dr. Fitch leaves a letter in the care of Postmaster James in case of his demise to give to Emma. But since the doc is overseas on his own, no one is responsible to report whether he is missing or not. The postmaster does receive a letter from Fitch's landlady in London, saying that he seems to be missing, but that letter is not delivered.
Well, needless to say the doc buys the farm fairly early in the novel. By chance, Frankie scoops up his last unmailed letter to his wife, intending to mail it to Mrs. Fitch. But Frankie is about to spend three weeks in France and Germany, riding the rails and recording people's stories. She never mails it, but after a rest, travels to the Fitch's hometown to hand deliver it.
Well! Is she ever stunned to realize that no one has told Mrs. Fitch that she is a widow. She never delivers the letter, but the postmaster finally delivers the doctor's letter that he had entrusted to her safekeeping.
Helpful Score: 1
This story about war and the human spirit ranges from a small town on Cape Cod to the London blitz and the mass evacuations of Jews across Europe from the fall of 1940 to fall 1942. Three stories mingle to create this thought-provoking tale a Cape Cod postmistress, a local doctor and his wife, and Frankie Bard, a female war correspondent broadcasting nightly from London with Edward R. Murrow as the Nazis rain bombs over the city. Although there is not a single battle or soldier fighting in the book, its one of the most heartfelt stories of war Ive ever read. And, it resonates as much today as it did in the 1940s.
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book,the perspectives of the main characters were so different. It gave you such an unusual look into how each of them related to the war and how it would and does affect them. The beginning of the book makes alot more sense at the end of the book. So I would recommend re-reading the prologue after you finish it. A really enjoyable book.
Helpful Score: 1
Blake gives us a realistic perspective of the lives of people touched by the devastation of war, both directly and indirectly. It was a long read in the sense that there were a lot of words to read; however, in light of the setting (journalism), I suppose she wrote the prose that best represented the atmosphere. Her Note and The Story Behind the Story at the end of the book gave a clearer picture of her direction and what she wanted to accomplish through her characters; that was extremely helpful. In that regard, she achieved her goal well.
Im glad I read The Postmistress even though I was hoping for a better ending. But then again, this wasnt the happily ever after ending, although possible, that Blake wanted us to experience. This was the other side of the story that we rarely hear because, like her protagonists, we want to distance ourselves from those endings and hope for the best for ourselves.
Im glad I read The Postmistress even though I was hoping for a better ending. But then again, this wasnt the happily ever after ending, although possible, that Blake wanted us to experience. This was the other side of the story that we rarely hear because, like her protagonists, we want to distance ourselves from those endings and hope for the best for ourselves.
Helpful Score: 1
After reading other reviews, I am not sure why I loved this book. It was sometimes disjointed, but I felt the difference between the hardships of Europe and the ambivalence of the U.S. right before the war was realistic. I thought the author could have done a better job with how Emma found out her husband was dead. The whole premise of the start of the book was that the Postmaster had not done her job by keeping a letter secret. The last chapter was a little off, like the author had written it first as a goal to achieve. Despite this, I found the book gripping and I read it in a couple of days.
Helpful Score: 1
loved this book
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book-if you are a fan of war stories and their nuances this has it all. Inner conflict, romance, sadness, tradegy. It was a time in history that needs to be remembered...
Helpful Score: 1
Poetical, evocative writing. Poignant storyline that will stay with you after you have finished the book. Fascinating book about the early years of WWII and how the war was perceived in America before we entered the war. I felt enriched by this book.
This is my opinion only but I found this book to be very BORING! I read through Chapter 3 and just couldn't get into the book. The author used many, many, many words to say nothing interesting. I was extremely disappointed.
Helpful Score: 1
A hauntingly told story of how individuals cope with day-to-day life under the threat or reality of war, set in the days before the USA entered World War II. A radio reporter travels through occupied Europe; an American physician volunteers in London; a postmaster and her small Cape Cod community wait, watch, and listen. Even without the clever set-the-stage introduction, these characters and this story would have seemed real.
Helpful Score: 1
Sarah Blake has written a moving novel about the multi-layered cost of war. Iris, Emma and Frankie are three women who live through the turbulent years leading up to WWII and beyond. Their stories are eventually intertwined in a memorable way. This book examines the limits that the human heart can endure and its haunting consequences.
Helpful Score: 1
Intriguing look into repercussions of World War II on the homefront. Takes you back to the era and invites you to think 'what would you do?'
Helpful Score: 1
The author describes this book as "a war story that did not take place on the battlefield but showed us around the edges of a war photograph or news report into the moments just after or just before what we read or see or hear." The primary voices of the story were a news reporter, a young wife left behind, and the postmistress. The book travels between Europe and a small town in the US before the US became involved in the war.
I had not really heard or read about the book prior to reading it. I picked it up because the description sounded interesting. I read it in one sitting! I was drawn in by the characters and the tone of the story. Even though I anticipated some of what happened, it did not matter. I still felt the emotions and the characters coming through the pages.
I had not really heard or read about the book prior to reading it. I picked it up because the description sounded interesting. I read it in one sitting! I was drawn in by the characters and the tone of the story. Even though I anticipated some of what happened, it did not matter. I still felt the emotions and the characters coming through the pages.
Helpful Score: 1
I was very disappointed in this over hyped book. I never really got to conncect with the underdeveloped characters or storyline. Would not recommend to others.
Helpful Score: 1
Beautifully written; thought ending was a bit weak.
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 attention -- as the Nazis bomb London nightly, and Jewish refugees stream across Europe. Frankie is convinced that if she can just get the right story, it will wake Americans to action and they will join the fight.
Meanwhile, in Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod, Iris James hears Frankie's broadcasts and knows that it is only a matter of time before the war arrives on Franklin's shores. In charge of the town's mail, Iris believes that her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, passing along the news that letters carry. And one secret she keeps are her feelings for Harry Vale, the town mechanic, who inspects the ocean daily, searching in vain for German U-boats he is certain will come. Two single people in midlife, Iris and Harry long ago gave up hope of ever being in love, yet they find themselves unexpectedly drawn toward each other.
Listening to Frankie as well are Will and Emma Fitch, the town's doctor and his new wife, both trying to escape a fragile childhood and forge a brighter future. When Will follow's Frankie's siren call into the war, Emma's worst fears are realized. Promising to return in six months, Will goes to London to offer his help, and the lives of the three women entwine.
Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it.
Sarah Blake's The Postmistress shows how we bear the fact that war goes on around us while ordinary lives continue. Filled with stunning parallels to today, it is a remarkable novel.
Meanwhile, in Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod, Iris James hears Frankie's broadcasts and knows that it is only a matter of time before the war arrives on Franklin's shores. In charge of the town's mail, Iris believes that her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, passing along the news that letters carry. And one secret she keeps are her feelings for Harry Vale, the town mechanic, who inspects the ocean daily, searching in vain for German U-boats he is certain will come. Two single people in midlife, Iris and Harry long ago gave up hope of ever being in love, yet they find themselves unexpectedly drawn toward each other.
Listening to Frankie as well are Will and Emma Fitch, the town's doctor and his new wife, both trying to escape a fragile childhood and forge a brighter future. When Will follow's Frankie's siren call into the war, Emma's worst fears are realized. Promising to return in six months, Will goes to London to offer his help, and the lives of the three women entwine.
Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it.
Sarah Blake's The Postmistress shows how we bear the fact that war goes on around us while ordinary lives continue. Filled with stunning parallels to today, it is a remarkable novel.
Well written - different prospective of Europe during the war.
I really enjoyed this book and think it will become a keeper for me. I loved the story of the three women's lives and how they intertwined. I appreciated the detail and the simplicity at the same time. Give it a try.
Read this book in 3 days and enjoyed it very much. I liked the way the author included Edward R Morrow who I remember watching on TV years ago. Made the story true for me.
Excellent novel, she gives the reader lots to ponder. I would recommend this book.
This is a gem of a book. It starts off a little slowly, but if you stick with it, you'll find it a rewarding read. Set in the USA and Europe during World War II, the Postmistress focuses on the lives of a newlywed Emma, postmistress Iris and radio reporter Frankie Bard. The author weaves a lovely web that ties all of the characters together. This novel is about love, suffering, patriotism, duty, honor and fate. The author is quite talented and really makes you feel as if you are in the story watching it unfold. I would highly recommend this novel.
The beginning of this book where a woman goes to a doctor to get a certificate of her 'intactness' made me wonder what kind of book this was. But I enjoyed it, many characters, who at sometimes get confusing, all figure out in the end. Some of them will pull at your heartstrings. It is also a good little history lesson the first brave women who reported from a war zone-today's female media should read and learn. This is a story of the US right before it entered WWII, and London, which was enduring an endless attack of bombs by the Nazis. Good historical fiction, with some romance thrown in, but not so much it gets icky.
Very good. I highly recommend it. Quite a touching story. Well written
This book about the last year before the US entered WW II is centered on Cape Cod and London....
It started out strong, but then somewhere in the middle it seemed to keep on "skipping" about things that the reader might like to know. By the end I was wondering if the author just wanted to get to the end, maybe she had a limit of how many pages or words she was allowed to submit. It left me wondering what happened to some of the characters.
It started out strong, but then somewhere in the middle it seemed to keep on "skipping" about things that the reader might like to know. By the end I was wondering if the author just wanted to get to the end, maybe she had a limit of how many pages or words she was allowed to submit. It left me wondering what happened to some of the characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book right up to the end, which I thought was weak. Still, I learned a lot about the times and people faced with the realities of war, even it they weren't directly involved.
Stunning novel, highly recommend this. Incredible story of a female, American journalist in London during WW II. Beautifully written.
great! If you are a historical fiction lover, you will love this book! You will not want to put it down.
Very enjoyable look at WWI from a US and female perspective.
Very well written story.
After reading many of the mixed reviews of this book I was hesitant to read it. It has sat on my shelf since 2011. I finally picked it up and boy am I glad I did. This book grabbed me, pulled at my heartstrings and wouldn't let go. It is a WWII story that is quite different from those I've read before.
It is set in 1941 before the US has entered the war and focuses on three different American women. Two of the women live on Cape Cod and the third is a reporter who travels to London during The Blitz and then on to parts of Europe where she experiences and reports on the evacuation of the many Jews during this time. She tells stories of many individuals but she never knows how the story ends. She reports and then moves on to the next story. "A story like a snapshot is caught, held for a moment, then delivered. But the people in them go on and on. And what happens next? What happens?" Not knowing haunted her. The women living on Cape Cod are the postmistress who has a need to keep everything in order and a young insecure doctor's wife who is forced to find her way in the world alone. Their lives unfold throughout the novel slowly uniting the three of them.
This is a story that shows how war disrupts order and leaves loose threads that don't make sense individually but collectively they do. It is a beautifully written, thought-provoking novel.
My rating was knocked down by 1/2 star because I felt the ending, although decent, was rushed.
A favorite quote:
"Whatever is coming does not just come, as you say. It's helped by people willfully looking away. People who develop the habit of swallowing lies rather than the truth. The minute you start thinking something else, then you've stopped paying attention ---and paying attention is all we've got."
"If the world had paid more attention in 1939,..... maybe we wouldn't be sitting here in the dark, dodging bombs"
It is set in 1941 before the US has entered the war and focuses on three different American women. Two of the women live on Cape Cod and the third is a reporter who travels to London during The Blitz and then on to parts of Europe where she experiences and reports on the evacuation of the many Jews during this time. She tells stories of many individuals but she never knows how the story ends. She reports and then moves on to the next story. "A story like a snapshot is caught, held for a moment, then delivered. But the people in them go on and on. And what happens next? What happens?" Not knowing haunted her. The women living on Cape Cod are the postmistress who has a need to keep everything in order and a young insecure doctor's wife who is forced to find her way in the world alone. Their lives unfold throughout the novel slowly uniting the three of them.
This is a story that shows how war disrupts order and leaves loose threads that don't make sense individually but collectively they do. It is a beautifully written, thought-provoking novel.
My rating was knocked down by 1/2 star because I felt the ending, although decent, was rushed.
A favorite quote:
"Whatever is coming does not just come, as you say. It's helped by people willfully looking away. People who develop the habit of swallowing lies rather than the truth. The minute you start thinking something else, then you've stopped paying attention ---and paying attention is all we've got."
"If the world had paid more attention in 1939,..... maybe we wouldn't be sitting here in the dark, dodging bombs"
Loved the book!!!!!
SAD, TOUCHING STORY
Good read, WWII setting.
