The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Postmistress
By Sarah Blake
Completed April 30, 2010
What happens when a message is not delivered - when a postmistress doesn’t deliver a letter or a reporter doesn’t tell a story? What if this letter or story contains the last words of the dead? Does it make it easier for loved ones to not read or hear these words? Or does the dead have a right to the last word?
Sarah Blake explores the spoken and written word in her compelling book, The Postmistress. The story focuses on the lives of three American women: Emma, the pregnant wife of a doctor tending to patients in London during the Blitz; Iris, the postmistress of a rural town where Emma lives; and Frankie, an American reporter broadcasting stories from London about the atrocities of the Blitz. While the United States had not entered World War II officially, the war’s effects had already befallen these women.
It’s Emma’s husband, Will, who brings these women together. Prior to his departure to London, he left a letter with Iris, asking her to deliver it to Emma should he die overseas. Then, while staying in a bomb shelter, Will meets Frankie and talks at length about his wife. After emerging from the bomb shelter, Will dies in the most ordinary of ways - a car accident - and Frankie is with him as he dies. In his pocket, Frankie find his last letter to Emma . Frankie keeps the letter but couldn’t mail it before embarking on her next assignment - to record the stories of Jewish refugees on trains en route to the Portuguese coast. As Frankie travels from train to train, Will’s letter stays in her pocket, a burning reminder of message she has not delivered.
The train stories were heart-breaking: Families trying to stay together; people avoiding slaughter; men and woman trying to remain hopeful despite the reality of their situation. This is where Blake shines, bringing every character to life, from Emma, Iris and Frankie, to the Jewish refugee who only occupies a page or two. Blake slights no one in her story. Though their time on the page might be short, these characters’ impact stays with you well beyond the last chapter.
The Postmistress is a bloodless war story that conjures powerful reactions to the characters who grace the book’s pages. Ultimately, it’s the story about hope, the effects of the war on civilians and the power of the written and spoken word. True to its theme, The Postmistress is as powerful as the messages entrusted to Iris and Frankie - a novel this reader won’t soon forget. Five stars.