Blake, Sarah, The Postmistress (Berkley, 1st trade paperback ed., 1st printing, February 2011). ISBN 978-0-425-23869-1. Novel of the interwoven tales of a small-town, Massachusetts coastal postmistress and a woman broadcasting war news from London in 1940. Very good condition; autographed on the title page. HBB price: $19.95.
In a 2010 New York Times review, Janet Maslin compared The Postmistress favorably to another recent hit novel, The Help. Summing up Blake’s sophomore novel, Maslin writes,
But the real strength of “The Postmistress” lies in its ability to strip away readers’ defenses against stories of wartime uncertainty and infuse that chaos with wrenching immediacy and terror. Ms. Blake writes powerfully about the fragility of life and about Frankie’s efforts to explain how a person can be present in one instant and then in the next, gone forever. Frankie grasps this when she watches two lovers kiss and thinks about the air that separates their bodies. It’s the same air, she realizes, that carries her own voice overseas. It’s the air between the gunners and their falling bombs. It’s because of that air, she thinks, that the world has become “a great whispering gallery for us all.”
Since all the heroines of “The Postmistress” are American, this isn’t a war story that features a Deborah Kerr role. It just feels like one. The nobility on Ms. Blake’s pages triumphs over the fear, which is one explanation of why this book will click in a major way. Another is that Ms. Blake knows how to deliver tragic turns of fate with maximum impact. When Frankie decides to intervene in the lives of other characters, for instance, she believes that she is being helpful. But Ms. Blake makes her terribly wrong about that. “She was the scissors,” the book says hauntingly at one such juncture. “And she had thought she was the thread.”
Since all the heroines of “The Postmistress” are American, this isn’t a war story that features a Deborah Kerr role. It just feels like one. The nobility on Ms. Blake’s pages triumphs over the fear, which is one explanation of why this book will click in a major way. Another is that Ms. Blake knows how to deliver tragic turns of fate with maximum impact. When Frankie decides to intervene in the lives of other characters, for instance, she believes that she is being helpful. But Ms. Blake makes her terribly wrong about that. “She was the scissors,” the book says hauntingly at one such juncture. “And she had thought she was the thread.”
This is the sort of book that makes a good introduction to book collecting for a young person you may know. A well-wrought, suspenseful tale in an affordable edition, and autographed!
Henry Bemis Books is one man’s attempt to bring more diversity and quality to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg market of devoted readers starved for choices. Our website is at www.henrybemisbookseller.blogspot.com. Henry Bemis Books is also happy to entertain reasonable offers on items in inventory; for pricing on this or others items, kindly private message us. Shipping is always free; local buyers are welcome to drop by and pick up their purchases at our location off Peachtree Road in Northwest Charlotte if they like.
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