"The Postmistress" - Sarah Blake - Book Review Journal Entry #1 Book Club and Boost My Blog Friday!!

"What would happen if a postmistress chose not to deliver the mail?

It is 1940. While the war is raging in Europe, President Roosevelt promises he won't send American boys over to fight.

Iris James is the postmistress of Franklin, Massachusetts a small town at the end of Cape Cod. She firmly believes her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, to pass along the news of love and sorrow that letters carry. Faithfully she stamps and sends the letters between people such as the newlyweds Emma and Will Fitch, who has gone to London to help out during the Blitz. But one day she slips a letter into her pocket, and leaves it there.

Meanwhile, seemingly fearless radio gal, Frankie Bard is reporting the Blitz from London, her dispatches crinkling across the Atlantic, imploring listeners to pay attention. Then in the last desperate days of the summer of 1941, she rides the trains out of Germany, reporting on what is happening to the refugees there.

Alternating between an America on the eve of entering into World War II, still safe and snug in its inability to grasp the danger at hand, an a Europe being torn apart by war, the two stories collide in a letter, bringing the war finally home to Franklin. " via

This book is quite a lengthy one, and I have to praise Sarah Blake on her attention to detail. It's as if you can see the story coming alive right up off the page. Her descriptions of the surroundings of the characters is very realistic, and not too lengthy. I don't tend to like book about war, which sounds quite hypocritical because I have high praise for all then men and women who are involved in any aspect of the war. For some reason though I don't usually enjoy reading about it. This book is about everyday life amongst the war, and is told from almost every angle. It was easy to imagine yourself in the positions of the characters, but impossible to understand what it was that got them through what had to be the most challenging and heart wrenching times of their lives. Here are some of the excerpts that I love:

"'Put yourself in the place of any of these men,' she said as she slowed to her ending. 'Not one of them wants to be the one who gets it. Still, there comes a wild, intoxicating rush where you take your heart in your hands and hurl yourself right into the teeth of the danger, to forget the danger. So be it, you think, it's all up to God' - she smiled - ' and some men. Over here, you close your eyes, do your job, and fling yourself toward it - whatever it may be.'" page 41

I think this quote says a lot about the mindset of the people who were enlisted in the war, voluntarily, or called to serve. I don't think anyone person looked forward to engaging themselves in it but it was a reality that you couldn't blatantly ignore. And just knowing the possibility of enlisting is looming would be scary enough, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like the very first time you show up at a hospital to work the front lines. I imagine that you really can't be shocked by it. You really do have to close your eyes and fling yourself at it, not knowing exactly what you could be getting yourself into.
"'Sweetheart, there are people over there who need help, who need another pair of hands, and I can bring them. That's the deal. That's what you were saying without saying it right out. When we know there are people in need, right now, in the same breath as what we are breathing, we cannot look away. It is not abstract. We have to go. That is humanity. The whole thing relies on it. Human beings do not look away.'" page 93

This quote was one that as a wife of a firefighter, I often find aspects of his job unimaginable. I don't want my husband to be the guy that's going into a building that's roof could collapse, or a car that could catch on fire any second, but he does it without even thinking about it. It's his job, and I think if he stopped to think about it, then that's when it would/could trip him up. That said, I also cannot look away, if there's a car accident that I end up at with my husband, then I am soo very concerned about the people, and how their families are going to react, how they are just going about their business, and are about to get a call that will stop their day to a grinding halt. So, you go, you help, you do whatever you can to get these people through a terrible time in their life, and it is soo true humanity relies upon people like my husband, and each and every one of us, to fulfill the needs in our societies. Just look at all those places facing devastation from storm damage, and how their communities have rallied, and turned something terrible into an experience that has shaped them as a person and as a community.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a winter read, not a summer read, it's the kind of book that makes you want to cuddle your family close at the end of a long cold day and be thankful for everything around you. It's also a longer book, and I find in the summer time I like to read shorter books. And that my friends, is my link up for Book Club Fridays today, head on over there and check out what other bloggers are reading this week. Stay tuned for the second half of my book review next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Amy

P.S - I'm also linking up with Design in Chic for Boost My Blog Fridays!!!