The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

On Monday, December 1st, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

• This book had mixed reviews from our group. On the one hand, the book is beautifully written and the language is lovely. Sadly, the different story lines were confusing and left us wondering why she added odd little things that did not seem necessary to the storyline. 
• In the beginning we discover that Frankie is the narrator of the story. She ask guests at a dinner party, “What would you think of a postmistress who chose not to deliver the mail?” The confusing part was how did Frankie know that Iris did not deliver the mail? That was never resolved or mentioned in the book. The question was asked by one of our members why the book was called “The Postmistress” when Iris’s title was Postmaster. Our conclusion was that Frankie might have been the postmistress (a title they used in England) and not Iris.  So Frankie may have been referring to herself in the beginning of the story. But again it was not clear since both Iris and Frankie failed to deliver a letter.
• We all liked how Blake handled Will’s meeting with Frankie and were glad it did not turn into a one night stand. We thought that Will seemed like a good guy but after Maggie death he definitely had a death wish.
• Some of the members thought that Frankie could have done more to bring to light what was happening in Europe in 1941. We were left wondering why she never published the live recordings she spent so much time collecting.
• We talked about Otto and why he never told anyone that he wasn’t from Germany and that he was Jewish. It was hard to tell what type of person Otto was but we were glad that Blake did not try and match him up with Emma.
• Some of the things that the group could not get past was her manipulation of history to fit her story, for example the portable disk recorder.  Also, some of the members never really got super attached to any of the characters.  There wasn’t quite enough resolution to any of their stories to be satisfying. The characters never really came to life. So much more could have been done with them that it left the whole story feeling a bit boring. Lastly, the book, for us, never quite delivers anything remarkable or unique to warrant the story line.
• In conclusion we all thought that we would not want the news withheld from us. Not giving Emma the letters only prolonged her agony.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.