The Postmistress

By: Sarah Blake

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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 follows 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 ...

©2010 Sarah Blake (P)2010 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Blake captures two different worlds—a naïve nation in denial and, across the ocean, a continent wracked with terror—with a deft sense of character and plot, and a perfect willingness to take on big, complex questions, such as the merits of truth and truth-telling in wartime.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“Matching harrowing action with reflection, romance with pathos, Blake’s emotional saga of conscience and genocide is poised to become a best-seller of the highest echelon.” ( Booklist, starred review)

“a moving page-turner from a talented writer.” ( Bookmarks Magazine)

Just Okay....

What did you like best about The Postmistress? What did you like least?

Although this book had it's moments the ending was rather disappointing and the whole story line just sort of fizzled out. This is the authors first book and maybe others will be be better but it's as though she put all her energy into the first and middle portions and then lost seeing it through to the end. If that what she wrote is what was truly intended though, then I won't be rushing to obtain another one too soon based on this one.

Wonderful and Captivating

This book started a bit slowly at first, as you meet everyone. But before long, I felt myself swept along, captivated. Frankie's experiences are so vividly portrayed that I felt like I was in London when those bombs dropped, and hearing those stories on the trains. A peach of a book, that gives a snapshot of a very important piece of history.

Loved this book!

What a wonderful way to see into the past. A different view of the war showing such human emotion and moral conflict.

Off to a slow start

I started listening to this book several times and could not get into it. I nearly requested a refund of my book credit. I thought I would give it another chance and am glad I did. Fascinating and riveting story that makes you think. Three strong female characters made you want to get to know them!

overall an interesting story

What did you love best about The Postmistress?

This was my first audible book. I enjoyed listening rather than reading and this book was a good story regarding the London Blitz and what was happening back home .
The thing I liked best was that it showed that older people can also have a love story and it was depicted very well.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Postmistress?

One of the most memorable moments was when Harry finally did see a U boat and he was so helpless ....you just wanted to help him ring the bell

What about Orlagh Cassidy’s performance did you like?

easy listening and she made the book come alive.

If you could rename The Postmistress, what would you call it?

The Letter

Any additional comments?

I felt that the ending left a lot to be desired = it was a let-down. The steamy love scenes could have been left out. A little too graphic for my taste. Also the author used too many descriptive adjectives

Heart-stopping

The is quite a different scene altogether from "The Help". While "The Help" is as serene and bucolic as its location in time and place (though not in attitudes and events), "The Postmistress" is as lurching, violent, and dislocating as its own particular theater in history.

As a baby boomer, born just after WW II ended, I have always been curious as to how the war affected the millions of regular folks, as well as the journalists who courageously brought the war events to those my parents' age, older and younger, back here in the States. While there is an author's note as to the recording technology that was not actually available until after the period of time traversed by "The Postmistress", this did not in any way affect the nuance and depth of the story.

The ambiance of Cape Cod plays a major role in the novel as well, and functions as another character. As a summer resident of one of the nearby islands where there was constructed an an entire Army base during WW II, I could well relate to one of the characters who patiently stands guard atop a town hall in order to spot the rogue U-boat.

I would caution the reader - this is not light reading, and perhaps because I am in the arts I have a highly developed imagination and thus felt all the pain, abandonment, violence that is a feature of any war venue. There is an undertow of sadness throughout the book that is not for the feint of heart.

The use of the mail system as metaphor for communication in general, and the nomenclature that changes from "Postmaster" to "Postmistress", is a brilliant device, and without spoiling, there are several characters who qualify for the position, charged with delivering difficult messages.

Beautifully written, this novel gets 5 stars on any scale.

Reasonably enjoyable, but too full of stereotypes

I had read so many reviews of this book, all comparing it to The Help. Don't believe the hype! It's a relatively enjoyable listen, and deals with an interesting time in US and world history -- before the US entered the war, and as the world was just learning about the fate of Europe's Jews. But the characters are just too stereotyped: the plucky girl reporter, drinking whiskey with the boys and having anonymous sex during London's blackouts; the middle-aged, no-nonsense postmistress experiencing romance for the first time (and getting a certificate of virginity from her puzzled doctor -- ick!); and the timid wife whose doctor husband runs away from a medical mistake by deciding to tend to victims of war in London. The young wife character is never developed -- maybe we could forgive her timidity and vapidity if we had been given any sense of why we are supposed to care about her or what strengths she has besides being a little doll her husband can protect. The scenes of the "radio gal" doing her reports from London are quite interesting, and her encounters with doomed Jews in France and Germany are chilling. But we don't end up caring that much about the characters, and there's nothing surprising or compelling in their fates. And so many loose ends are never tied up. The narrator is terrible at accents -- her British accent and her New England accent often sound the same, and her French pronunciation is appalling -- and she often pronounces Edward R. Murrow's name as "Mur-ROW." This book was a decent diversion but more frustrating than rewarding.

Surprisingly thought-provoking

This book has had some not so stellar reviews due to the rather flat, blunt reading style of the first half or so of the book. But because the protagonist of this story is a World War II radio reporter, the reader's style is very much aligned with the radio reporting style of that time in our history. I thought it was very fitting to the story. The story itself turns into something quite incredible which was not expected, and from which I found a few meaningful life lessons having to do with the understanding that each individual has a story to tell. I found this to be a memorable and pure story. Listen to it all the way to the end--you won't regret it.

solid 4.5 or 5 up till the last 30%

Bought on Audible
Audio Narrator Rating: 5 (fantastic)
Story Rating: 3.25

What I Loved: The first 70% of this book was fantastic. The story centered around three women: Emma, Frankie, and Iris. The stories for each of three were so fantastically crafted and gloriously detailed. You really got invested in what happened to them and where their lives were heading. Frankie's story specifically was so rich in detail that you felt like you were part of her journey to discover what was really happening surrounding the beginnings of WWII. At times, you could get so lost in the bombings in London and her train travel that it felt like a true story not a work of fiction. Emma's story was so understated but perfect for her, that you felt like she could be someone that would be great to know. Iris was kind of the backbone of the story, the glue that just kind of held it all together. You just wanted to jump into this story and be part of these ladies lives.

What I Liked: I can tell the author put a lot of work into researching people's personal stories to pull details out that are seldom seen in books that are set during the WWII era. I also like that she set it at the beginning when America was still kind of oblivious to what was happening. She did not hold back on the prejudices and narrow-minded views that seemed to run rampant during this time. It was a very well crafted story.

Complaints: The last 30% of the book. I won't give anything away but this is another case where the ending really ruined a book for me. It isn't a bad ending but there was no payoff for such a really well crafted story. I felt like maybe the author ran out of room crafting the first part really well that she just kind of rushed through to the end. I would love to see what ended up on the editing floor because I bet that is the end that I would have liked.

Audio specific review: Orlagh Cassidy did an amazing job narrating this story. This story did not call for over the top type of narration but a strong, solid voice that tweaked a little for each character. She did a fantastic job!

Why I gave it a 3.25: It was a solid 4.5 or 5 up till the last 30% but then ending really did let me down. That being said, I would still highly recommend this book. I just don't know of another pre-WWII book (fiction) that has held this much detail and richness. I even think the ending will be fine for most people but I read a lot so I have come to expect more.

Who I would recommend it too: Historical Fiction readers and General Fiction readers.

Beautiful writing

Where does The Postmistress rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Among my favorite listens, The writing is lyrical and descriptive and the characters evolve naturally.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Frankie is surprisingly tough for a woman from a privileged background living in those times, yet has vulnerabilities that help to carry the story.

What does Orlagh Cassidy bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The reader was engaging from the start, seamlessly switching from one character to the next so the reader always knows who is speaking

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would often sit in my car with the engine running so I could listen to just a little more of the story.

Any additional comments?

The story doesn't resolve into happy endings, so if you are looking for that sort of book, look elsewhere.