The Postmistress - Discussion 4

I have to be honest, this book was just okay for me.  There were moments when it was really good, and other moments where I was skimming and my head/heart wasn't in it.

I liked the timeframe and I liked the characters of Emma, Frankie, Harry and Otto.  Iris, not so much.  I liked the reporting of Frankie and her time spent on the trains.  All of the Cape scenes were pretty blah for me.

1. Seek Truth. Report it. Minimize Harm. That is the journalist’s code. And it haunts Frankie during the book. Why wasn’t Frankie able to deliver the letter or tell Emma about meeting Will? For someone whose job was to deliver the news, did she fail?

2. After Thomas tells his story of escape, the old woman in the train compartment says “There was God looking out for you at every turn.” Thomas disagrees. “People looked out. Not God.” He adds, “There is no God. Only us.” How does THE POSTMISTRESS raise the questions of faith in wartime? How does this connect to the decisions Iris and Frankie make with regard to Emma?

3. Why does Otto refuse to tell the townspeople that he’s Jewish? Do you think he’s right not to do so?

4. Discuss the significance of the Martha Gellhorn quote at the beginning of the book, “War happens to people, one by one. That is really all I have to say, and it seems to me I have been saying it forever.” What stance towards war, and of telling a war story does this reveal? How does it inform your reading of The Postmistress?

5. “Get in. Get the story. Get out.” That is Murrow’s charge to Frankie. Does The Postmistress make you question whether it’s possible to ever really get the whole story? Or to get out?

What was your overall feeling of the book? Are you planning on joining us in December?

Discussion 3 - The Postmistress

I found this section to read faster than any other part of the book so far, and for that I'm thankful.  However, Frankie's time on the train about shot my anxiety level through the roof! Holy crud buckets.  I just do not understand how so many people looked the other way as Jews were discriminated against and moved.  Boggles my mind and hurts my heart every damn time I read about it.  Fiction or non.  Horrible.  People who deny the Holocaust, I just have no words for them.  Well, I do, but they are not kind.

1. Do you think Iris is doing the right thing by holding on to the letter? Why or Why not? What would you have done?
2. Much of The Postmistress is centered on Frankie’s radio broadcasts—either Frankie broadcasting them, or the other characters listening to them. How do you think the experience of listening to the news via radio in the 1940s differs from our experience of getting news from the television or the Internet? What is the difference between hearing news and seeing pictures, or reading accounts of news? Do you think there is something that the human voice conveys that the printed word cannot?
3.  We know that Emma was orphaned, that Will’s father had drinking problems, that Iris’s brother was killed in the First War, and that Frankie grew up in a brownstone in Washington Square. How do these characters’ backgrounds shape the decisions that they make? And if we didn’t have this information, would our opinion of the characters and their actions change?
4. When Frankie returns to America, she doesn’t understand finds it impossible to grasp that people are calmly going about their lives while war rages in Europe. What part does complacency play in The Postmistress?

Thanks for participating! I will be adding the poll up for suggestions sometime today! Next week will be the last discussion over the rest of the book.

The Postmistress - Discussion 2

Hey all! Discussion two is over chapters 6-15.  Thanks for playing!

Iris seems so rigid and stuck in her roles.  I almost want to peg her as having Aspergers.  She's something else. I physically cringed when she gave him her 'certificate.'

I also felt that Will was extremely hard on himself and extremely selfish for leaving his very new wife.

"There was dark in that tone and smiles in the dark, Emma realized." pg. 228 (I liked this line!)

"There is no God. There is only us Fraulein." pg. 306

1. Do you think Iris has a personality issue?
2. Do you agree with Will that 'the only thing that makes sense is to go'?
3. Anyone else crack up over doctors smoking?
4. Do you agree with Frankie's way of thinking or Will's?
5. Would you travel into a country at war?
6. How did you feel about the last part of this section? When Frankie was yelling and Thomas was hiding?

Come back next week for discussion 3! Thanks for participating!

The Postmistress - Discussion 1

This month's book is The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, and I must confess that I had to do a power reading session Thursday night to be caught up.  When I started it last weekend, it did not hook me and I was dreading it.  Then I picked it back up Thursday and the first chunk was hard and then when I got to the part where Emma went to watch the soldiers firing at night, it sped up and I was interested again.  I think this is going to be a book of good and bad spurts for me.

I really like that this has a WW2 time period.  It's a time that I am very interested in so I like that about the book so far.  I also think it is interesting to get a perspective from Frankie, a woman, in London, during 1940.

I think the introduction of the characters was nicely done in a slow drawn out way and it was also slightly irritating at the same time, but I could immediately tell which characters I was going to like the best, based on my reactions to their sections.  Harry's part? Bored. Frankie's? Loved. Iris? Intriguesd.  The Fitches? Interested.

1. What did you think of Iris's visit to the doctor to obtain her certificate?
2. What was your impression of Iris after the first chapter?
3. How would you have dealt with sending your children to the country or ACROSS the Atlantic during a war?
4.  What are your thoughts over the first 5 chapters?
5. Ask your own question, and answer another person's answer.

Check back next Friday to chat over chapters 6-15!