Denis ThériaultThe Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

Just a great read. Short. Funny. Made me think

This is a quirky and surprisingly sexy little book that you may be able to read in one sitting or two at the most.Written by Denis Thériault, this is the story of Bilodo, a lonely postman working a city route delivering mail in Montreal, Québec. Bilodo long ago figured out a way to spice up his boring evenings: He clandestinely reads other people's letters. When anyone on his route receives a letter, he keeps it, brings it to his apartment and steams it open. He reads it that night and delivers it the next day. No one is the wiser. And then he gets caught up reading a lovely exchange between Gaston Grandpré, a man living on Bilodo's postal route, and Ségolène, a woman living in Guadeloupe. What is unusual in their correspondence is they write each other only in haiku poems. But a very clever and unexpected twist in the plot changes everything in a surprising and slightly nervy way.I have to say, old English major that I am, that I delighted in the obvious literary ploy of envelope structure in which the beginning and end of a poem (it's found often in the biblical psalms) are identical or quite similar. It's brilliant here!This is a delightfully enchanting book with an ingenious plot and a captivating main character. It could just as easily have been titled "The Lonely Life of a Peculiar Postman."Bonus: The book is filled with haiku and fascinating tidbits on this Japanese form of poetry.

A rather strange book. The ending took me by surprise. I would like to be able to say that I really liked the book, but I can't. I did find the story interesting, and I loved how short it is, what a quick read. What I didn't like much was the writing, which probably means the translation, but I also thought it lacked finesse. It's not handled as gracefully as I would've liked. It could've been better.

I took an interest in this book because I enjoy haiku poetry, and novels that focus on haiku. This book is deftly written, with a measured pace, with a wonderful plot that surprises at many turns, especially the tumultuous and magical ending.Please note that this book was originally published with a different title, "The Postman's Round," by Dundurn Press, English version in 2008 (French original in 2005 from another publisher). I wish the Oneworld reprint of 2017 had acknowledged this change of title, so that readers don't purchase both books, thinking them to be different.

“Secretly steaming open envelopes and reading the letters inside, Bilodo has found an escape from his lonely and routine life as a postman. When one day he comes across a mysterious letter containing only a single haiku, he finds himself avidly caught up in the relationship between a long-distance couple, who write to each other using only beautiful poetry. He feasts on their words, vicariously living a life for which he longs.”Stunning imagery; unforgettable characters; and a story suspended within a dream that is haunting. From the very first page, we become Bilodo. We live his lonely nights and walk his postal days, day-in, day-out. Until, that is, Bilodo the postman does the unthinkable.

Very, very strange book with main character losing grip on reality — too odd for me despite promising premise

A lovely story using haiku was so unusual for me. Enjoyed the writing style as well as the story telling.Some may find the style not yo their liking, but if you appreciate creativity in fiction this could be for you.

Liked the book. It was very interesting but the ending was somewhat predictable to me. Other than that it kept me interested and the use of poetry was very nice.

You can love a book for very different reasons: because the plot is inventive, because the characters are captivating or because the language is beautiful. Most good books fall in the first two categories. In these books the words on the page are just the bearers of the exciting events they describe (think Harry Potter). But once in a while there is a book that takes words seriously and then the sentence sparkle not because of what they bring to the plot, but because they in themselves are beautiful. This is such a book.This is the story of a lonely postman, Bilodo, who lives an isolated life in a grey and crude world. His best friend is his best friend because he is the only person who talks to him. But what he says isn’t friendly in any way: he humiliates Bilodo in that way that is so often used with lonely people: he sexualizes everything his friend says. In that rough world Bilodo finds solace in the reading of other peoples letters. He is especially taken by the letters of a Guadeloupian woman: Ségolène. She writes to her friend, Grandpré, in haiku. When Grandpré dies Bilodo takes over the other man’s life to keep the letters coming.That is when the novella takes off, because Bilodo comes in the world of beauty, order and nuances. He doesn’t want to be just a bystander in this beautiful world, he wants to inhabit it. And to do that, he must learn to master the art of haiku. Then follows the best bit of the book, the analyses of haiku. And because Bilodo is not an educated man, we follow his development from a man who uses language in a crude and clumsy way to someone who lives in a world where words, images and life are one and the same. One image follows the other and so the imagery becomes more and precise and specific. I thought that was a brilliant description of the art of writing.Here is a train of thought that starts with a whale:‘It was good to be a whale. It was good to be with her, just with her, and be free together. If he had had a choice, he would rather have been the ocean so he could have hugged Ségolène even more closely, and put his endless water arms around her, (...) but even so it was nice to be a whale. It was a great joy, as long as she was there and together they could escape time.’Why then just four stars? This is a book about writing not about human beings and their trials and tribulations. It could have had quantum mechanics as its subject and it would still have been great, because we would have discovered all the images it could have been connected with. We don’t feel the isolation of Bilodo because he hides in the ethereal world of haiku. It would have been more moving if he had connected his desolation with the ethereal beauty he found in this Japanese art form.

From the start, this book had a good feel. I liked the sense of place it created, it felt like a Wes Anderson movie set. It is easy to read and despite the fact Bilodo (the lonely postman) is doing a bad thing I felt sympathy for him. As it progresses the book gets darker but remains easy to read and Bilodo's behaviour becomes harder to excuse. But it also becomes a bit boring and predictable, you know exactly where the story is going...... until the end, a great unexpected ending, that delivers its punchline on the very last page. Good enough for me to read the sequel. Altogether a good easy read with a great ending but a disappointing sequel.

It's a short book and I sympathised with the main character, a postman called Bilodo, from the very first few pages, even though he was committing a crime by opening and keeping copies of some personal letters. They fascinated him so much that he got involved in the story of two people's correspondence to an extent of having to question his own identity. There were times when I felt pity for him, other times when I related to the need of escaping in a personal bubble that we all have and where we feel comfortable and safe. He fights to preserve his ideals and I admired him for that. The carefully inserted sweet, funny and even arousing haiku all the way thoughout the book are a wonderful addition even for those who are, just like me, not familiar with that style of poetry. The ending is truly unexpected, but very suitable, and leads the story to a logical end.

A charming, quirky read. A lonely postman secretly opens envelopes and reads letters inside to find an escapism from his boring, same old life. One day he stumbles across a mysterious letter containing a single haiku, but he then finds himself caught up in the relationship between the two people. A short, quick read that is just beautiful

A nice easy read!