you've got mail
"To write is human, to receive a letter: Divine!"
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This year I’m trying to make it a habit to write postcards to my niblings1 because they’re too young for phones and I remember how thrilling it was to receive something in the mail as a kid. Something addressed just to me! A physical item with weight, heft and a story behind it. It held some kind of magic I think. More than an email or Instagram post that is for sure. I’m enchanted by the fact that people’s handwriting, like their voice, is so utterly specific to them. How cool is it that something universal like writing is simultaneously so individual? Much to think about.
I have a sort of scrapbook binder thing full of memorabilia and it contains many cards, notes and letters which I look through every couple of years or so when I want to journey down Memory Lane. One of my favorite stops on this lane is the scratchy, brown, craft-paper letters that my now husband sent to me while he was on an archeological dig in Isreal2 many years ago now. He filled many a letter with anecdotes about pottery cleaning and early mornings along with cute drawings that detailed his everyday which felt so exciting and transportive to me as I endured the lonely doldrums of a suburban summer in Texas.
Today’s shelf contains three epistolary books; stories told through letters and other communiqués. This format creates a particular restraint that allows opportunities for some clever writing to get all that juicy tension, emotion and character building on the page. Oh, while assembling this shelf I came across this delightful list of resources that I need to look into further. Perhaps you’ll find them intriguing too?
Prepare your stationary, sharpen your pencil and be careful not to lick too many stamps3 as you sign, seal and deliver your attention to one of these.
WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE by Maria Semple
Bernadette Fox, a Seattle based wife and mother with a recent trend towards agoraphobia, has gone missing. Her teenage daughter Bee has assembled a collection of texts in an attempt to piece together what led to her beloved mother’s disappearance and where she escaped to. Bee’s narration is interspersed with emails, PTA notices, report cards, invoices, transcripts, police reports, extremely long missives to virtual assistants and more as the mystery of who Bernadette really is becomes just as murky as where she went.
There’s a fun, whimsical quality to this book with its variety of tones, voices and delivery styles and it goes to some ridiculous places. It requires a certain level of attention from the reader to puzzle together a portrait of the anti-social, abrasive and wounded Bernadette whose mysterious past results in murky motivations for her batty behavior. As with most epistolary novels you’ll need a spot of suspension of disbelief at the level of detail in some of the email correspondence 4 and I think it goes a tad long for its format. But! Overall this is a delightfully quirky, bittersweet family drama full of noisy neighbors, exceptionally proficient admins, precocious teens and over-zealous parents that combines light and dark, whimsy and tragedy, mystery and comedy with mania and slapstick humor throughout a meaningful tale of self-rediscovery.
Five minutes later, Mom followed it up with this:
From: Bernadette Fox To: Manjula Kapoor
I need a sign made. 8 feet wide by 5 feet high. Here's what I want it to read:
PRIVATE PROPERTY
NO TRESPASSING
Galer Street Gnats Will Be Arrested
and Hauled Off to Gnat Jail
Make the sign itself the loudest, ugliest red, and the lettering the loudest, ugliest yellow. I'd like it placed on the western edge of my property line, at the bottom of the hill, which will be accessible once we've abated the despised blackberries. Make sure the sign is facing toward the neighbor's yard.
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GRIFFIN & SABINE: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock
It begins with a letter sent from Sabine in the Sicmon Islands of the South Pacific, “no more than specks of dust in standard atlases”, to Griffin, a lonely stationary designer in London. She mentions that he was right ‘the wine glass has more impact than the cup’ and requests one of his ‘fish postcards’. But Griffin has no memory of Sabine and the card design she mentions was only a draft; he’s never shown it to anyone. Gasp! A mystery! As they continue writing, revealing more of their histories, habits and innermost thoughts their connection deepens. But a connection as unique as this one comes with unintended consequences.
This is the first in a series and is a tactile, interactive experience of a book. Each page has the image of the front of a card and once the page is turned, the letter itself is revealed mimicking the experience of receiving mail to the reader. Like a pop-up book for adults, there’s a particular voyeuristic delight in spying on the artistic expressions of the cards, the funky stamps and the scrawled (or typed) text all which serve to deliver emotion, personality and energy. There are misspellings, cross-outs and doodles and when the postcards morph into actual letters, the envelopes include letters for the reader to remove and study — perhaps they’ll add their own stains, creases and fingerprints. The art is bizarre, fantastical and layered as Griffin and Sabine explore their demons, desires and angst over relationships, life, art and the role of creative expression saying ‘pain and beauty, our constant bedfellows.’ The format immediately conveys humor and whimsy but there is real investment here as well for the characters— their states of mind, struggles and the mystery of their connection. This lures you in and is chilling, weird and magical in turns with a suspenseful ending.
How can I miss you this badly when we’ve never met?
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Juliet is living in London just after the end of World War II5 and trying to break away from her ‘jolly journalist’ alter ego Izzy Bickerstaff to write more serious fare when she receives a note from a man living on Guernsey, an island in the English Channel. Intrigued by the story of an English island that suffered for five years under German occupation, she begins a correspondence with a handful of the island’s inhabitants, mostly the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. As she grows closer to her pen pals and intrigued by the mystery at the center of their story, she decides to visit the island herself to see if this could be the topic of her next book. But what she discovers on Guernsey may end up upending more than just her career.
You know how there are ‘dad’ books?6 Books like Team of Rivals or anything by David McCullough. This feels like a ‘mom’ sort of book. It is tenderhearted, charming and full of love, creativity and bravery in the midst of unimaginable circumstances. The bulk of the story is conveyed through Juliet’s letters to her friend and publisher Sidney as she shares her curiosity and growing connection to the spunky oddballs of Guernsey, but we are also privy to many of the island’s voices themselves which were the highlight for me. The lovable cast of characters harkens back to Avonlea or Stars Hollow with their headstrong attitudes full of gumption and moxie, qualities that helped them survive occupation, hunger and isolation for five years. Their earnest, amusing and bittersweet telegrams and letters reminisce about the perils, hardships and tribulations they endured and so we readers are able to learn about this part of history along with Juliet— I’d never heard of Guernsey Island before picking up this book. Because there are so many different letter writers, we’re treated to the delights of many different voices, education levels, distinct writing styles, particular points of view and (mostly) endearing quirks.
I was charmed by all the personalities, their struggles and the clever ways they faced them and especially enjoyed reading about the books they chose for their literary society and what each thought about them. There are a few little mysteries and revelations sprinkled throughout that are fun to pick up on as certain information is either highlighted, glanced over or slyly dropped, depending on the author of the missive which added a pleasing layer of suspense, intrigue and amusement. There are trials big and small along with a smattering of romance and a big helping of facing adversity with humor, resourcefulness and community and though it may feel Hallmarkey or twee at times, it isn’t due to goofiness. Rather it is due to the heartwarming, quaint, cozy and sweet atmosphere it conjures which could err on the side of slightly too precious at times. But, where’s the harm in that?
Furthermore, the so-called Literary Society is a scandal. There are those of true culture and breeding here in Guernsey, and they will take no part in this charade (even if invited). There are only two respectable people in the Society- Eben Ramsey and Amelia Maugery. The other members: a rag-and-bone man, a lapsed Alienist who drinks, a stuttering swine-herd, a footman posing as a Lord, and Isola Pribby, a practicing witch, who, by her own admission to me, distills and sells potions. They collected a few others of their ilk along the way, and one can only imagine their "literary evenings." You must not write about these people and their books-God knows what they saw fit to read!
Yours in Christian Consternation and Concern,
Adelaide Addison (Miss)
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do you write letters?
which epistolary titles would you add to this shelf?
merriam webster defines nibling as : “ a gender-neutral term used to refer to a child of one's sibling as a replacement for "niece" or "nephew".
he wanted to become indiana jones. i also wanted him to become indiana jones. i’m still waiting for this.
is any real life person including detailed setting descriptions and dialogue tags in their letters?
i tend to avoid this setting in books as they can seem too ‘book clubby’ to me
not only for dads of course, just with dad vibes you know?
I have avoided Bernadette a bit because of the hype, but hearing that it has this storytelling apparatus sounds fun! It’s probably time I gave it a try.
Griffin & Sabine: you had me at adult pop-up. Completely unrelated sidebar: I love the name Sabine, so much so that it was my French name when I took French, and it is 100% because I watched the Three Musketeers on repeat as a child. That is all.