While I enjoyed reading this book I found the author's writing distracting at the time. Over the years on thinking about it, it has grown on me and I still mull over the complex characters and the incidents within the book. A book that you still recall and think about many years later surely deserves recommendation. ( )

I don't even know why I am writing this....ambivalent: After reading this novel, I still have no idea how I feel about it. I know that I wanted to like it, having adored "The Shipping News" and liking "That Old Ace in the Hole" rather well. But the only thing I feel about this book is ambivalence. Not good, not bad...just nothing. The plot itself is anything but riveting. It follows random characters through their different American journeys, all ending in tragedy, death, debt, or just plain boredom. I see what Proulx is trying to say here about the American experience, but it seems to me it's been done better by others, Richard Russo being the first to come to mind. One annoying habit (actually two annoying habits) Proulx has is one: not identifying the speaker. After two pages of "he" and "she" the reader may finally realize who the story is about. Other times, the chapter may end without any name, and utter confusion. Two: Every ten chapters or thereabouts Proulx has a "What I See" chapter, which is exactly what it sounds like. Things the characters see. This is a chance for Proulx to show off her marvelous description skills, but it can also be tedious. Especially when most of the rest of the book is description. If you are looking to get to know Annie Proulx, this is not the book to start off on. Read "The Shipping News" or "That Old Ace in the Hole" first; both leave definite impressions and have better developed stories and characters. This book is...well, it's just THERE.

I love the characters Proulx creates, and moreso love her talent for capturing the energy of a time and place. She a gem. ( )

Postcards is a story on many levels. On the surface it's the story of a Vermont farmer's son, Loyal Blood, whose girlfriend dies in the act of being raped by him. To avoid having to explain any of this, he runs away, telling his family that the girl, Billy is going with him, and spends the next 40 years as an itinerant worker, sending home postcards from time to time. On another level, it's the story of "progress" and the social changes that took place between 1944 and 1984 in the American way of life, electricity, transport, conservation etc. I found it also the story of that part of each person who has something in their soul that they don't want anyone else to find out about. The story of the mistake, the wrong choice, and the effort taken to cover that up, often all throughout our lives, when all things would be easier (so it seems from an outside point of view) to be honest and seek forgiveness right from the start. ( )

Another captivating story, or set of stories, with very original characters and real insight into how life changes them and makes them what they are, yet still leaves elements of mystery. But as depressing in many ways as Accordion Crimes - it seems Proulx thinks the worst of humanity in general, as her characters seem to have the very opposite of redeeming features. There's something I find frustrating about her style, in which details of crucial, but sordid incidents are simply omitted and (to my mind) too much is left to the imagination. In this book, I never understand what happens between the central character and his lover that leaves her dead - was it an accident or murder and how and why? ( )