The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman is a strange tale, but compelling in its strangeness. Author Denis Thériault's background in screenwriting enhances the imagery conjured by his words, and each place in the story is like a film set, each character like an actor viewed by an audience.

As I started to read, I was initially plunged into a world that seemed to date from the first half of the 20th century. The narrative style had a similar clipped feeling to novels of the jazz age. And then Call of Duty and Halo were mentioned. Suddenly the book took on a new shape for me. It became the literary equivalent of Jeunet and Caro films. There is a sepia tint around its edges, an old fashioned cut to its cloth.

There's also a quiet, mildly show more nightmarish menace to the story. There's a quote from a review on the back that likens it to Kafka, but it reminded me more of Paul Auster.

Bilodo is the twenty-seven year old titular postman. His life is a ritual of sorting and delivering letters. He has never received a personal letter, and develops an extra ritual that involves secretly taking such letters home with him, steaming them open to read them, before resealing them for delivery the next day. Bilodo falls in love with one of the correspondents whose letters he intercepts, and the novel explores obsession, infatuation, the circularity of life, using haiku and tanka as both medium and message. show less

Love is a many-splendored—and weird—thing

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault (Hesperus Press, $14.95).

Québécois novelist Denis Thériault explores the all-too-narrow line between love and obsession in The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, translated from the French by Liedewy Hawke. The titular postman, Bilodo, is self-isolated, ignoring opportunities to expand his social circle so that he can pursue his lonely passion: He steams open letters and reads them before delivery. Since letters are now rare, he treasures each one, but ever since he ran across the correspondence between the sensitive Ségolène and the aging scholar Grandpré, conducted entirely in haiku, he has been nothing short of obsessed by it. show more When Bilodo witnesses the accidental death in the street of Grandpré, rather than inform the object of his affections, Ségolène, he opts to continue the epistolary love affair. Bilodo’s grip on reality fails as his poetic skills increase, and Thériault takes readers on a fabulous and absurd ride through a love gone mad.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com show less

At it's best, this lovely little novel reminded me of Antoine Laurain. I enjoyed the early haikus and the sweet, lovely story. But, the story jumped the shark for me when the sweetly romantic got a little anonymous soft porn and the ending wasn't very satisfying for me. A short novel worth reading for poetry lovers.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. Thanks!

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman depicts how loneliness can affect a person and lead to a variety of displaced - peculiar - actions. It is a lovely novella sheathed in a quiet drama of deception, apprehension, love, lust, and pain. Ironically, it renders the reader uncannily on the side of deception, such are the pathos of its protagonist, Bilodo the Postman. Add to that Haikus, philosophy and humor, and you have a delightfully dark and quirky story. Be prepared to devour this lovely, all-consuming tale in one sitting as it is impossible to put down.

Incidentally, a sequel to this novella, The Postman’s Fiancee, is due for publication this year. Will it bring a close to Bilodo ‘s besotted journey, or will it add another layer show more to this curious and comic tale? I eagerly anticipate it's arrival! show less

Stories of lovers
poetic novella for
lovers of stories

This is a charming, little fable of a postman who falls into an epistolary romance with a woman who loves haiku. Although the postman is morally suspect, guilty of both postal crimes and false pretenses, it becomes easy to have sympathy for this desperately lonely person who finds meaning and passion in his life. Much of the charm of this novella comes from the poetry and gentle humor of the narration and the beautiful paperback edition published by Oneworld Publications of London.

Bilodo the postman found comfort in his life in a unique way. While it certainly wasn’t an ethical thing to do, Bilodo would sometimes slip a letter into his pocket instead of delivering it and would steam it open in the privacy of his own home that evening. He would read the letter, make a copy to keep and then mail the letter on to its proper recipient. Bilodo lived vicariously through these letters. When he opens up a letter with only a haiku in it, he’s pulled into the world of Segolene and Gaston Grandpre, who write to each other in poetry.

This is truly a lovely little book. The book is only a little over 100 pages and yet the author is able to fully flesh out the characters and make you care about them. I loved reading the show more many haikus that are scattered throughout the book and never knew how passionate a short haiku could be. There’s a tragic love story at the heart of this book that will remind you of Cyrano de Bergerac. The book is quirky, it’s charming, it’s funny, it’s tragic and it’s quite a feat for the author to gather together such a compelling story with so few words, much like a haiku itself. This book was originally published in France and I’m delighted to read that its sequel, The Postman’s Fiancee, will be published later this year.

This novella is just about as perfect as you can get. Highly recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher through Library Thing in return for an honest review. show less

I quickly eb=ntered into the life of Bilobo, the postman. The peculiar postman, one might say. His is a strange and solitary life. He enjoys callography, he enjoys steaming open handwritten letters - they are the personal ones - and reading them, though he always then sends them on. It's when one of the recipients of the letters dies, and he goes on to assume the deceased's persona that things take off for Bilobo. He goes to great trouble to 'become' the recipient, and learns to write haikus, because that is what these correspondents exchange.....

I became tremendously absorbed in the plot of this novella, to have sympathy with Bilobo, to enjoy his developing dextrousness with the haiku form. And then the plot started to become show more cyclical...

A satisfying and original read show less