I had downloaded this book onto Charlotte (my Kindle) and it had sat in there until someone told me that they were reading it and that they thought I’d enjoy it too. I needed no further encouragement and I took to the comfy couch, Charlotte and a family sized bag of Maltesers in hand, ready to settle down for the night and be led into the post-apocalyptic world of The Postman.
One of my favourite books
Cormac MacCarthy’s ‘The Road’ is one of my favourite books. The Postman has a similar feel at the start of it – bleak and desolate; lone individuals scrounging for clothes and food; hiding from others who may or may not be ‘good guys’ in a World where disaster has evidently struck. I was sucked in immediately. As the story progressed, it became evident that this man was not as alone as the man and the boy in The Road were (which is, to me, what makes that book so compelling) but The Postman reads like an earlier less-refined version of it and has its’ own merits and direction. In The Postman, unlike The Road, we find out what happened to create the apocalypse, and this novel has a greater sense of hope running through it.
Gordon Krantz is a survivor. In the opening scenes, he finds an abandoned mail truck with the skeleton of its’ driver inside. As Krantz’s jacket has been stolen, Krantz decides to wear the postman’s uniform for warmth. He then takes on the role of ‘postman’ and thus cons and scams his way through various colonies in the hunt for food, water and a bed, as he delivers letters found in the dead postman’s sack. This is a science-fiction book first and formeost, and we do meet super computers and scientifcally enhanced super humans. I’m not a huge fan of all that but I really did like this book and have since found out that it was made into a movie in the late 90’s, which I may just have to watch to compare the pair.
The Postman - David Brin, 1985
Reading in the Bath 