The Postmistress

I read The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.  The postmistress works in a small town in Massachusetts near Cape Cod in the early 1940's.  She is a minor character in the novel but vital because she is the link between the major characters.  One of the major characters is Frankie.  Frankie happens to be a journalist working in England during the war with Arthur R. Murrow.  Past fiction and part history, I learned much about air raid shelters in London during the bombings from Germany.  Frankie happens to meet an American doctor one day in London who turns out happens to be from the same town as the postmistress.  I don't want to give too much away but I will say that this novel illustrates the strange disconnect people have during a war.  People in Massachusetts go along their ordinary lives as if nothing is happening in war torn Europe just like people in Minnesota go on with their ordinary lives as if American men and women are not dying in Afghanistan.  Sarah Blake uses 1942 as a way to open our eyes to what is happening in 2014 in a very captivating fashion.