Just One Book: The Correspondent
Epistolary, emotional, and the opposite of the endless scroll
One for fans of 84 Charing Cross Road and Dear Committee Members.
There is so much to say about The Correspondent, starting with this: I liked it a lot, and I think you will too.
It is indeed, as the title suggests, a novel in letters written by and to the protagonist over a lengthy period (sad truth: I probably would have enjoyed it even more and understood it faster if I’d paid attention to the dateline of each letter, but that seemed too much like work and I resisted it). I think that almost makes it by definition a literary novel. But a fun one! A readable, not-quite-page-turner but it’s hard not to read just one more letter, they’re like potato chips.
Really thoughtful, dense with meaning and action both stated and implied, well written but also easily readable potato chips. One especial delight is that it fully demands that you, the reader, figure out what’s going on. What happened since the last letter? What’s the relationship here? What’s she not saying?
In a world full of hand-holding books and TV shows that assume you’re looking at your phone and explain everything 46 times, this is a literary delight.
What is a literary novel, anyway? Quiet, maybe? This is quiet, or at least, any action necessarily takes place off the page. (I feel pretty sure we could think of action-packed literary novels if we tried. Hemingway? Chuck Palahniuk? Only men get to have action in their literary novels?)
Oh I don’t KNOW. It’s novelly, this novel, it’s not a rom-com or a mystery or a romance or a thriller or a commercial novel about lady spies or video game designers. It’s an older woman who’s spent her life writing letters because it’s how she connects and thinks, and it has lots of revelations about her life (maybe too many) and lots of pleasurable glimpses of the other people in hers and a bit of melodrama here and there (this is not a bad thing) and entirely believable letters from Joan Didion.
It’s good, full of emotion but also low stress, and maybe best described as exactly the opposite of the endless scroll.
And I got it from the library, which was its own special delight. Neighbors, I returned it, it’s all yours.
This one is as seen in:
And if you need another Just One Book that is not this book, maybe you’d like
Which is more “commercial”, whatever that means, and definitely less unlike the world, or
Which is more of an escape, and also about two escapes or maybe more.
Coming later this week, a fresh new What I Read This Week. Meanwhile—what’s your latest Just One Book?
It's on hold for me! There's a long wait but I've heard it's worth it. Kindof like a letter.
I'm #2 on the hold list at the library for The Correspondent, which is two weeks overdue! The current patron better have a very good excuse for holding on to it far too long & I hope the person ahead of me is a fast reader. So to kill time while I'm waiting, I'm picking up "Smoke & MIrrors", part of a mystery series by ME Hilliard, at the library later today. Her other books have been good so hope this one is as well. And I have Book 5 in The Thursday Murder Club to look forward to as well.