Postcards

By Annie Proulx

Annie Proulx’s first novel, which received huge acclaim and launched an outstanding literary career.

‘Postcards’ is the story of Loyal Blood, a man who spends a lifetime on the run from a crime so terrible that it renders him forever incapable of touching a woman. The odyssey begins on a freezing Vermont hillside in 1944 and propels Blood across the American West for forty years. Denied love and unable to settle, he lives a hundred different lives: mining gold, growing beans, hunting fossils, trapping, prospecting for uranium and ranching. His only contact with his past is through a series of postcards he sends home – not realising that in his absence disaster has befallen his family, and their deep-rooted connection with the land has been severed with devastating consequences…

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Aug 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9780007385553

Annie Proulx

Annie Proulx is the author of nine books, including the novel The Shipping News, Barkskins and the story collection Close Range. Her many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner award. Her story ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ which originally appeared in The New Yorker, was made into an Academy Award-winning film. She lives in New Hampshire.

Reviews for Postcards

[adam.cooper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This MAGNIFICENT book is both epic and intimate in its telling of a lifetime on the run and is a must for lovers of southern gothic writers William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. Proulx interweaves a series of seemingly disjointed episodes from multiple subjective vantage points with a sophisticated (and deliciously ambiguous) symbolic system. The ingenious structure somehow manages to avoid being contrived and the gorgeous yet restrained language is infused with humour and pathos. Whilst it works perfectly as a great yarn, the themes of self-exile and moral decay are reminiscent of Faulkner (and his later acolyte Cormac McCarthy) in his prime. It is stunning that this was a first novel and in my humble opinion has yet to be topped by the author who went on to be celebrated for The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. Proulx writes with such assurance and mastery that you would think she had been writing for decades. It's not hard to see why this book won the Pen/Faulkner award in 1992. The Blood family of Vermont has been farming the same small plot of land for generations. They grow a little grain, have an orchard and keep dairy cows. Loyal, the oldest son, is the person who has the knowledge to keep the farm going. But Loyal has to leave the farm after he kills his girlfriend by accident. He hides her body under the stone fence that surrounds the property and takes off in 1944, telling his family that he and Billy, the girlfriend, have decided to pursue their fortunes elsewhere. After that the farm declines. Loyal sends postcards home from wherever he is on a sporadic basis. He is the quintessential loner, moving from job to job and place to place. Sometimes he mines, other times he traps but wherever he goes it seems disaster follows him. His siblings, Dub and Mernelle, also have some hard times but they both find love whereas Loyal is unable to have a relationship. He can't be all that bad though because his dog, Little Girl, loves him with all her heart and he loves her. Proulx's eye for detail is amazing. Her descriptions of rooms are so vivid I could see them. She describes people as clearly too. Here is her description of Loyal at a point when he is out of work again: The mirror drew his eyes like a tunnel opening into another world. He had not looked in so long, still thought of himself as a young man, strong arms, the black fine hair and hot blue eyes. His face, he saw had gaunted out. The blue mirror frame enclosed his fixed features. The ruddy liveliness, the quick rage of the eyes had faded. here was the skin of the ascetic whose neck is never marred with sucking kisses, the rigid facial planes of someone who spends time alone, untwisted by the squinting disguises of social life. His eyes did not change when women walked past. It could be, he thought, that spark was finally dead. But did not believe it. I think I am going have to read Proulx's latest novel, Barkskins, to see if she still has her writing chops.

[b.masonjudy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Postcards captures the frontier of America in a post-World War II landscape that is bleak and beautiful. Beautiful because of the rich and specific detail and bleak because, well life can be hard at home and on the road. If Loyal's last postcard home doesn't break your heart a little I'm not sure what will.

[hovercraftofeels · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Honestly, the only thing which kept this from being a five star novel for me was the chapter set of the "What I See" omniscient narrator. I felt those chapters were not necessary as the revelations or details revealed in them could easily have been added to preceding or later chapters. I might be missing some relevancy or purpose. If so, please send me a message so I can learn why she chose to add them. This novel is heartbreaking in all the right ways. You want to hate some of the characters, but you can't because they reflect some of the darkest or solipsist sides in yourself. Proulx takes on the American Epic and she far beyond explores both what it means to be American, out of place, and trapped in a quickly changing country. Her prose is tight and no detail is added to the main body which doesn't enhance the story or character development in even the slightest way. I'm not ashamed to admit I cried at the end of this one.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was Annie Proulx's first novel, and it was an ambitious undertaking. It is the saga of the Blood family, Vermont dirt farmers for whom good fortune is always elusive. The story begins with an ambiguous sudden death--the reader understands the circumstances, but not the cause--which compels the only real farmer in the family, Loyal, to hide his lover's corpse and "light out for the territory", leaving behind his plans to modernize the farm and finally make it something to be proud of. From his wanderings across the country he sends home postcards, at first pretending that his lover is with him and they are seeking a better life, then later giving just a little information about what he's been up to (trapping, mining, prospecting, searching for dinosaur fossils/tracks), but never giving a return address, and never returning home to see what's happening to the family he left behind. The reader, of course, does know what befalls the rest of the Blood tribe (Mink, Otter, Jewel....you gotta love the names, which inevitably made me think of Snopeses and Bundrens)-- none of it much good. Through it all, we wonder when somebody is going to turn up that body. What the author does about that is one of the best parts of a novel that I found a compelling and worthy recipient of the PEN/Faulkner award. Not for those who are looking for an uplift, but I'm kind of a sucker for these hard-scrabble, down-on-their-luck poor folks in the hands of a fine story-teller.Review written November 2014

[jacqklueh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Anne Proulx is direct and yet eloquent in her writing.

[schmerguls · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This novel starts out with a dire event which suggests it might be of interest. But the event proves to be no further relevance to the novel as the perpetrator roams the country, sending postcards at lengthy intervals to his family, who live lives of desperation.. I found the book as it related the mostly dire events which befell the characters pretty pointless. It screams that it is "literary fiction" and so is filled with flights of serious writing that one has to assume tell us some important things about 'life'. It would be nice if there was some point to the events but I assume one is supposed to be struck by the pointlessness of the lives lived by the not appealing characters. .

[jeffome · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Initially very interesting......very dark...but interesting......I liked the initial postcard setting context for each chapter.....but for me, it strayed......the chapters (in bold?) without postcard context seemed disconnected. The very poor family we follow (sort of...) throughout was very vivid, creating an enormous amount of empathy that I had for them and their unfortunate situation. Time passed (unexpectedly sometimes), and there was always a wish to return to a given setting and situation to get some sense of resolution....yet so many times.....not so. As it progressed, the constant flogging of these poor souls continued.....and with the previously created empathy, I kept cheering them on in hopes of some sort of successful turn around....but again, not so. The longer it went, the less i liked it. Thought for sure in the beginning, this would be a 4+ for me......but a solid 3 is as far as i can go. Of course, the characters, and sad situations were striking......several of them haunting.....and i still think about some of it......and that is GOOD! Thus, my mixed feelings. Expectations created, then not lived up to. And i am completely willing to blame that on me, not Proulx. I loved "Shipping News" and "Close Range"......this just seemed too desolate for my liking. Interested to now read other reviews.....

[junipersun · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a depressing book. Why are so many books about New England depressing (Cider House Rules, Beans of Egypt Maine...)?Loyal rapes and kills a woman then leaves. His life is miserable. His family back home has a struggle. His brother gets involved in running scams. Greedy neighbors destroy the local environment.Proulx writes with lots of description. If you can visualize what you read you may enjoy parts of this. I felt that she was just showing off her research on the brands and local usages for the time period, and that those details were irrelevant since they were not integral to the plot, such as it is.Half way through I just started skimming. I'd read the postcards and skim the rest.

[vivl_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What can I say? I love (E.) Annie Proulx. I found this beautiful. It is similar to The Fishing News in that not a great deal really *happens* -- no big, story-telling plot-type things anyway -- but life goes on and is both intricate and day-to-day, beautiful and boring, significant on some scale and insignificant on the scale of all things. There are no come-uppances as such, there are no punishments meted out from on high upon those who "do wrong". It's just like life, basically, but beautifully described and observed, with honesty, humour and sympathy. People who don't like Annie Proulx seem to me to usually not like "sad stuff" -- there's a lot of that, but also a fair amount of chuckles (just like in real life.) They don't like it when there isn't a clear "moral" to the story (just like in real life.) And they don't like a lack of an obvious "beginning, middle and end" plot structure. (Need I say it? Just like life.) I prefer writing that reflects real life, not writing that idealises it or moralises over it. I don't like writing where the author places his or herself in a position of presiding judge or wrathful deity, casting some individuals down for their wrongdoings and rewarding others for meeting some contrived concept of "rightness". I like real people who are neither good nor evil, but who just live. Annie Proulx provides me with that, in bucket-loads.

[etxgardener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Annie Proulx's first novel tells the tragic story of Loyal Blood who in 1944 commits an unspeakable (and unexplained) crime & must flee his home on a farm in New England and search for a new life someplace else. His journey takes him from Vermont to New York, through the Midwest and finally to New Mexico. All during his journeys he continues to send postcards home to his family, but never communicates with them, nor knows about their own troubles and travails.This book may be difficult for some to red since so much is inferred rather than explained, but for those who stick with it, will be rewarded with a remarkable story beautifully written.

[repb_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was an amazing piece of writing; I had never heard of author before and was blind-sided. I was surprised to discover she also wrote Brokeback Mountain which I will not read - but will definitely read Shipping News. She paints a grim scene, indeed, but has a marvelous story-telling ability.

[msprint_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mariewg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[kevinashley_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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?

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think what struck me about Postcards was how powerful the language was. While the plot was hard and gritty, the way it was told was strong and confident. Almost like someone yelling emphatically, if that makes sense. It's the story of a farming family in New England. They are torn apart by the departure of the eldest son, Loyal. He has just killed his girlfriend and left her body under a pile of rocks in a nearby field. While the death was an accident, Loyal's leaving and the slow disintegration of the farm was not. Tragedy follows the family wherever they go. The beauty of the saga is how each chapter is punctuated with a postcard. It's these postcards that illustrate the changing times both for the nation and the family. Loyal often writes home, careful not to tell anyone where he really is. He continues to stay disconnected and this is apparent in what he shares with his family.

[heidilove_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is really quite a fine work. I am wholly impressed by the world Proulx reveals. Existential without the weepy woe-is-me flavour that pervades the genre. A classic at the outset, this novel spans five decades of failed pursuit of the American Dream. A considerable achievement for any author, this is a brilliant work as a debut. Nicely done in every regard.

[marysargent_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written before The Shipping News. Quite impressive. The postcard aspect a bit gimmicky. She leaves a lot of the plot out and makes you fill it in yourself, and indeed you feel you can. In both books, the main character is a man – again, this is impressive. One thing I don't like is the display of knowledge that calls attention to the author's mind. You shouldn't find yourself stopping to wonder how she knows all this stuff.Both she and Jane Smiley write beautifully about loss in American life, specifically small farms. Such eloquence, such restraint.