The peculiar life of a lonely reading group blogger...

Although I am slightly peculiar this month's post is actually all about "The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault.

Bilodo had been intercepting her letters for two years now, and whenever he spotted one while sorting his post, he always experienced the same shock, the same shiver of awe. He would quietly slip that letter inside his jacket and only allow himself to show any emotion once he was alone on the road, turning the envelope over and over, fingering the exciting promise.

Secretly steaming open envelopes and reading the letters inside, Bilodo has found an escape from his lonely routine life as a postman. When one day he comes across a mysterious letter containing only a single haiku, he finds himself avidly caught up in the relationship between a long-distance couple, who write to each other using only beautiful poetry. He feasts on their words, vicariously living a life for which he longs. But it will only be a matter of time before his world comes crashing down...

Born on the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence, near Sept-Iles, Quebec, Denis Thériault has a degree in psychology and is an award-winning screenwriter who lives with his family in Montreal. His work has been translated into many languages.

His first novel, L'iguane, was published to great critical acclaim and won three major literary prizes. His second novel,The Peculiar Life Of A Lonely Postman, has already been published oversees and won the Japan-Canada Literary Award.

This book had divided opinions and we lovingly called it a Marmite book as you either loved it or hated it.  No one particularly liked the main character, but those that particularly disliked the book had problems relating to him and any of the other characters in the story.  It was a short book, 128 pages in the paperback, so we never really got a chance to get in depth with any of the characters.  

I don't think anyone was overly impressed with the haiku, but it did encourage one or two others to give it a go and was a good introduction to that form of poetry for some.

As the title focuses on three main characters one suggestion was that, could it actually be one character with three different personalities - read it again and let me know your thoughts below...

Until next time :)

P.S  If you read this post back you will notice it is in the form of a haiku

P.P.S  Regular readers know that blog posts are bad enough never mind my attempts at Japanese poetry!