The Peculiar Life Of The Lonely Postman By Denis Thériault - Review

Shy, unassuming Bilodo is a Montreal postman with a secret. Forsaking physical relationships, he chooses to live vicariously through the personal letters he intercepts and carefully steams open in the privacy of his flat. One correspondence interests him especially: an epistolary flirtation, conducted via haikus, between Grandpré, a local academic, and Ségolène, a young Guadeloupian teacher.

Bilodo finds himself falling in love with the sensitive Ségolène, and when, in a Nabokovian twist, Grandpré is run over while attempting to post his latest haiku and dies at Bilodo`s feet, the postman decides to step into the deceased`s life to ensure the long-distance relationship continues. As Bilodo`s poetic skills begin to flourish, so does the affair, the haikus gradually becoming more accomplished and revealing as Bilodo`s grip on his own identity becomes increasingly tenuous. Translated by Liedewy Hawke, there is a fable-like simplicity to Thériault`s prose and a playfulness in the narrative voice to temper any moral queasiness that may be inherent in the subject matter. Quirky and charming with a well-executed denouement, this novella brings to mind nothing less than a giddily-lovesick Kafka.