What we read: 5 epistolary novels to dip into this summer
I love letters. I believe that they are the purest form of communication. There is an intimacy to this medium that invites the readers to glimpse aspects of the writer’s character that they may otherwise never be privy to. Although digital letters satisfy the instant gratification itch, they do not hold the same place in my heart as handwritten letters. There is something unbelievably romantic about being able to hold the same piece of paper that days ago was held by someone miles away. I imagine the letter travelling to me, passing through many hands and having an epic adventure of its own all before it even arrives. The other thing that I love about letters is how they serve as a time capsule. Re-reading them at a later date takes you back to a very specific moment and catapults you into the sights, sounds and feelings of a fleeting moment that you had forgotten all about until then.
I attribute this fondness to the fact that The Jolly Postman was one of the first books I read as a child. I still remember the book vividly. The best part about it was that you could pull out each individual letter that the postman delivered, and read it in the sender’s handwriting, complete with spelling mistakes and doodles. As I grew up, the voyeuristic pleasure derived from the epistolary form only grew. Watching stories unfolding through letters, diary entries, blogs and emails gave me a sense of being right in the middle of the action. Of having access to the characters’ innermost thoughts and feelings. I devoured books such as Harriet the Spy, which inspired me to keep my own diary (and a close watch on my neighbors!) and, at a later stage, works such as I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume and the entire Georgia Nicolson Confessions series by Louise Rennison.
It’s no surprise then that this has remained one of my go-to genres. Here are some of my favourite reads within it.
Daddy Long Legs (Jean Webster)
I think this may be classified as a ‘young adult’ novel but I was (embarrassingly) rather older when I discovered it, and it filled me with far too much joy to be left off this list. Written in 1912 as a series of letters between the spirited orphan Judy and her anonymous benefactor, who decides to send her to college after reading one of her essays and discovering her writing talent. All that he asks of her in return is that she send him monthly letters detailing her progress in college, as he believes that “nothing so fosters facility in literary expression as letter writing.” It’s a delightful and heartwarming coming-of-age novel that follows Judy as she discovers the world outside the confines of the orphanage, herself and, most excitingly, the identity of her benefactor.
An American Marriage (Tayari Jones)
The 2019 winner of the Woman’s Prize for Fiction isn’t written entirely in letters though a large chunk of it is. It tells the story of a young Black man (Roy) who was wrongfully accused, convicted and incarcerated simply because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the impact it has on him and his new wife Celestial. Part of the plot is laid out through the letters they send each other while he is in prison. These letters offer direct insight into the changing emotions of the protagonists. They start off as hopeful but grow bleaker as time passes.
Tayari Jones is also featured in our What we read: Travel around the world with women writer in 2021 article!
Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad (Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit)
This is the true story of an unlikely friendship between BBC World Service journalist Bee and an Iraqi academic May, forged entirely via email. It begins when Bee contacts May in an attempt to understand how the lives of ordinary Iraqis were affected by the invasion. May is a Chaucer expert and university professor who battles bans and blockades just to get to class and teach her students Jane Austen. She paints a vivid portrait of the fallout of war on civilians. Daily life is a round of bombs, shootings and the frequent loss of electricity, fuel and hope. Bee is a London mum juggling work, PTA meetings and chickenpox outbreaks. You wouldn’t think that they would have much in common and yet this is a story of a warm, enduring friendship and -- spoiler alert! -- has a happy ending.
84 Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)
Yet another true story of an unlikely friendship forged entirely through letters. This slim book covers two decades worth of correspondence between Helene, a vivacious down on her luck playwright based in New York and Frank Doel, the rather prim and taciturn manager of the London-based antiquarian bookstore Marks & Co. This communication, shaped mainly around a mutual love for books, also features occasional guest appearances. These are in the form of letters from other employees at the bookshop to thank Helene for her generous Christmas food packages which help to alleviate the post-war austerity. As this charming story unfolds, Helene, with her hilarious, outspoken letters, becomes the darling of 84 Charing Cross Road.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer)
This historical novel is set in Post-War Guernsey and tells a story both heartbreaking and yet somehow extremely uplifting. The eccentric title is the name of an invented book club that a bunch of tipsy islanders come up with when caught breaking curfew as they return from a dinner party. Later, to make their fictional cover believable, they actually begin meeting for regular readings. And these most unlikely islanders, fishermen and pig farmers, begin to forge a deep connection to literature and the escape it provides them from the Occupation. The story unfolds in the form of letters between them and Juliet Ashton, a writer from London who becomes interested in this eclectic society of readers. She hears of them through Adam Dawsey, a local pig farmer who writes to her upon finding her name and address in a second-hand collection of Charles Lamb’s essays.
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