Customer Reviews

POSTCARDS FROM NO MAN'S LAND

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Winner of the Carnegie Medal--one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes--Postcards from No Man's Land is a powerful tale of past and present, told through dual narratives. When 17-year-old Jacob Todd arrives in Holland to attend a ceremony commemorating the World War II Battle of Arnhem and to pay his respects to his dead grandfather, little does he know that his journey will bring him new ideas about love, life, death, and art; friendships with young people who cross gender lines; discoveries of his own identity and sexuality; and a shocking truth kept secret for 50 years and revealed in a diary written specifically for him by Geertrui Van Riet, the now ailing woman who had taken care of his grandfather during the war and, unbeknownst to her family and his, shared with him a passionate but short-lived love affair. Philosophical, comic, painful, emotional, heart-warming, and sensual, the novel is written with exquisite detail--perhaps a little too much detail at times--and a sophistication rarely seen in American novels for teens. The setting of Amsterdam, a city both modern and old, is a perfect reflection of the parallel narratives. The characters are likable and admirable yet realistic, and demonstrate strength and open-mindedness as they attempt to work through personal conflicts and difficulties, many of which are never resolved--an aspect of the novel which may dissatisfy some readers. Not to be regarded as just a work of historical fiction, the novel's treatments of the universal young adult themes of first love, independence, and friendship demonstrate careful thought and originality. Already translated into eleven languages, the novel will surely maintain its resonance among generations of readers to come.

I'm a teen and I think this book is really beautiful. The first word that comes to mind as I write this review is "sincere". Because it talks with you directly, it goes at once to the centre of the subjects It describes. It doesn't get lost in narrative embroidery and set-ups. As you read you can hear the characters talking and watch the narration with your eyes.
About the narration, it's really beautifully built: In a chapter we are told the adventures of Jacob Todd, teenager, through the city of Amsterdam, and in the following we get to know about Jacob Todd, his homonymous grandfather and the events he was involved in in the Netherlands as soldier during the II World War, then back to the young grandchild, and then again with the soldier: A continuous change of scene that more and more induces you to keep reading and to find out the link between the two characters.

I think the power of the book is due to the frankness and realism it uses to describe the story and to approach the very important thematics in it.
They are euthanasy and mainly love. Love is the centre of the book I think, and by love the book means a lot of things: the love between a grandmother and a grandchild, the love beetween a grandchild and his dead grandfather, the love between a girl and a boy. The book deals with this one with no emphasizing, just with a sentiment of naturalness and frank discovery I have seen nowhere else.

I was somehow shocked by this thought-provoking book, and I definitely suggest it to all the people (teens and adults) who are interested in a mature reading.

The story is all encompassing with enough of "literary gaps" to draw the young adult reader in: heart, body and soul. The above reviews have told enough of POSTCARDS' plot (too much really), so instead I invite you to partake in a reading experience of a lifetime. The dual storylines, multi-faceted character and no-easy-answers themes pulsate throughout the novel. POSTCARDS lives up to the author's own mission statement. "I will not compromise on language or content. At 15 people can handle the same language as me, they're just as complicated as me, and are very interested in thinking about important questions for the first time." (Aidan Chambers as quoted in Moira Dunkin's report online at:...)

Weaving the threads of Anne Frank's and James Joyce's writing into his own tapestry of an exquisite masterpiece, the LA Youth Writer's Group magnificently sums Chambers' feat of writing up:
The judges, from the LA Youth Libraries Group, were unanimous in their choice: "It is a rites of passage book that supports young people in dealing with life's emotional geography. The writer trusts young readers to make up their own minds about life's big issues. This is an outstanding novel which lingers in the mind; every word is well chosen." (see: above Library Association Record website cited above)

The only "no man's land" that exists is the land that doesn't bring POSTCARDS to the teen reader. Kudos to Aidan Chambers! Kudos!

I am currently a senior in high school and was recommended this book by my English AP teacher. Postcards From No Man's Land is a wonderfully delightful book. From the first chapter, the reader is captivated by the young, curious, and wise Jacob Todd. I am seventeen, like Jacob, and felt a great connection with Todd. He experiences so many situations that occur everyday in my life. It is comforting to know that an adult author, like Aiden Chambers, can capture these "awkward" moments in one's journey from childhood to adulthood.

Not only does this book allow for perspective from a young man, but also from a young woman, living in the 1940's named Geertrui. I, myself, felt most connected to her. Geertrui, is brought up in a very traditional, structured home, where her life has revolved around the morally accepted ideas of maternal instinct and marriage. She is very inspirational throughout the novel and opens young Jacob's eyes to a whole new part of the picture.

Overall, there are not enough words in the English language for me to describe my appreciation and love for this book. I urge everyone to at least read it once, and then hand it over to their teens to read. It is definitely an eye opening book.

Enjoy!
AroChica05@aol.com

P.S. *Readers* This book does discuss some serious topics, everything from euthanasia, sexuality, to infidelity. I urge you to first read the book, before handing it over to your young adult, as to adequately prepare for possible questions that may result. :o)

This is a book you will not forget. The way in which the book weaves back in forth in time (between WWII and the present) is well-crafted..this is a very difficult thing to accomplish, and only a few writers, such as Connie Willis, have done it well.
The principal characters are well developed; the secondary ones (particularly the hero's new girlfriend) much less so.

A bit of political correctness detracts from the '40s scenes. Would an anti-Nazi Dutchwoman, on the run from the Germans, really express negative feelings about the gun her companion carries? Would she really say "Must you take that," and think snide thoughts about "Men and their deadly toys." More likely, she would ask if there wasn't another gun for her. This seems like an importation of '90s feminism into a place where it doesn't belong.

Overall, well worth reading.

Chambers' story is an accurate piece of historical fiction; however, it is obvious after just the first chapter that Chambers does not intend for his novel to be primarily labeled as historical fiction. Rather, he intends his novel to be regarded as a coming-of-age story told in both the present and the past. As Chambers develops the narratives of Jacob and Geertrui, he shows that feelings of confusion, excitement and fear are common to all teenagers, regardless of their historical setting, as they struggle to come into their own.
Jacob and Geertrui are real, three-dimensional characters. They become persons with whom the reader can easily identify because Chambers allows the reader to hear their thoughts and observe how their emotions influence their decisions and often times change their rational or at the very least broaden their perspectives. I was thankful that Chambers explores the characters' emotions so in depth, because I believe that emotions are often more powerful than we realize and they are especially overwhelming during the teenage years. It is important that the emotions of Jacob and Geertrui are particularly potent for they find themselves in stressful situations.
The mature nature of Chambers' novel is shown in the first chapter. A mysterious, sexy stranger comes on to Jacob in an outdoor café. Jacob feels a rush of excitement because he's not used to attracting girls, but his excitement changes to bewilderment when Jacob realizes that he has struck a boy's fancy, not a girl's. I was just as surprised as Jacob to discover that Ton was in fact a boy, and I felt Chambers' description of this discovery was perhaps too vivid. (Jacob realizes Ton's true identity when Ton presses Jacob's hand to his crotch and Jacob feels his penis.)
Sexuality and sexual discovery are main themes in Postcards from No Man's Land. Chambers does not condone a particular lifestyle in his exploration of these themes, and I was thankful that he left the interpretation of Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual experiences up to the reader. However, I found it troubling that Chambers assumes Jacob is no longer a virgin because he is seventeen and that Geertrui and Jacob's grandfather can not restrain themselves from being sexually intimate.
Although Chambers does not seem to entertain abstinence as an option for teenagers, he does show that Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual choices, in particular, have consequences. Geertrui becomes pregnant with the child of a man who is never her husband, but the husband of someone else. Her pregnancy makes it necessary for her to marry another man who she does not love and to keep the true identity of her child's father a secret until her husband dies. Chambers accurately shows that Geertrui's relationship with Jacob's grandfather brings both pleasure and pain, but thankfully he illustrates how Geertrui's pain was tempered by the grace and forgiveness of others.
Overall, I was pleased with Chambers' novel. He writes with integrity and allows his reader to explore difficult issues without the fear of being judged. I would recommend this book to teenagers ages sixteen and above.

Postcards from No Man's Land is a well written novel wrote in the perspective of two characters throughout the story, and how their lives change while living in Amsterdam. The first main character, Jacob Todd, is a seventeen year old American that goes to Amsterdam for a remembrance in honor of his grandfather, and other fallen soldiers of the war fifty-one years earlier. As it turns out, Jacob has a horrible time trying to adapt to the different customs of Amsterdam, and ends up becoming mugged on his first day there. Now he is without his coat, or what they call an anorak, and without any money on a cold rainy day, he has to find a relatives house in the lonely streets of Amsterdam. The second main character, Geertrui, is Jacob Todd's grandmother, and her story is told in her point of view during the war. While the war is ending, things start to happen with her and another Jacob Todd that is kept secret from everyone else. Follow the story as the present Jacob Todd tries to learn about his family's past while in a foreign country that he knows nothing about.
There were many things I liked about this book including the way it was written in the perspective of two characters at two different time periods. I also liked how the book used a variety of vocabulary words, but the only negative about that was that I may have not have known the meaning of the words. The only dislike I had of the book was trying to remember and to follow what was happening to the other characters while reading the chapters because you would be stuck for reading about Geertrui during the war for two chapters, then you would start all over again with two chapters about Jacob Todd in present time.
I can not think of any other books like this one, or any other authors that write like Aidan Chambers does because I think that this book is a one of a kind, kind of book.

This is a very good book. You do have to have a certain level of maturty to understand it though. I read it last year at age 12 and understood it well. Aidan Chambers wrote this book in alternating chapters, so it's a little hard to follow at first, but you catch on quickly. It's a really good book, though.

A fifteen year-old English traveler named Jacob Todd travels to Amsterdam to visit his grandmother who is dying of disease. He meets a stranger in an old restaurant; a girl named Ton. In the end of the conversation, Jacob discovers that the girl is actually an older boy. After Jacob is bewildered by this event, he is mugged by a teen in a red cap. Meanwhile, in the late era of World War II in Europe, teenage Geertrui is living in the occupied Dutch city of Oosterbeek, Holland. But on one day, something will change. The Allies are coming! Throughout the streets of Oosterbeek, the Germans are being constantly pursued by the Allied troops, while the streets of Oosterbeek are in chaos. Two English soldiers arrive at the home of Geertrui, and they ask her family if they can use her home as a watch tower, since the Germans are only a couple of miles away. One of these soldiers is called Jacob, and his last name is also Todd. In the present, Jaocb visits his relative, Van Daan Riet, and finally gets to visit his grandmother, Geertrui. In 1945, the Germans have re-occupied Oosterbeek and air raids have caused destruction in the town, and Geertrui's basement becomes a makeshift hospital. One day, though, one of the patients is the original Jacob Todd, who is badly burned. Geertrui must care for him, and while this happens, they fall in love. However, they must leave for the Germans are becoming more ruthless. After he recovers, he suddenly dies of a heart attack. In the present times, Jacob meets a girl named Hille, and they fall in love as well. Jacob also visits his grandmother, Geertrui, again, where she tells him about her life with the original Jacob Todd during the war, and gives him a diary about it. He also gets a pin that was on the coat of his grandfather, the original Jacob Todd. Postcards from No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers, is a great historcial-fiction novel due to its great action, its suspense, and its great ability to describe an actual event.

Postcards From No Man's Land is a great historical fiction book because of its great detail and action. When the battle for Oosterbeek begins, the battle is uniquely described to the best possible. The battles described could create a picture in any person's head that would make them want to buy and read the book for hours and hours until the enitre novel has been read. Postcards From No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers, is a great novel to read becasue of this.

Postcard's From No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers, is also a definite choice to read because of its large amounts of suspense. From the beginning of the novel, there was a great hook that would make the reader wonder what would happen next. Another example is during the march away from the re-captured city of Oosterbeek. Geertrui and Jacob must go to a faraway farm to escape the Germans, just because Jacob is an English soldier. There is a very close call, as one German almost finds Jacob. There is also another part where the war rages on, and at any minute the Germans might destroy Geertrui's house. Suspense like this is child's play compared to the suspense in the rest of the novel, which will keep the reader on the edge of his or her seat.

Postcards From No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers, is excellent because it accurately and vividly depicts World War II. The whole setting takes place in a city, taken over by the Nazi Germans, that is finally being liberated by the Allies in an attempt to invade the Axis Powers. However, the author does an exceptional job of depicting the harsh and cruel life of war. It also tells the brutal conterattacks conducted by the Nazis in order to gain all of their lost lands. If you are looking for a novel that will take you right into the action of the battles, this book is for you!

Postcards From No Man's Land is a fantastic novel to read because of its thrills, its action and adventure, and most imporatntly because its gives a great description of how brutal a war can be. Even though there were some disturbing moments that are not very appropriate for younger children, it was still an extraordinary book that is about a young girl who tries to survive a war, and a teenage boy who wants to find out about that girl's past. I rate this novel a total of five stars out of five.

A. Chappell

this book is beautifully written. the emotions bought to life in this books are magnificent, especially the parts about geertrui's life in holland in the war. this book is masterfully written and is a very enjoyable, unput-downable book.
i think this book also captures quite well the attitude of the dutch, i loved this book so much that i now really want to go back to amsterdam to see all the places mentioned and meet all the people!

READ THIS IT'S GREAT!!!