Customer Reviews

The Postman (Il Postino): A Novel

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Though it must be granted that "Il Postino" was a fabulous film, I have to admit being very shocked at how much better the book was. Perhaps it was because of Neruda's role in the film versus the movie. In the movie, he doesn't truly become human until the end of the film. In the book, it's fairly obvious from the beginning. Also, there were several amazing love scenes in the book that were left out of the movie. I think that it actually hurt the characters not to have those love scenes, or, in some cases, some of the witty dialogue that occurred in the novel. As a read, this is VERY short, but delightful. It was full of information and images, managing to explain the civil war without letting it bog down the story. It was truly a coming of age story combined with love and politics that, honestly, can only be found in someone like Neruda's life. Firstly a love poet, it's wonderful to me that he will always be that first and a political component second, though he was very much so a Communist. Neruda has a way of causing the bones to melt with the flow of language. Amazing...and the mother in the book KNOWS exactly how dangerous metaphors are...and that, too, was amazing. I think this is definitely a read for those who want a love story that not too obvious, a political tale that's not too heavy, or a coming of age tale that is not too cloying.

My first reaction on opening this book was one of surprise: the book, unlike the movie, is completely Chilean, with no Italian connection whatsoever. As such, the book, in my view, fits better into its context than the movie did.

This is the story of one Mario, who becomes a postman once Isla Negra, an island off the coast of Chile, gets a literate resident, Pablo Neruda. Mario is an admirer of Neruda's works, and is determined to form a personal bond with the poet, with a veiw to getting a coveted autograph. When Mario falls in love with the local beauty Beatriz, however, his bond with Neruda becomes much more than that of an autograph-seeker: the poet recognises a fellow dreamer in Mario, and helps him in his quest of love.

The story is presented in a ceremonial language sometimes verging on the pompous, as in "He was bathed in the light of the incommensurable moon and felt certain, as he stroked her neck, that he knew about infinity." Skármeta's choice of words only adds to the charm of the novella, though. As the author shows in his prologue to "The Postman", he does not take his own verbosity seriously, using it, rather, to add an ironic touch to an otherwise idyllic tale.

On one level The Postman is the comical story of how Mario the postman seduces Beatriz with the help of Pablo Neruda. But it is also about the role "letters" play in the political process, and more specifically their role during the period of Salvador Allende's rise to the presidency in Chile and his subsequent fall when his government was overthrown by a brutal CIA-sponsored coup.

Throughout the novel Mario is a symbol of the rise of Allende's Popular Unity government, and the major events in the narrative are related to political events. For example, Mario first sees Beatriz the day that Neruda is asked to run for President of Chila. Neruda leaves the race when Allende decides to run again, and the day that Allende is elected Mario and Beatriz make love for the first time.

Mario's poetic apprenticeship with Neruda is also part of the political transformations of the time. Mario eventually becomes a different type of "man of letters." Not only does he become a capable poet, but when Neruda is in France as Chile' Ambassador, Mario studies French.

At the moment of the coup, Mario's role becomes more overtly political. He first courageously goes to the post office and retrieves Neruda's mail. He memorizes the mail and then sneaks into Neruda's house, which is surrounded by the military. Although Neruda wants Mario to recite poetry, Mario recites for Neruda offer of political asylum from countries all over the world.

The night that Neruda dies in a Santiago hospital, Mario is taken away. He is never seen again. The narrative we are told is written because Beatriz wanted Mario's story told. In a play based on the novel, Beatriz, her mother and her baby march on the stage in silent protest as the play ends. In the recent film of the same name, Beatriz is nothing more than a voyeuristic delight, and the class boundaries between Mario and Neruda are carefully maintained. In the Spanish text of the novel, when Mario has finished reciting the mail to Neruda, Neruda asks to go to the window. As they move to the window, the narrator says, "they moved as though they were one man." This line is unfortunately not in the English translation.

Skarmeta has told of accompanying the historical Neruda on political campaigns. On one occaision they visited an area poopulated by overworked and poverty-stricken workers who were familiar with the bulk of Neruda's poetry. More than anything this novel is about "letters" that can break barriers between workers and intellectuals and between culture and its historical and political exigencies.

You've seen the film? You must read the novel! If you've done neither, then you must do both! If you are not interested in foreign language films, then at least read this rapturous novel- The Postman (Il Postino): A Novel.

Reading literature and watching fine film are probably my favorite pastimes and I particularly love to read the books that inspire the films. Only recently did I come across an English translation of Antonio Skarmeta's The Postman (Il Postino): A Novel, his exquisite novel upon which the 1996 Italian film Il Postino was based.

The tale is lovely, a bittersweet love story capturing the power of passion. This passion is aroused by first love and poetry, and not just any poetry, but the poetry of Latin America's most beloved, Nobel Peace Prize winning poet, Pablo Neruda.

Mario Jiminez is a simple, young man in a small fishing village on the coast of Chile. Still a teenager, Mario does everything possible to avoid becoming a fisherman like his father. Instead he becomes a postman to deliver mail to the only literate occupant of the beautiful island just off the mainland. That occupant is the great poet, Pablo Neruda.

Mario and the poet become unlikely friends and what this friendship engenders is a deeply moving meditation on the significance of poetry in life. Mario becomes a devoted student of Neruda and discovers the poetic gifts within himself... all those intrinsic, sensual, exhilarating metaphors of love and life.

The Postman (Il Postino): A Novel is a short novel, so I will not summarize the story here but rather leave the beauty of discovering its lyrical narrative, its poetic power and its great depth of meaning to you, the reader.



Love is so short,
Forgetting is so long.

~ Pablo Neruda
From "Tonight I Can Write"


If you enjoy poetry or would like a nice, accessible introduction to poetry, I also recommend Love: Ten Poems by Pablo Neruda. It is a bilingual collection of ten poems from the film. "Tonight I Can Write" that is quoted above is included.

It is a short novel, gentle and charming. You can read it in a few hours, and the time employed will be well spent. The figure of Pablo Neruda needs no publicizing, but this little novel is more about youth than poetry. Don't miss it.

I really enjoyed this book! Filled with erotic passion and intrigue. It will transfix you till the last page is turned. Set in a coastal town in Chile, our heroine, Mario, is given a metamorphisis from a lowly son of a fisherman with no real goals in his life than to look at pretty girls; to a grown man that is faced with the responsibilities of an adult. Touching and heatwarming are I all I can say to describe this novel, filled metaphors and the language of love.

You can read the other reviews for comments about the book, but I feel compelled to correct everyone's misstatement about Neruda living on an "island." I have been to Isla Negra and to Neruda's home turned museum there, and it is a costal town in Chile, not an island (despite the name!) Neruda was a Chilean poet who appealed to the "common person," making the story entirely believable.

I don't much like the poetry of Pablo Neruda. I loathe communists in general. And I think General Pinochet did the right thing when he overthrew Salvador Allende. But somehow, I love this story of a young postman on Isla Negra, Chile and the relationship that he develops with his sole customer, the great communist poet Neruda.

Mario Jimenez has no desire to follow in the footsteps of his father and most of the other men of the island and become a fisherman. So he leaps at the chance to take over a postal route that requires only that he deliver the voluminous correspondence that comes for the island's most famous resident. Timidly at first and then more insistently, Mario calls upon Neruda to teach him about poetry and language. Then, after meeting a luminous young bar maid named Beatrice, he demands that Neruda help him to woo her. Eventually Mario wins her love, in large part through his own poetical devices, including an amusing string of metaphors.

When Salvador Allende assumes the Chilean presidency, Neruda is sent to France as ambassador and Mario becomes sort of a surrogate set of eyes and ears for the poet, sending him observations and recordings of daily life. Initially, life is good in the new Chile, but things gradually deteriorate in an onslaught of shortages, work stoppages and violence. Neruda, who in the intervening years has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, returns home to the island to die and Mario is whisked away "for questioning."

Despite the down beat ending, this short novel is filled with memorable, if overly idealized, characters, for whom the author clearly has great affection, and scenes of thrilling erotic passion and it is animated by a sense of the beauty of language and poetry. I recommend both the book and the Oscar winning movie adaptation of several years ago.

GRADE: A

If you thought that it was good in English, you should read it in Spanish! El cartero de Neruda or Ardiente paciencia. Very good!

Overall I thought "The Postman" by Antonio Skarmeta was poorly written, especially when it came to character development. The characters in the book lacked depth and seemed to be more like shadows than solid, deep characters. The main thing we learn about the main character Mario and his soon to be wife is that they are two lust-filled kids who can't control themselves. The rest of the characters appear as mere stick figures throughout the story. The book came across to me as lazily written by a lazy author. He should study Steinbeck and learn how to develop well written characters.