That feeling when you start to care for a cause that only exists in a book: Long Live the Post Horn! by Norwegian author Vigdis Hjorth.
Location: set in Norway, with one very important trip to Alta
Long Live the Post Horn! synopsis
Ellinor, a 35-year-old media consultant, has not been feeling herself; she’s not been feeling much at all lately. Far beyond jaded, she picks through an old diary and fails to recognise the woman in its pages, seemingly as far away from the world around her as she’s ever been. But when her coworker vanishes overnight, an unusual new task is dropped on her desk. Off she goes to meet the Norwegian Postal Workers Union, setting the ball rolling on a strange and transformative six months.
This is an existential scream of a novel about loneliness (and the postal service!), written in Vigdis Hjorth’s trademark spare, rhythmic and cutting style.
Book review
A feeling of something real, not imagined. That is the powerful feeling that only receiving a postcard can give you.
Ellinor seems out of touch with reality. From the post office representatives she learns how to be proud at the work she does. It is their mission to turn dead letters into living ones, and that is why the people working at the post office are so important: because the right letter at the right time can change lives.
Long Live the Post Horn! shows how you can get energy and passion from people that are passionate. It’s contagious. The post office workers’ passion might save Ellinor in the end. This assignment could be exactly what she needs to held her head up high again. She starts to think about the purpose of her life. About her contribution to life and society, and more concretely, about what she can do for the post office workers she is hired to help.
There is no great buildup towards a climax, but instead you’re treated to many pages of quiet contemplation, making you feel like you’re reading the same thoughts (of loneliness) all over. Ellinor makes progress with her thoughts, but it feels like a long book while it is only 240 pages. After some great scenes involving her trip to Alta (where she finds passion!) and her boyfriend, the book focuses on her job for Postkom: the fight against the new postal directive. Then, all of a sudden, the book gets wrapped up within a few pages. The end.
My opinion about this book is neutral: it was so-so. I enjoyed reading the scenes involving her (thoughts about her) boyfriend Stein and her trip north to meet a post office worker about the letter he revived. I also liked reading her thoughts about where she should take her life next, and the small steps she managed to take towards her ‘improved’ future. The work-related part (opposing the directive) didn’t interest me: I was reading about (political) facts while I was more interested in reading about the main character’s non-working life instead.
Some pages grabbed my attention, but I got distracted on others. I caught myself thinking about other things while my eyes were still reading the lines. It’s not a bad book, it just couldn’t hold my attention.
Translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund.
Interested?
You can pre-order your copy of Long Live the Post Horn! from Amazon (available 15 September 2020).
Many thanks to Verso Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
