Don’t Send This Postcard

This book is about Adam Colby, an estate seller.  When at a sale, he finds a stash of picture postcards with romantic poems Gabe Alexander sent his wife, Huck, every Friday for decades.  This intrigues Adam since his marriage ended in divorce a few years earlier.  By reading all the postcards, Adam hopes to unravel the mystery of having a long, happy marriage.

Much of the book is spent telling Gabe and Huck’s love story.  Adam shows up a little in the tale when it flashes forward to the current time period.  He spends a long time trying to get Yevette, a close friend of the Alexanders, to help him fill in some of the blanks in the story.  Adam eventually thinks he has found the secret to long, wedded bliss.

The premise for the story had lots of promise.  The characters of Gabe and Huck were interesting.  Adam was overly morose.  I had a hard time believing that he was so clueless about the feelings Yevette had for him–or too sullen to act on them.  It was also quite a stretch that Yevette would have developed an attraction for Adam, let alone pursued him.  The character of Mister Jack was just odd.

All of the main characters in the book indulged in lots of drinking.  It was disappointing that Mr. Lewis felt his characters couldn’t socialize without alcohol.  It was even more amazing that part of this story took place during prohibition, but all types of alcohol seemed easily available everywhere.  After experiencing death on both sides of my family that was the direct result of alcoholism, I view alcohol as a poison–and a poor example of “socializing” in a Christian book.

There seemed to be a little bit of everything in this book.  The alcohol use I already mentioned, plus a little Bible and God talk, along with some behavior by the Alexanders that would have been scandalous during the time period portrayed.  There were references to the Alexander’s intimate life that were unnecessary.  Parts of the book seemed to be just a hair’s-breadth this side of edgy.

The book was also anti-children.  According to this story, one of the big secrets to a long, happy marriage included not having any children.  Luckily, Mr. Lewis, made Huck unable to have children, so following the thoughts of this tale, Huck had a jump on having  wedded bliss.  This is not the type of story I would reach for when wanting Christian fiction, so give this book two stars.

The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own, and I have not been compensated in any other manner.

Author’s website:  http://timothylewisbooks.com/

Author Information:  http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?work=227694

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