This is the sequel to "The Peculiar Life Of A Lonely Postman", and continues the dreamlike tale based on the endless loop of the universe, of life, known to Zen Buddhists as "Enso". The protagonists, the postman and Tania, proceed to try and disentangle themselves from the lies they have perpetrated about themselves and each other. However, there is only one tragic way to interrupt the loop.....read this lively book and find out! As an aside, I would like to have seen these two novellas combined as a novel in two parts, thereby eliminating the first 40 pages of recapping the first novella in the second. ( )

I would read the companion volume to this one written ten years previously first (The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman). Reviewed on my blog here: http://annabookbel.net/nutshell-ian-mcewan-postmans-fiancee-denis-theriault ( )

It took me awhile to get into this love story. Once I was hooked, though I couldn't put it down. There are deeper meanings under the surface of the main love triangle that give a fuller sensation to the reader. I thought I knew where the author was taking things and then I was thrown for an enjoyable loop! ( )

I read this immediately after finishing The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, an odd, existential book that took me by surprise with its combination of philosophical reflection and quirky humor. It was different than I was expecting based on reviews that seemed to suggest it would be a light-hearted romp. While reading the first book is not a prerequisite to reading The Postman’s Fiancee, it’s certainly helpful. And if you’ve already read the first novel, I would highly recommend the sequel, which not only sheds some much-needed light on the eccentric postman’s boyhood, but also satisfactorily fleshes out a somewhat inconsequential character from the first book, and brings the entire saga full circle, so to speak.

The protagonist of this slim volume is Tania, a young German woman working as a waitress in Montreal, who falls in love with Bilodo, a reserved postal worker who eats his daily lunch at the diner where she works. Initially, Tania’s story seems more straightforward than Bilodo’s but slowly morphs into an interesting companion piece to the original, telling a similar story of love and deceit. It’s somewhat fanciful, while avoiding whimsy. Like its predecessor, there’s a dark pathos at its heart that speaks to isolation, the human need for connection and the lengths to which people will go to achieve it.

I preferred this book to the original, but only because it “closed the circle” for me, so that distinction is probably moot since I could not prefer one without the other. While I would not say the ending was completely satisfying, nor is it particularly happy, somehow it’s right. An insightful, thought-provoking work. ( )

This book did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't like the plot (unbelievable), the characters (Bilodo was a nonentity and Tania was just obsessed although Segolene was mildly interesting), or the insipid haikus. I gave it two stars since at the end I did want to find out what happened to the two main characters. Maybe it was the translation. ( )