Read Online The Lost Letters of William Woolf edition by Helen Cullen Literature Fiction eBooks
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“Enchanting, intriguing, deeply moving. The Lost Letters of William Woolf concerns itself as much with lost love as it does with lost letters.”
—Irish Times
***
Lost letters have only one hope for survival...
Inside the walls of the Dead Letters Depot, letter detectives work to solve mysteries. They study missing zip codes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, forgotten street names—all the many twists of fate behind missed birthdays, broken hearts, unheard confessions, pointless accusations, unpaid bills, unanswered prayers. Their mission is to unite lost mail with its intended recipients.
But when letters arrive addressed simply to “My Great Love,” longtime letter detective William Woolf faces his greatest mystery to date. Written by a woman to the soulmate she hasn’t met yet, the missives capture William’s heart in ways he didn’t know possible. Soon, he finds himself torn between the realities of his own marriage and his world of letters, and his quest to follow the clues becomes a life-changing journey of love, hope, and courage.
From Irish author Helen Cullen, The Lost Letters of William Woolf is an enchanting novel about the resilience of the human heart and the complex ideas we hold about love—and a passionate ode to the art of letter writing.
Read Online The Lost Letters of William Woolf edition by Helen Cullen Literature Fiction eBooks
"I'm torn about my rating for this book. On the one hand, I found it to be very well written and thoughtful, with a realistic look at everyday people and their everyday lives and everyday problems. On the other hand, I wasn't expecting such a limited story based on its plot description of the Dead Letters Depot and the "letter detectives" working there.
Instead, this is mainly a quiet, well-written story of the atrophying, dying 14-year-old marriage of a stagnated husband and a frustrated wife. Once full of enthusiasm for their life together, stimulating each other intellectually, communicating with each other about their hopes and dreams and interests, now they barely manage to talk at the end of the day about even the humdrum.
Ever practical, wife Clare stifled her artistic dreams of being a painter to become a lawyer and is now the main breadwinner of the childless couple. Ever impractical, husband William, once with hopes of becoming a writer, suffers writer's block and has settled into a life of routine at his low-paying job at the Dead Letters Depot.
This was not as much about the Dead Letters Depot as I had expected. What there was I did enjoy. The employees or "letter detectives" there have the task of reuniting lost letters and packages with either the intended recipient or, if not possible, with the original sender. Quite the task at times, often with illegible or missing names and addresses. The office atmosphere and work methods proved interesting and the few examples of letters and other gone-astray items were in some cases amusing and in others very emotionally moving.
But the main story here is really that of William and Clare's failing marriage. Is their disintegrating relationship salvageable? Can the lost love of the early years be recovered or is it time for them to move on from each other?
Complicating their frustrations with each other are an ardent admirer for Clare at her law office and for William it's the mysterious letters found at the Dead Letters Depot addressed only to "My Great Love" and signed "Winter". As William reads these letters, he begins to feel that they have been written to him and he becomes obsessed with Winter and the possibilities of a new and fresh love as expressed in her letters.
So we readers go on the journey with William and Clare to find out if they can find their lost selves and their lost relationship. Both have settled in their lives. Claire giving up painting in pursuit of financial security, with a husband who has disappointed her by giving up his (and her) dream of him becoming a famous writer. William, stuck in the rut of his job, feels her disappointment and bitterness. When the letters from an ideal love come along they have the power to distract him from the business of making things right with his wife. And perhaps this can't be made right. Perhaps to find themselves, they must lose each other.
Lost letters, lost closeness in a relationship, lost hopes, lost dreams. This is a nicely-written debut novel from Cullen. I was not, however, in the mood for this slightly depressing (to me) story and made several initial attempts to read it before finally settling in to finish. Perhaps that's why I'm settling on three stars for the story. There's some 5-star writing in here, great observations on the human condition, but ultimately I was in need of more hope and joy. The ending was not enlarged upon enough to give me the feeling of relief and happiness I was hoping for. The author allowed us into William's head plenty throughout the book, so why not give us more of his thought process at the end that led to his ultimate decision? Granted the ending was artistic and crafted nicely, just not completely satisfying to prosaic me."
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The Lost Letters of William Woolf edition by Helen Cullen Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews :
The Lost Letters of William Woolf edition by Helen Cullen Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
- I bought this book mainly for the basic premise-lost letters and how they are dealt with. The beginning of the book was all about that and it was quite lovely and well written. Once the plot degraded to the relationship between the main characters, I was bored, confused and found that I really didn't care what happened. I did eventually give up on the book. But I did read the end in the hopes of deciphering the point of the book. Was the book an illusion; what the main portion of the book really a fiction written by the main character, William Woolf? I am disappointed with this effort. Feel I was lead down the garden path into obscurity. This just may be a generational book-one that is understood and appreciated by younger readers. For the author's sake, I truly hope so.
- I would recommend this book. So enjoyed. Loved the thought provoking ending and discussions with friends about their ideas n images.
- I'm torn about my rating for this book. On the one hand, I found it to be very well written and thoughtful, with a realistic look at everyday people and their everyday lives and everyday problems. On the other hand, I wasn't expecting such a limited story based on its plot description of the Dead Letters Depot and the "letter detectives" working there.
Instead, this is mainly a quiet, well-written story of the atrophying, dying 14-year-old marriage of a stagnated husband and a frustrated wife. Once full of enthusiasm for their life together, stimulating each other intellectually, communicating with each other about their hopes and dreams and interests, now they barely manage to talk at the end of the day about even the humdrum.
Ever practical, wife Clare stifled her artistic dreams of being a painter to become a lawyer and is now the main breadwinner of the childless couple. Ever impractical, husband William, once with hopes of becoming a writer, suffers writer's block and has settled into a life of routine at his low-paying job at the Dead Letters Depot.
This was not as much about the Dead Letters Depot as I had expected. What there was I did enjoy. The employees or "letter detectives" there have the task of reuniting lost letters and packages with either the intended recipient or, if not possible, with the original sender. Quite the task at times, often with illegible or missing names and addresses. The office atmosphere and work methods proved interesting and the few examples of letters and other gone-astray items were in some cases amusing and in others very emotionally moving.
But the main story here is really that of William and Clare's failing marriage. Is their disintegrating relationship salvageable? Can the lost love of the early years be recovered or is it time for them to move on from each other?
Complicating their frustrations with each other are an ardent admirer for Clare at her law office and for William it's the mysterious letters found at the Dead Letters Depot addressed only to "My Great Love" and signed "Winter". As William reads these letters, he begins to feel that they have been written to him and he becomes obsessed with Winter and the possibilities of a new and fresh love as expressed in her letters.
So we readers go on the journey with William and Clare to find out if they can find their lost selves and their lost relationship. Both have settled in their lives. Claire giving up painting in pursuit of financial security, with a husband who has disappointed her by giving up his (and her) dream of him becoming a famous writer. William, stuck in the rut of his job, feels her disappointment and bitterness. When the letters from an ideal love come along they have the power to distract him from the business of making things right with his wife. And perhaps this can't be made right. Perhaps to find themselves, they must lose each other.
Lost letters, lost closeness in a relationship, lost hopes, lost dreams. This is a nicely-written debut novel from Cullen. I was not, however, in the mood for this slightly depressing (to me) story and made several initial attempts to read it before finally settling in to finish. Perhaps that's why I'm settling on three stars for the story. There's some 5-star writing in here, great observations on the human condition, but ultimately I was in need of more hope and joy. The ending was not enlarged upon enough to give me the feeling of relief and happiness I was hoping for. The author allowed us into William's head plenty throughout the book, so why not give us more of his thought process at the end that led to his ultimate decision? Granted the ending was artistic and crafted nicely, just not completely satisfying to prosaic me. - I am a bit torn on how I feel about this book. While it was written extremely well and kept my interest throughout, I feel a bit deceived by it. I thought I was going to be reading about the lost letter section of the mail and the book was more about a marriage strained by couple's natural progression of changing as people as time goes on and moving apart from their "old" selves that were so much in "like" and love. The story began as I thought it would, dealing with lost letters and sometimes finding the intended recipient. This part of the story I truly enjoyed and wanted more to come.
Unfortunately what followed was almost totally about the marriage in turmoil. The story extended into other people during this time, but the core was the two people in the marriage trying to find a way back together, or a way to live on apart.
Due to the change in course of the story, in my opinion, veering off the initial story-line, I am giving the book 3 stars. Truly, if I knew the story was about a marriage in trouble, I would not have read this book. That is just not something I care to read.
I received this book to read through NetGallery.com. I want to thank them and the publisher for allowing me to read this book. I read the version of this book, which I had noted it was to come out on October 2, 2018. I did not see the version, so I posted to the hard book.
