80. Going Postal

Hello! Here we are again with one of my favourite Terry Pratchett novels. You may have noticed that a few things have changed around here. New name. New look. What can I say? It’s been overdue, and after a little time of being away I decided it was time. So, now we have acknowledged the change, let’s get on with Going Postal.

Going Postal is a novel about a lovable rogue. Several of my best friends are lovable rogues so I have a bit of a soft spot for them. This is a fun and easy read, it’s comic and has all of the best elements of Pratchett along with a few wonderful names, Moist von Lipwig, Adora Bell Dearhreart, Stanley and Mr. Pump for example. And of course, classic Pratchett twists and turns which feel less jarring in the later novels particularly coupled with his satirist world.

This one is about Ankh-Morpork’s dilapidated Post Office. It’s about a geriatric workforce, the big bad Clacks monopolising communication and of course an angry, smoking love interest fond of using her stilettos as leverage during arguments. But it’s also about the power of words and what happens to hundreds of thousands of letters when they are shut up in a damp, pigeon shit infested building.

Going Postal – Terry Pratchett

My first copy of the novel was ‘borrowed’ but never returned by my Mum, so that might give you a clue as to how much we love Terry Pratchett. This is really a novel I would want to hand to any young person as it has a touch of revolution about it and it is one of the Discworld novels that holds up very well on it’s own.

We begin this novel with one of my favourite characters, Moist von Lipwig, trying to dig his way out of his prison cell because he is due to he hung. Under the name Albert Spangler, Moist has committed various crimes, fraud, embezzling and fake bonds mostly. The kind of crimes, he thinks, that don’t harm people. Unfortunately for Moist, Lord Vetinari the Patrician of Ankh has other ideas about his escape and execution.

Moist wakes shortly after the noose he signed is put over his head. Hung until he was an inch from death, Lord Vetinari begins to tall him about angels and offers Moist a job as the new Postmaster. Moist takes it assuming he will vanish into the night and nothing will come of this. However, it is when he sleeping in a flea infested bed that he is yanked back into reality by a Gollum called Mr. Pump. Mr. Pump is his parole officer, he doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat, he looks a bit like a gingerbread man with glowing red eyes, and he will not stop.

Moist relents and so begins to apply himself to his new role of Postmaster. He discovers the two occupants of the post office are an elderly Junior Postman, Mr. Groat, who applies all sort of home made medical remedies to his ailing body and believes hygiene is the route to an early death. And also Stanley, a slightly socially odd young man who collects pins. Moist navigates a difficult social territory, between Mr. Grout with his aspirations of becoming a Senior Postman Groat and Stanely with his ‘little moments’.

The building is full floor to ceiling with letters in some parts of the Post Office Moist discovers that words have magic of their own and have one demand “Deliver us.” Moist is a flashy, charismatic, intelligent man who manages to woo the general public with several stunts and aggravate the wrong people. He discovers he is actually very good at new ideas and wooing the newspapers and also finds himself in a unique position. He invents the postage stamp.

Elsewhere in Ankh-Morpork, Reacher Gilt, the now-owner of the Clacks has made it a more profitable business while slowly eroding the company itself almost exhausting machinery. The safety of the system is questionable and deaths are frequent. Prices go up, while services halt for day at a time for repairs and Gilt himself is a suspiciously pirate like character who has it in for the Post Office. As the only source of competition Moist soon realises Gilt is a threat not only to the Post Office but himself.

While all this is going on Moist has met an unusually angry woman who chain smokes. Adora’s only passions in life are cigarettes and running the Gollum trust to ensure that Gollum’s get the wages the deserve for the work they perform. But as it turns out she is the daughter of the original inventor of the Clacks and her family were bought out by Gilt. She hates Gilt as much as it is possible for someone to hate another human being, and eventually agrees to help Moist put an end to Gilt’s abuse of the Clacks.

This is a novel of many layers, between personal frictions and also the rebels the Smoking Gnu, Going Postal is a thrilling ride that doesn’t disappoint. I am very fond of Going Postal and while it is one of my favourite Discworld novels, it is also very much one of my favourite novels. Perhaps it is the struggle between the common people and the well moneyed big bag corporation that abuses it’s power. Or it is simply Moist himself as one of my favourite lovable rogues, who thinks he is a bit of a villain and a criminal, but really is very good. This is an intelligent novel with wonderful characters. I highly recommend it and cannot find a fault with it (and wouldn’t, even if I was pushed to).