Postcards from No Man's Land

Citation:

Chambers, A (2002) . Postcards From No Man's Land. New York: Dutton's Child's Books.

Genre: "GLBTQ" fiction

Theme: love, homosexuality, self-realization, traveling

Main Characters: Jacob, Geertui

Plot Summary:

Postcards from No Man's Land is two stories in one book.

Jacob's story takes place in modern times and is about a young boy, Jacob, who travels from England to Amsterdam to visit his grandmother's friend. During his stay in Amsterdam Jacob meets a young man who dresses and speaks like a woman and finds himself attracted to him in a way he does not understand. Jacob also is introduced to his grandmother's "friend" and soon realizes that there is a lot he did not know about his grandfather, who was a soldier in the second world war.

Geertui's story takes place during World War II when soldiers from Britain came to Holland and fought to free the people there from German rule. Geertui tells of her adventures helping to save these soldiers and in particular one soldier who she soon falls in love with. The two young people find themselves in a relationship that can only end in heart ache.


Writing Style:

Both stories are told in first person and both are told from the perspective of the main characters in their perspective stories.

Assessment of quality and Utility:

Postcard's from No Man's Land is a superb book. The author does a terrific job at blending the two stories together so that when one is reading the book, one does not feel that the book abruptly switches back and forth. I found that I enjoyed reading Geertui's story more. I felt that each piece of Geertui's story had its place and each character fit and I read the book wishing that it was only the story of Geertui. While the character's in Jacob's story each played their part, and were needed to help him grow as a person, I found myself rushing through his parts of the book. Jacob's storyline did not capture my attention as Geertui's story did. This is not to say that Jacob's story was any less well written or did not play an important part in the book, I just enjoyed the World War II storyline better.

Postcard's from No Man's Land would be a great book to use in an Social Studies class, because it shows the reader how much our lives are intertwined and how actions that might be small to us, can affect others in the future a great deal, having lasting affects for generations. The fact that Jacob was questioning his sexual preferences did not seem to play a huge part in this book as much as it could and it seemed that it was more about Jacob growing as a person and experiencing new things then finding out that he might be gay or bisexual. This fact could make this a good coming of age story for any young adult who might be questioning the direction their life might be taking. Postcard's from No Man's Land should be on every library's shelf for the young adult reader.