I will never look at my mail carrier in the same way after reading Stephen Starring Grant’s Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home. If you’re like me, you think of them delivering the mail, letters, magazines and packages. I never thought of them having to sort all the mail for their route before they leave the post office. I never knew what goes on behind the scenes.
In March 2020, Stephen Grant, like so many others, lost his job. Grant worked for an experimental ad agency. He was a husband and a father of two teenage girls. He was worried about his health insurance running out because he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. How does a fifty-year-old man get a job during COVID when so many places are shutting down?
Grant grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia where his parents worked for Virginia Tech. Like most teens, he was eager to leave his hometown. When he was about forty, he started longing for the Appalachian Mountains. Grants had lived in the mountains there for over 250 years. It was time to move home with his family. He could work remotely with his job.That worked, until it didn’t. He was desperate for health insurance benefits when he and his wife looked at the salary for a part-time rural mail carrier, and knew they could scrape by.
Stephen Grant’s writing flows as he talks about his year as a rural mail carrier. His stories and the people in them bring the daily work to life. It’s the daily slog that carries the story. When Grant talks about his previous work and philosophizes about the Oath of Office and patriotism and the ideas about work, it bogs down at times. But, the people he works with and the stories of his early incompetence, and his eventual success thanks to a lot of help are fascinating. There are wasps and Amazon wars and packages that are welcome. Throughout the book, though, the warmth comes from the people. It takes time for Grant to realize that he’s home, connecting with his father, and learning how important it is to show up for people and for work. He learns to appreciate hard-working people in service professions, people who make the world turn.
So many people lost so much in 2020. Stephen Grant found a little of himself, and writes about it in Mailman.
Note: My uncle was a rural beloved mail carrier, who, as Grant says, looked out for the people on his route, and helped them when they needed it. I wish he was still alive, so I could talk about his career.
And, thank you to Tracy, who on a Thursday, said her husband, Glen, was reading this book. I picked it up after reading her comments.
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home by Stephen Starring Grant. Simon & Schuster, 2025. 304p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
I am glad you enjoyed this book, Lesa. Glen like it so much, he has motivated me to read it also, but I haven’t done that yet; I will have to do that soon. It would be nice to be able to talk to your uncle about his experiences.
Tracy, yes, I wish I’d been able to ask him about his job. All I really know is from my Mom, and from the newspaper article when he retired. He was really beloved by the people on his route.
I appreciate Glen’s suggestion!
Talking about Larry? He probably didn’t have to do a lot of sorting , but I think his rural route was a big one. Now they don’t sort at all.
Just finished “the Infamous Gilbert’s. Strange writing style but I finished it. Lots of crazy people. Strange story.
Of course, I’m talking about Uncle Larry, Carol. The only rural mailman I knew. A lot of sorting for this post office!
A lot of strange people? Who recommended that book?
I was the first female postal clerk in our city. There were two or three manning desks by the Postmaster’s office but they were hired out of his restaurant with him. A female carrier came soon after I was hired. I really liked my male co-workers who made me lift these huge bags of mail from a truck. No help was offered but another Postal Clerk made a box so I could learn the hundreds of routes and pass the test.
Margaret, Did you read this book? Stephen talks about having to learn the routes and the cages used for sorting the mail. It sounds as if you had a tough job, not just as a postal clerk, but physically and as the first female postal clerk.
After I was an adult, my parents spent about 20 years living in Western North Carolina. Visiting them, I got to know a few sections of the Appalachians, especially the Blue Ridge. Such beautiful countryside!
I never spent time there, but I’ve been through there a few times. Beautiful country, Kim. I can see why your parents lived there.
I have this on hold at the library. It seems to be popular.
Years ago the mailman saved an elderly woman who lived alone up the street from us. He noticed she wasn’t bringing in her mail and called the police. It turned out that she’d fallen an couldn’t get up.
He mentions, Sandy, how much your mailman knows about you – birthdays, what magazines you read, and, as you said, when you don’t bring in your mail, they know something is wrong.