Letters from Skye: A Novel

Don't get me wrong, "Letters from Skye" by Jessica Brockmole is a charming novel of love and loss during the two World Wars. However, as I've been planning--at least in my mind--a visit to the Highlands, I expected "Skye" as in the Isle of Skye to be more present in this offering. Some rudimentary descriptions tell us of fog and fishermen, but I anticipated feeling the lengthy walks over hilly terrain in all of my muscles; I wanted to feel the chill, smell the peat, see spectacular lights in the sky as well as languish over sunrises and sunsets. I wanted to meet the characters who live around the main character, Elspeth; I wanted to revel in their lifestyles and their eccentricities. Perhaps the blame lies in Brockmole's choice to write her story in an epistolary format. I imagine it to be more difficult for a writer to attach a strong sense of place without adding a lot of redundant descriptions--comments about the sea and sky that to the letter writer and reader who have already shared a referenced event would come across as false or overblown--within the medium of only letters. In this regard, Brockmole should have either named her novel something else--something more generic--like "Letters from the Great War" or "Letters from a Poet in Love"--or told a straightforward story in a third or first person voice. In  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , Barrows has little trouble crafting her Guernsey residents through the medium of letters and she writes a love story that manages to break through the reserve of a reader, reading another person's private correspondence. "Skye" gives me no sense of place or time--her characters could live anywhere at any time; there is little difference between the American, David and Elspeth's mother--a woman of an older generation who has lived on Skye for her entire life--where is her burr, her Scots expressions? Perhaps, I have been overindulging on  Outlander: Season One - Volume One , but I expect to feel transported to another place when the name of a beautiful location is in the title.That's the trouble with expectations--disappointment is sure to follow. Brockmole's premise is sure and sweet: two people meet through letters. David writes to Elspeth initially through her publisher; he is a fan of her poetry which has been published. Elspeth, a young married woman, writes back and their letters span the Great War. In alternate chapters, Elspeth's daughter Margaret writes to her love interest, Paul, from the perspective of their romance and separation during the second World War. Between the two voices, the reader understands that that war is a dank grey umbrella that severs and destroys dreams with its uncertainty. Immediately, the reader knows that Elspeth and David did not have their happy ending and now Margaret is on the trail to find out why.Yet even more is missing--the letters span the period between 1912 to 1917. Where is the sense and language of that time? If Elspeth speaks Gaelic, then by all means, allow her voice to come through. Brockmore's sensibilities are too contemporary and they are telltale in her letters. (There is a glaring out-of-time error in the novel and darn, if I can't remember it!)Sounds like the premise itself would make a lovely Hallmark movie--the mists rolling off hills as Elspeth walks to the post would delight and provide atmospheric tension. Fast-forward to London during WW2 with the Blitzkrieg on at full blast . . . dark scenes in trenches with ambulance drivers rushing along France . . . lyrical music playing an emotional theme song. Now that wouldn't that work better?The last two pages drew a tear--Brockmole did not write that part as a letter and immediately, the reader is drawn in--in a far better more intimate manner that such a dramatic story of loss and love deserves.Bottom line? "Letters from Skye" is a generic story that would work better as either a screenplay or a third-person or first-person POV, rather than an epistolary novel. Author Jessica Brockmole's idea is lovely, but it needs the oomph of characterization, scenery, and tone to drive its drama to the point of melodrama. Brockmole's letters do not nearly convey the emotion and depth of such events. And Skye? Its sadly missing. For an emotional read, try  Letters to the Lost --there are letters there that will reach across the boundary of time.Diana Faillace Von Behren"reneofc"

"Letters" intensely affected me far, far more than any of the thousands of novels that I've ever read. It isa sometimes nearly unendurably heart breaking story of a love ,and more than a few lives,shattered by the First World War and its lingering aftermath. I will never forget her two main characters, Davey and Elspeth, as their deep, core humanity and emotions make them more real and memorable than any other characters I've yet to encounter in literature. I rarely, if ever, tear up during a film or while reading any book since my old high school physics textbook, but "Letters" found me grabbing Kleenex by the handful.l. I truly envy any reader who will be opening "Letters" for their very first time ! They will be experiencing a novel to forever be loved and reread .May this talented,remarkable author, who so beautifully shows us that our hearts are lonely hunters, always going where they must, rarely where they should, never cease writing !May this talented,remarkable author who so beautifully shows us that our hearts are lonely hunters,always going where they must, rarely where they should, never cease writing !

Letters from Skye is written in letter format. One letter from one character to another, back and forth between World War I and World War II. The story is good, but there were times when if the book had been written traditionally, some scenes would pack a bigger punch. Instead, we get a flat telling of the events without a lot of details (like smell and sound).The Kindle edition is not formatted with page numbers (or minutes left in the chapter) on screen at the bottom. A good story, but it could have been better told.

Elspeth Dunn is a poet who lives on the Isle of Skye in 1912. She has just received a fan letter from a college student in Urbana, Illinois, America, where everyone is a cowboy or gangster—at least that's the stereotype Elspeth uses to tease her young American, David Graham. She's amazed that her volumes of poetry have reached as far as America, a land she never images seeing herself, since she has such a fear of the water that she has never set foot on a boat to leave her island. So starts years of correspondence. Davey and Sue (he inexplicably chooses that nickname for her) share their hopes and fears, secret wishes and desires in a way one only can with someone who's mostly stranger and in a letter, and little by little, without either of them noticing really, they fall in love. Do they ever meet? Yes. Does anything come of their meeting? That's for the reader to discover.Jessica Brockmole has done a wonderful job of bringing these two characters to life only through their letters. There is no other narrative or dialogue than what we share through the characters' written word. Very intriguing. Very difficult. And yet she makes it work. Perhaps this book touched me so much because my husband and I dated through Vietnam—a time before email, Facetime and Skype, Facebook or any other electronic communication. We wrote letters, which made our communications harder and yet sweeter. We even wrote years later, when I visited Skye and saw for myself the wild beauty that was part of Elspeth's soul.I'll admit, the ending seemed a little rushed but it didn't destroy the feeling built throughout the rest of the book. Letters from Skye really touched me.

Written almost entirely in the form of letters, 'Letters from Skye' traces the developing relationship between David Graham, a young American student from Illinois reluctantly studying science but secretly longing to be a children's writer, and Elspeth Dunn, a Scots poet living on Skye, and unable to leave the island due to her paranoid fear of drowning. David first writes to Elspeth in 1912, after a friend has sent him a collection of her poetry. Elspeth is thrilled to have a literary admirer from overseas, and their correspondence soon flourishes, as they exchange thoughts on poetry and fiction, university studies and life. And because the friendship takes place entirely in the form of letters, and they don't imagine they'll ever meet, they can be very open with each other. It's only as World War I begins, and David impetuously volunteers to be an ambulance driver on the Western front, that the possibility of a meeting looms - and the pair realize that they have fallen in love. But (aside from Elspeth's fear of crossing water) the relationship is fraught with problems. For Elspeth is married, and for a rural Scots girl, separation and divorce in the 1910s was all but unheard of... what will Elspeth and David do? The story of the choices that they make in the wake of their realization of love runs alongside that of Elspeth's daughter Margaret, who, early in World War II, discovers a stack of letters in her mother's Edinburgh house, addressed from a man called David to 'Sue'. But who is Sue, and why does Margaret's mother have her letters? Margaret determines to unravel the mystery, and through letters to her fiance Paul tells us how she does so.This is a very hard book to give a rating to. When it's at its best, it is very good indeed, but it's of a variable standard. On the positive side, Brockmole does create a real sense of warmth and excitement in the David/Elspeth relationship. Their epistolary chats about literature are lovely, there's some attractive descriptions of Skye (though not quite enough), and the letter format provides a very poignant way to show the pair falling in love, without even realizing what is happening to them to begin with. There's a real sense of danger in the sections when Davey is at the Front, and in the later stages of the book Brockmole is strong on Elspeth's confusion about her divided loyalties. And I have to confess that I had a tear in my eye in the final chapters! So, as a romance the book triumphantly succeeded in making me care about both the lovers, and wish them well, and I thought the wartime setting was good. The book's also very readable indeed - I galloped through it in about three days, and with a lot of work on at the same time.On the other hand, I have to say that - like Sarah Blake's 'The Postmistress' though this is an infinitely superior book - there was much about the narrative that struck me as being improbable. For example - how many working-class Scottish girls living on the islands managed to make it as successful poets in the 1910s? I know there are examples of Scottish women from humble backgrounds who became successful writers of literary fiction and poetry (Jessie Kesson springs to mind) but they tended to be born later (Kesson came to fame after World War II) or, like Nan Shepherd, managed to get to university. I think Brockmole distinctly underplayed Elspeth's humble and probably quite poor background (I also doubt she'd have talked so casually about trying for college in around 1912). Then there was the tone of the letters. It's possible that David, a lover of Mark Twain and an impetuous young man, would have written quite informally - but would a Scots crofter's daughter really have written back such chatty, relaxed letters immediately, to a complete stranger? And wouldn't Elspeth's guilt at getting close to another man when she was married have been much stronger? Brockmole also underplays the role of religion in the islands, I think - although Elspeth might have been free-thinking herself, she would have almost certainly come from quite a strict Presbyterian background (unless her family were very unconventional) and so would have felt a deal of religious guilt about falling for a young man when she was already married. Which brings me to the main problem of the book - the situation with Elspeth's husband Iain is very badly handled. It is certainly true that people can make mistakes in who they marry, and, through no fault of their own, fall passionately in love while married to someone else. What I felt was unbelievable was how relaxed both Elspeth and David were about the whole thing. There was barely any mention of Iain in the letters until he went to war (it was almost along the lines of 'oh yes, I've forgotten to tell you about my husband, I mentioned him about 100 pages ago very briefly') and once he was gone, Elspeth's indifference (at one point she says something rather airy like 'I'm not worried about Iain') was unbelievable for a person we were meant to believe was so caring. She might well have had a wonderful nine days with David in London, but I think there'd have been a lot of guilt and worry alongside it. Brockmole should, I feel, have worked Iain and Elspeth's feelings about him much more strongly into the book. It'd have made it a less cosy read, but a more interesting one and would have actually made Elspeth more sympathetic. (And the very good writing about Davey's feelings about Iain later on shows Brockmole was perfectly capable of doing this.)I also found some of the historical references in the book improbable (apologies if they were not). How could Elspeth and David, neither of whom were rich, spend nine days in the posh Langham Hotel? If Elspeth wasn't working (poetry's never paid that highly) how could she afford to 'let a flat in Edinburgh', and what did she live on after she moved there for good with Margaret? At one point when Davey is wounded Elspeth crosses the Channel and goes to see him in France. Not only would this have been ruinously expensive for a fisherman's wife, but I don't believe that women could actually get to the soldiers and ambulance drivers easily (when Sylvia Tietjens visits her husband Christopher in 'Parades End' not only does she get into trouble, but I think she can only do it with some sort of military pass from an admirer). I don't think escapes from German camps were as regular or easy as the one described in the book (not if that Jean Renoir film about one is anything to go by) and there was little mention of the terror of the Blitz in the World War II sections (even if Elspeth was wounded in it). And how did people keep whizzing around so easily by train during World War II, when seats were at a premium and delays horrific? And that's before one wonders at the speed Elspeth keeps expecting letters to America to be answered in 1940. Also - why did she have to go to the Langham Hotel (and spend yet more money) to send out her letters? Couldn't she have made a research trip to London then done her writing and mailing from Scotland?!And there were other minor quibbles on the way. I get why 'Sue' was used as a name (no spoiler, we learn who 'Sue' is at about Page 20), as Margaret has to be unsure who the letters are to, but it bears hardly any relationship to the name 'Elspeth' and we never learn why David chose it. It's a mistake (as always - I still remember Christabel La Motte's dreadful poetry in 'Possession', not to mention Randolph Henry Ash's) to quote fictional 'great' poets by attempting to write their poetry as Brockmole does (though to be fair the bit she writes, if slushy, isn't that bad!). And I didn't find the Margaret/Paul story nearly as compelling as the Davey/Elspeth one as they were neither that interesting as characters.Nevertheless, there was something very powerful about the Davey and Elspeth relationship (and Davey was a genuinely attractive hero, who became more so throughout the book - no mean thing) which made me decide to hold onto this book after reading it, and I imagine that - all these quibbles not withstanding - I will read it again. Creating a genuinely romantic relationship takes some doing, so bravo to Brockmole for that.

This is beautiful, just beautiful. It moved me to tears, the writing is excellent and never once did I skip a page or flip through to see where it was going especially as it's a very unusual format; written in letter form from one character to another. I have been to Skye many times and live close by so could picture the setting perfectly but without that, as the author is so adept in her descriptions of the island, I feel anyone would be able to see the home of "Sue" perfectly. It captured the essence of two lonely souls meeting by chance in such an unsettling period; between the wars and there was almost magic at work with this as I felt as if I was there, with them as they struggled with their long distance relationship, expressing their fears and concerns for loved ones but never doubting their commitment to each other despite the distance between them. Oh I could have continued with this story for another 200 pages, so captivated as I was with it all. I hope this author has plans to write another as I would love to see what she plans for her next adventure. Recommended, highly, it's a grand story to be sure!

One of the very best books I've read for a long time. Beautifully written and, to be honest, whether or not some of the details or circumstances are a bit unexpected or exagerated (as said by one of the reviewers) I really think it doesn't matter. The characters are so real and vivid that they came alive for me and stayed around for me for a long time. I didn't want to read anything else until I'd finished savouring the story, way after the last page was read. Brilliantly done and I'm looking forward to reading the next book. The poetry, settings and relationships have been captured with such intimacy and strength. Jessica Brockmole is a wonderful author and I hope she writes a lot of books!

I am not really one for romance novels or books written in letters, but this was recommended by a friend and I am so glad I took her up on it.It's a very endearing story, beautifully written, of two people who find each other through the love of poetry and writing and from that end up loving each other for who they are. I enjoyed the different tones of each letter, easily moving from Elspeth and Davy and then later to other introduced characters.The descriptions of Skye are beautiful and gave a real sense of atmosphere, which I really enjoyed. The consequences their actions created also felt real, as did their discussions on social expectations and the moral constraints they both experience due to their choices. At times its slightly convenient that an event or person pops up when needed, but sometimes you need to stretch reality somewhere and overall that didn't sour the experience of the storytelling for me. I greatly enjoyed hearing their voices tell the story of their love for each other with all the twists and turns along the way.

If you like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peal Pie Society, then this is the next book for you to read. It is written in the form of letters back and forth between the characters, and it’s like receiving letters your self and you can’t wait to open and read what they have to say. Really good book. Set in a time where letters where the main form of communication, which is a terribly romantic idea and lovely.