Hope you all are keeping safe inside during this quarantine period. I read this book a month back, when the world was still turning and the libraries had not shut down. Its royal blue cover and cursive writing called to me much as Winter’s letters called to William.
The Lost Letters of William Woolf, by Helen Cullen
genre: romance
William Woolf is a letter detective (responsible for reading the contents of letters that were lost in the mail and trying to send them to the rightful addresses) living in London and in an unhappy marriage. At work, he begins to find a series of letters from a mysterious woman named Winter who are addressed to “My Great Love”, the idea of a man whom she believes is destined to be her husband but who she has not yet met. The book switches between the points of view of William and Claire, his pragmatic lawyer wife, as they navigate the pitfalls of a pure love that’s been bruised by the realities of life together.
The job of a letter detective
I did not know that a letter detective was an actual profession before this book, so did a little research on it. There’s not a lot of information on the department, since it’s handled by the postal service themselves. I did learn that sometimes people who collect postal markings will purposely send mail to a fictional character to see if they can get an uncommon postal marking showing that it went through the dead letters depot!
Humanizing cheating?
*spoilers ahead*
It’s hard to say who is at fault for the difficulties in William and Claire’s relationship, but I’ve made a tally:
William:
- Kept the fact that he wasn’t writing his book from Claire for months rather than talking it through with her, until he couldn’t anymore because the book publishing company rescinded his contract
- Started reading and keeping Winter’s letters, thinking that he was destined to receive them because somehow he was Winter’s true love
- Looked for Winter in London by going to all the places she mentioned in her letters, and stayed in Ireland after fight with Claire to look for Winter
Claire:
- Withheld affection from William because she felt he didn’t deserve it
- Kissed and slept with Max from work, and lied to William about it
If you had to assign blame, I think chronologically the first intentional axe to their relationship came from Claire, when she started to punish William for him keeping his writing failure from her. But the reasons pushing her to start doing this came from William, and as the book goes on, we begin to see that the cracks in their relationship stem not only from a lack of communication but also differing expectations from each other. William expected a wife who would be loving to him no matter what he hid from her, while Claire expected a husband who would achieve the ambitious dreams he told her about when they were in university. While none of this can fully justify Claire’s cheating (although it can be argued that William was emotionally cheating with Winter at the same time), it was hard to argue that they had a future together given these deep differences.
Does the ending suggest that a woman and/or relationship can only truly find fulfillment in parenthood?
The ending was truly shocking, and many reviewers have expressed disappointment with it. In the end, William locks eyes with Winter as she walks down the aisle, and then he leaves. He and Claire (who has now quit her job as a lawyer and taken up her old hobby of painting) make a baby together. There are some immediate protests with this:
- What was the author’s intent behind having Claire give up her job, where she was thriving and about to make partner, in favour of making William the breadwinner? Is this the suggestion that practicality should always come second to passion? And/or a deference to the societal patriarchal expectation that the man should be the breadwinner less his ego be crushed like William’s was at the beginning?
- Are all their problems supposed to be solved now that they have a baby? Does this tie into a larger notion that a woman’s wants can be placated by having a small body to take care of? There is no mention in the end as to how the couple resolved their differences.
I’m not convinced there is a moral to be taken from this. In the end, The Lost Letters of William Woolf was a gripping tale of two people who had to work through some problems that are very common but very real to a young couple’s journey together. However it ends depends on the circumstances of the situation, further minute details we may not be privy to, and the desires of all those involved.
rating: five out of five of Winter letters – I imagine them to be gorgeous
Breathe, 