One sunny day on his postal route, Vincent Wyckoff crosses the path of an elderly gentleman whistling for his lost parakeet. The old man is upset, and Wyckoff moves down the block slowly, looking high and low, hoping to spot the little bird. He reaches the man’s house and offers sympathy to his wife, who smiles sadly and says, “We haven’t had that bird for twenty-five years.”
Letter carriers like Wyckoff walk through the same neighborhood each day, observing the lives and routines of its residents. They learn its stories, make connections between people, and, in many ways, become the common thread that connects neighbors to one another. Along Wyckoff’s mail route, Native American children teach him about totems. He finds assistance for a reclusive chain-smoking book collector who can’t maintain his property. He delivers a much-delayed registered letter mailed from Saigon in 1976. Over the years, Wyckoff sees the neighborhood of blue-collar retirees change as a diverse group of younger people move in and raise their families.
Celebrating the triumphs in everyday life and demonstrating the danger of trusting first impressions, Beware of Cat reveals the inner workings of an ordinary place of extraordinary interest.
Vincent Wyckoff was a laborer, a construction worker, and a sheetmetal worker before he became a letter carrier in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1990. This is his first book.
Description:
From Publishers Weekly
"In letter carrier nightmares, it's always getting dark out," observes Wyckoff, a 15-year veteran of the postal service, in his sweet, uncomplicated memoir about life as a mailman. He has spent his whole career in one Minneapolis neighborhood, and the book covers everything he goes through there, from encounters with hostile pets to neighborhood gatherings where no one recognizes the civvies-clad postman. The people along Wyckoff's route, and his take on them, make engaging case studies: the struggling Native American family that still puts out a bag for the annual Letter Carrier's Food Drive, the five-year-old boy who can't find his way home, the 99-year-old woman whom Wyckoff kisses on her birthday. Wyckoff may not be typical of all mailmen (he carries dog biscuits and dresses up like Santa Claus at Christmas) but his experiences illuminate the challenges faced by postal workers-and neighbors-across the nation. Wyckoff's writing is accessible, if a bit bland; this is clearly a first effort, and the dialogue doesn't always ring true. Though there's no real plotline, or any major characters aside from Wyckoff himself, this loving portrait of an average American community should give readers a new way of looking at the civil servants in their lives.
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Product Description
One sunny day on his postal route, Vincent Wyckoff crosses the path of an elderly gentleman whistling for his lost parakeet. The old man is upset, and Wyckoff moves down the block slowly, looking high and low, hoping to spot the little bird. He reaches the man’s house and offers sympathy to his wife, who smiles sadly and says, “We haven’t had that bird for twenty-five years.”
Letter carriers like Wyckoff walk through the same neighborhood each day, observing the lives and routines of its residents. They learn its stories, make connections between people, and, in many ways, become the common thread that connects neighbors to one another. Along Wyckoff’s mail route, Native American children teach him about totems. He finds assistance for a reclusive chain-smoking book collector who can’t maintain his property. He delivers a much-delayed registered letter mailed from Saigon in 1976. Over the years, Wyckoff sees the neighborhood of blue-collar retirees change as a diverse group of younger people move in and raise their families.
Celebrating the triumphs in everyday life and demonstrating the danger of trusting first impressions, Beware of Cat reveals the inner workings of an ordinary place of extraordinary interest.
Vincent Wyckoff was a laborer, a construction worker, and a sheetmetal worker before he became a letter carrier in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1990. This is his first book.