This is part of the Pratchett Project.
The blurb:
Imprisoned in Ankh-Morpork, con artist Moist von Lipwig is offered a choice: to be executed or to accept a job as the city's Postmaster General.
It's a tough decision, but he's already survived one hanging and isn't in the mood to try it again.
The Post Office is down on its luck: beset by mountains of undelivered mail, eccentric employees, and a dangerous secret order. To save his skin, Moist will need to restore the postal service to its former glory, with the help of tough talking activist Adora Belle Dearheart. Who happens to be very attractive, in an 'entire womanful of anger' kind of way.
But there's new technology to compete against and an evil chairman who will stop at nothing to delay Ankh-Morpork's post for good...
Moist von Lipwig is an interesting protagonist, let’s say. He's a predator, a con man who will take anyone to the cleaners. He’s equal opportunity about it; anyone who can put a coin in his pocket is fair game. By his nature, he’s superficially likeable and plausible, and there may or may not be more to him than that.
Honestly, this should make him an unlikeable character but instead he’s instantly sympathetic—possibly being on the edge of being hanged and then blackmailed by Vetinari has something to do with that. Or maybe there’s something inherently likeable about the archetypal conman—heist movies play on it, after all. But most heist movies have unlikeable targets—think Terry Benedict in Ocean’s 11, or Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting—and trickster archetypes tend to target those who need to be taken down a peg or two. But the first victim of Moist’s that we meet directly (rather than just hearing about from his self-serving recollections) is Adora Belle Dearheart; rather than the ‘you can’t cheat an honest man’ victims, she is a genuine victim of his.
Nonetheless, Moist manages to stay a step ahead of the reader’s condemnation and redeems himself (eventually) by taking down an even bigger conman in Reacher Gilt, although it’s left to Vetinari’s either/or choice to finally finish him off. He also redeems the Grand Trunk clacks company along the way.
It’s to Pratchett’s credit that Moist remains even somewhat likeable—though I’m not 100 per cent sure whether I like him, exactly, or just respect the sheer scale and agility of his grifting. To borrow a phrase, the man is non-stop.
It’s hard to say Adora Belle Dearheart is likeable, exactly—she’s deeply cynical and wounded (and, ever since I quit smoking I can’t be around smokers, the smell just makes me gag, so the description of kissing her being like kissing an ashtray triggers an involuntary spasm). But she’s at least as intelligent as Moist, leading to some great back and forth between them that would have Charles Lederer (wrote the script for His Girl Friday) taking notes. She also takes no prisoners and I admire anyone who can use her shoes as a weapon like that.
I’m not too sure of the timeline of private equity firms and their habit of buying profitable companies, running them into the ground and then selling them for parts; Going Postal was published in 2004, and that’s 14 years after Richard Gere in Pretty Woman got shamed for having that as a business model, so…well enough known to make a novel targeting it, I guess. Reacher Gilt would be well at home in current late-stage capitalism, though he’d be out of step in how openly he acknowledges to himself that he’s a crook and a con man. We need a Vetinari for real.
The ending also sets up Making Money, which I have on reserve at the library.
Started: 12 June 2025
Finished: 15 June 2025
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