Mostly Murders

Steal five dollars and you were a petty thief. Steal thousands of dollars and you were either a government or a hero.

In honour of Terry Pratchett Day, I’m reviewing Going Postal, one of my favourite Terry Pratchett novels, featuring one of my favourite Discworld characters, Moist von Lipwig. Moist is a career criminal, but even a long-time con artist of his calibre is nothing against Lord Veterinari, the patrician and supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork where most of the Discworld books are set. Moist is facing death by hanging, but Lord Veterinari has other plans, sentencing Moist to a fate that is possibly even worse than death: employment in public service as Ankh-Morpork’s new postmaster general.

What follows is a mad tale of fraud, swagger, incompetence, deception, technology, golems, magic, hope, politics, monsters and business in a dazzling, maddening city filled with fools, tricksters, lunatics and weirdos. A cynic might see this as a story of how corruption and stupidity are ingrained in the very heart and soul of modern-day living. A romantic may say that this is a story of the hidden power of the magic of words and the miracle of second chances. To me it is both, and so much more.

It is a tale of the infuriating idiocy of people as a whole, but at the same time also a story of the wonders that can be achieved when underdogs come together and fight for a common cause. It is a story of money as both a tool of oppression and a path to freedom, and it is a story of hope serving both as a means to entrap and control the masses, but also as a truly miraculous power enabling the common people to move mountains, even if the rich and powerful have made those mountains their property and threaten to crush anyone who dares to defy them.

Utterly absurd and completely rational, Going Postal is a witty and critical view of politics, capitalism, progress, tradition and human nature. It is as relevant now as it was when it was written, and full of a wisdom that is bizarre, profound and very entertaining.

Discworld