“Mailman,” as the main character of this introspective novel refers to himself, is indeed a mailman in a small New York town who enlivens his otherwise empty life by reading other people’s mail. Mailman has had a lot of problems with past relationships, the Peace Corps, a weird sexual tension with his sister, and a psychotic episode in which he attacked his college professor, all of which we readers learn about in fits and starts as the narrative meanders between present day and flashback. Perhaps Mailman was a bit too moody and strange for my tastes, but the character’s story kept drawing me in to its ultimately bleak ending.