Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home

Key to Grant’s arc is the realization that personal growth often emerges from embracing the idea of being mediocre. His narration provides a window into his personal reckoning as he navigated the tension between his personal expectations of success and the realities of ordinary, underpaid labor. Gradually, he recognized that the pressures of perfection and ambition do not necessarily foster self-understanding or meaningful connection, even as he came to see value in persistence, effort, and engagement for their own sake, rather than for money or recognition. 

This realization was closely tied to the physical and mental demands of postal work. As he struggled with complex routes, heavy parcels, and rigorous schedules, Grant was forced to confront his limitations, make mistakes, and rely on others. Initially, these experiences were disheartening, and Grant often wanted to quit. The experience of encountering a hornet’s nest while on the job was particularly discouraging; located inside a mailbox, the nest functions as a symbol of all the unexpected challenges that being a mail carrier brought. Over time, however, the challenge of unfamiliar and physically intense work revealed new sides of his character, including resilience, resourcefulness, and humility—or, as he puts it, the “persistent audacity to exist” (115). Discovering that he could persevere through discomfort and failure was a valuable lesson in and of itself, Grant suggests.

Simultaneously, Grant argues that giving up unattainable ideals of perfection and control can be deeply freeing. Letting go of who he believed he ought to be helped him enjoy life for its own sake, and the realization extended far beyond work. For instance, after struggling throughout with anxieties surrounding his cancer diagnosis, Grant arrived at the following moment of acceptance: “To be present in time, in your own body, your spirit intact, your selfhood whole, it is a gift” (251). Here, Grant implies that the desire for a “perfect” body—for instance, one free from illness—can render one unable to see how valuable simply having a body at all is. The memoir frames his realization that connection, persistence, and existence itself are more significant than personal achievement as a crucial stage in his moral and emotional development. In embracing his imperfection, Grant ultimately reframes his identity; he is not defined by exceptionalism but by the courage to continue in both work and life.

Grant’s narrative style mixes anecdotal storytelling with philosophical reflection to demonstrate the ways in which labor—specifically, the labor of public servants—is the foundation for the functioning of democracy. Institutions like the USPS fill roles that the private sector cannot while also providing people divided along regional, socioeconomic, political, etc. lines with a shared stake in public life and thus with a shared identity. By focusing on moments of human interaction during deliveries, like isolated residents grateful for human contact, citizens relying on timely mail, and communities sustained through reliable service, Grant frames the USPS as a tangible example of this civic solidarity, “reminding us that we are a people, that our job is to love and protect each other, that our government at its best is us, and that when we are alone, we are still together” (180).

The COVID-19 pandemic is Grant’s central example of this dynamic. The USPS, in Grant’s account, functions as a stabilizing force during such crises, particularly those that involve social isolation; people’s heightened dependency on mail for basic services truly showcased the institution’s importance. Delivering ballots, books, and essential goods meant that postal workers were guardians of civic engagement and public welfare during a time when people often could not leave their homes. More than this, receiving the mail provided individuals with rare moments of human contact. Grant stresses that it was not only the pandemic that made this latter, implicit “service” meaningful; working in Appalachia, he often delivered to areas cut off from the outside world even before the pandemic, and recipients frequently expressed their gratitude. 

As serving remote or rural areas is often not lucrative, this points to a second leg of Grant’s argument: the inability of corporate systems and profit-driven services to fill the gap when public institutions like the USPS are underfunded. In fact, this hole in Amazon’s model was one reason why it offloaded many of its deliveries to the USPS during the pandemic, as it was unable to keep up with surging demand in areas where it lacked infrastructure. By contrast, Grant emphasizes, the USPS is legally required to deliver the mail, and it did so even amid the logistical problems that this offloading caused. He thus suggests that public institutions play a vital role in ensuring societal functioning. 

More broadly, the book depicts such institutions as foundational to national identity. Though not taxpayer-funded, the USPS is something that all Americans have a stake in; moreover, it has a long history and has grown and evolved alongside the nation itself, as Grant details throughout the memoir. In this sense, Grant argues that public institutions are inseparable from civic values, particularly during times of heightened political division. Grant’s perspective suggests that every delivery contributes to the functioning of a just society, emphasizing the interdependence between individuals, institutions, and democratic ideals.