Mendell Station by J.B Hwang
Review by Rachel Shaver
9/14/25
“The only witness to the postal service was itself.”
The narrator of Mendell Station by J.B Hwang faces a loss in many forms, spurred initially by the loss of her best friend. Miriam, devoted to God and her job as a scripture teacher, is left with a faith that suddenly feels fragile and full of contradictions. Desperate for a change of pace, she leaves her teaching job and takes on being a mail carrier for the United States Postal Service, thus beginning the amalgamation of events that spur this novel along. To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic begins amidst it all and Miriam is now one of the nation’s most essential workers, required to work long exhausting hours.
Writing the pandemic into fiction is a risky undertaking. But Mendell Station avoids being a “pandemic novel” by letting COVID exist on the sidelines of this story. It is more of a backdrop that sharpens Miriam’s struggles with death and the loneliness that ensues. Through the lens of the pandemic, tragedy takes on a more unavoidable quality as the reminders of dying seem to be everywhere.
“Nothing could prepare me for a sudden death. My life had fallen apart. And yet, some people experienced it continually. Entire communities, young and old, here in the States and abroad, lived with regular, constant death. And I knew now that each loss brought all the other ones back.”
However, there is more than the grief of a loved one in this novel. The heart of it is Miriam’s struggle with her religion which, for so long, has taught her that non-believers like her best friend, Esther, go to hell. But unraveling this belief proves to be a larger undertaking than Miriam could have imagined, leaving her to wrestle with faith and hope as a whole. Mendell Station asks why bad things happen, why God allows suffering, and whether forgiveness is ever enough, all while rotating around the niche story of life as a mail carrier.
“Trying to remove hell from my Christianity revealed what an essential pillar it was. Hell touched everything. Salvation from it was the root of our praise, forgiveness, grace, evangelism, and charity.”
Hwang’s writing is straightforward, making this a quick, easy read. I would even go as far as saying that reading Mendell Station left me with the same feeling as reading a short story. There is a slice-of-life quality to this novel, spanning only a short time in the present-day plot, but it gathers so many thematic possibilities as it carries on. Miriam’s unorthodox childhood, the cycles of trauma, guilt, self-discovery, dating, and forgiveness all spring up throughout (perhaps more, too). What is unfortunately lost in the process is the room on the page to explore all these ideas in depth. Instead of being immersed in the nuances of scenes and relationships, we are often given summaries of feelings or events. I found myself drawn in by compelling narratives like the degenerative illness her father had or her mother’s burnout as a full-time caretaker, but beyond loosely shaping Miriam’s quiet nature—which only loosely shapes her friendship with Esther—these threads are cast aside for space to explore the USPS and Miriam’s coworkers, who each have unique, fleshed-out stories that make them incredibly realistic, but overall insignificant. Hwang even touches occasionally on the protests following George Floyd’s death, though it is given little room to breathe.
Still, there is a thread to connect these themes to the larger plot, however thin it may be. One of the more poignant parallels comes together through Miriam feeling unseen in the world. Miriam feels abandoned by everything she has known. God will not give her a sign, her mother is distant, her best friend is gone, and she is now an essential worker, the unseen heroes awarded with tedious labor and little thanks. “Our exposure to the virus was deemed unavoidable, even acceptable, for everyone else's sake. The ones on the empty highways were neither holy nor redeemed.”
There is always something endearing in a story that draws attention to the inner workings of a niche community, and Hwang manages to take a monotonous job and fill it with intrigue and urgency. It succeeds as a slice of life that captures the strange tension of the early pandemic while setting it alongside the tragic but common experience of losing a loved one, making the whole of it feel fresh but also intimately real.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
3.5 Stars. A thoughtful meditation on how faith shapes grief. Quick, entertaining, and nichely informative. You won’t ever look at a mail carrier the same way!
About the reviewer:
Rachel Shaver graduated from Eckerd College with a BA in creative writing and a minor in literature. She lives in Tampa, Florida with her twin sister and spends her days consuming media in all forms. She has been published in Collision Literary Magazine and worked as editor-in-chief for Eckerd Review, as well as editorial intern for Cleaver Magazine.
‘Mendell Station’ by J.B. Hwang is out now, via Bloomsbury.
