The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Critical Dilemma: A Dialogue about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Vin: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows have written a zippy little epistolary novel that takes us to Great Britain after World War II, when writer Juliet Ashton-

Kaion: Bah. Yet another ridiculous flighty female

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heroine whose qualities we are supposed to read as spirited and charmingly ahead-of-her-time and charming, instead of self-involved and silly.

Vin: Shush. She starts correspondence with some small island folks of Guernsey, who during the dark days of German occupation found the love of good books (and good food).

Kaion: And through the power of their super!quirky!antics! teach her how to become a better, deeper person.

Vin: There's nothing wrong with good cliche. And wacky common British folks is a good cliche, one that you enjoy, as evidenced by PBS-watching. And books. And you totally want some of that potato peel pie.

Kaion: I love all pie. But it doesn't count unless Shaffer/Barrows include a recipe (which they don't)... And ye gods, I'm sick of books that try to win over readers by talking so much about love of reading. It's transparently self-congratulatory. And there's a large difference between telling a cliche over again and what happens here, which is merely using *references* to cliche plots and classic literature in lieu of actual storytelling or characteri-

Vin: That's the nature of epistolary novels! To an extent they are relying on our abilities to fill in the blanks by existing 'around' the action rather than in the thick of it. It's a format that keeps it from ponderous-ness and gets a lot of information out there without being overburdened.

Kaion: It could stand to be a lot more burdened. With such broadly drawn characters (and don't even get me started on saint Elizabeth) characters, the historical content lacks the necessary gravitas. Total cotton candy, the first bite is sweet and ephemeral, but you're left hungry and feeling sticky and icky at dinnertime.

Vin: It's a purposeful lightness. Like popcorn: real starchy carbohydrates in wildly palatable form. The point is the characters have drawn on the transcendent and grounded qualities of literature and human community in order to make peace with the atrocities of WWII.

Kaion: That's the intent, but the 'light' storylines are executed so predictable and the 'dark' so ineptly that the contrast is jarring, not moving. **Spoiler**, using a girl who is recovering from concentration camp as an additional misunderstanding in one of those awful love polygons is not charming.

Vin: I concede there are some misteps in the unnecessary romantic storyline. But- but the writers could've easily written the story without any content. They mean well in attempting to integrating real acknowledgment of history with ultimately a hopeful message about the human spirit. Aren't there enough misanthropic novels in the world?

Kaion: Is it really well-meaning? Or is it really just pandering? Lemon meringue and Miss Marple truce?

Vin: Raise me a strong cup of chai, and it's already forgotten.

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In 1946, London is a grey, tired, worn-out city and 32 year old Juliet feels the same way. A successful columnist during the war when she wrote amusing articles that did their best to lift spirits burdened by the war, she now finds herself unable to write--unable to make much meaning out of her

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life.

One day she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, who lives on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. Juliet’s name and address are on the flyleaf of a second-hand volume of selected essays of Charles Lamb. He loves Lamb, and wishes to know the name and address of a second-hand bookseller in London so that he can buy more of Lamb’s works.

With this innocuous beginning, Juliet finds herself, through a remarkable exchange of letters, drawn into the lives of the people of Guernsey, especially through their experiences of the German occupation of the island.

The story is narrated entirely by letters, notes, and telegrams, most of them Juliet’s with the Islanders, but also with her best friend, her publisher, and her American suitor. There are some hilarious letters exchanged between other characters as well. It works brilliantly to tell this light-hearted, yet tender and at times grave and even tragic story. Shaffer is gentle in her story-telling, but effective in portraying the hardships of the occupation on Islanders, slaves brought over from Eastern Europe to be worked to death, and the Germans themselves. That is the main story. But clearly she has great love for Guernsey Island itself and its people.

This is not heavyweight, great literature. Some aspects of the story are glaringly obvious, but Shaffer’s style and her affection for her characters and setting overcome all that, and you just simply enjoy how the very obvious plays out. The story speaks to the ability of the human spirit to adapt and survive under the harshest circumstance, to the love of books and the really odd ways they can transform lives, and to the quiet courage that can stand evil just so long. Tender, warm-hearted, gentle, uplifting--these are all adjectives that can be used to describe the story, but none really capture its essence.

Just read it. You'll be glad you did.

Highly recommended.

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This book looks like it would be light reading - and it is. But dark concepts get brought into it: the German Occupation of the Channel Islands, the bombing of London, even some of the atrocities in the concentration camps. This, combined with a literary society made up of people who have never

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read much more than the weekly paper and the scriptures; an author looking for material for her next book; a lost friend; a small child; and tangled romantic relationships, all put together in epistolary style, make this sound like an absolutely dreadful sentimental mish-mash of a book.

I don't quite know why it isn't. Really, it should be. I mean, even the author's name screams 'fluffy chick-lit!' from the cover. But I liked meeting the characters. Most were quirky, all were well-drawn. Some were cliched, yes, particularly the sour spinster who interferes with other people's affairs, but most were likeable and rounded enough. I liked the settings - from shattered and grim post-war London to idyllic flower-strewn Guernsey. The plot held few surprises, but it didn't need to.

I'm not sure why I have to be so moderate and faintly damning in this review, since I enjoyed reading the book very much indeed. I wanted story, and I got it. I wanted character, and I got it. I didn't want War and Peace, and I didn't get it. I recommend it, truly, I do.

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I was prepared not to like this book. Call it a proclivity for disliking things that everyone else seems to like (see: Twilight, Catcher in the Rye, Gossip Girl, anything James Joyce, reality TV). I don't mean to be contrary, I really don't. Plus the format being entirely through written letters

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just was off-putting to me at first. However, little by little, or, letter by letter, I found a lovely kinship with these people, their hardships and joys and loves and relationships. I felt like I was a part of a war I had never lived through and I easily shared their attachment to books and literature in general. I think the moment I was completely snared (as Isola to Bronte) when I read Eben Ramsey's first letter to Juliet. The simple way he describes the invasion of the German troops and the solace brought through Shakespeare moved me. And I was hooked to a group of people in a way I haven't been since Anne Shirley and her antics through Prince Edward Island. That's right, I just compared these two women to L.M. Montgomery. The letters had that same lovely, lilting prose (yay alliteration!) The book had that same way of making you feel you KNOW these people, that you LIVED in this time period or at least wanted to. It makes me want to write long letters to people and make funny acquaintances that turn into lovely friendships. A+++

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I can’t tell you how long I resisted reading this “book with the funny title.” Wrong yet again! All that time I missed out on this heartwarming valentine to books and reading, and wonderful paean to hope and love.

The fictional literary society of the title was formed of necessity to outwit

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the Germans during their World War II occupation of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, strategically located between Britain and France. A group of friends got caught socializing after curfew and one of their more enterprising number came up with the Society as an excuse. The Germans appeared interested, and so the friends kept it up just in case the enemy should drop in for “meetings,” which indeed they did.

Subsequently, the lives of all members were transformed by the books they read. Their correspondence with one author in particular, Juliet Ashton (whose letters, notes, and telegrams form the core of the book), changes them all yet again, after Juliet can't resist coming to Guernsey to meet the people who have been writing to her and learning more about them.

Some of the books discussed and the characters who read them include:

Dawsey Adams - Selected Essays of Elia; Biography of Charles Lamb
Isola Pribby – Wuthering Heights; Pride and Prejudice
Amelia Maugery – The Pickwick Papers
Eben Ramsey – Selections from Shakespeare
Clovis Fossey – Poems by Catullus
John Booker – The Letters of Seneca
Will Thisbee – Thomas Carlyle’s Past and Present
Jonas Skeeter – The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Augustus Sarre – The Canterbury Tales
Kit Hellman – Elspeth the Lisping Bunny

Evaluation: Don’t let the quirky title of this lovely book, told in epistolary form, dissuade you from picking it up. You will enter an charming and inspirational world of bravery, hope, survival, literature, and above all, love.

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This book is pure schmaltz full of one-dimensional characters, completely contrived situations, and unrealistic pastoral memories. I'm almost ashamed to have enjoyed it as much as I did. It's 100% twee escapism at its finest.

Summary: It's the end of World War II, and while rationing and rebuilding are still going on, spirits are lifting, and bestselling author Juliet Ashton is searching for a new topic. When she gets a letter from a stranger from Guernsey, asking her to send her books, which were unavailable during the

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war while the Germans were occupying the Channel Islands, she thinks she may have found it. But as she begins corresponding with this man, and the other (somewhat eccentric) members of his book club, she slowly comes to realize that she may have found much more than just a story.

Review: I don't know why I let this book linger unread on my shelves for almost three years; it was a quick read, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Better, I was *charmed* every minute of it. I was not expecting a book about the German occupation of English territories during WWII to be so light-hearted, so witty, and so thoroughly charming. That's not to say it was all lightness, all the time; Shaffer doesn't dwell on the horrible parts of WWII and the Occupation, but neither does she ignore or gloss over them. She's also perfectly capable of writing pathos (mostly along the lines of "family is where you find it") as well as wit; I certainly got misty-eyed a time or two. But even when the subject got serious, the vivid, eccentric, and thoroughly lovable characters kept things from getting gloomy. And most of the time, Shaffer does a remarkable balancing act, keeping her story feeling real and immediate while maintaining her characters on the believable side of the dividing line between eccentricity and absurdity. There are tons of little bits of wit and sly humor peppered throughout, and every time I was forced to set the book down, I found I had a grin on my face.

The epistolary format is a tricky one, and Shaffer handles it quite well. There are of course elisions of details and scenes that would have appeared in normal prose fiction but that no one would have put in a letter, and while they're missed, it's more than compensated for by the bonus glimpse we get into our characters' heads from seeing the world through their eyes - and their pens. And while the letters are occasionally a bit long, they all sound like things an actual person would write in a real letter - something that often can go wrong in an epistolary or diary-formatted novel. The story line is occasionally fairly predictable, and the plot didn't offer up any real surprises... except the surprise of how easily I sank into the world of post-war Guernsey, and how much I fell in love with its inhabitants and their story. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Highly recommended for anyone looking for a new take on WWII historical fiction, people who like epistolary novels, or anyone interested in a witty and charming read.

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This entirely epistolary novel chronicles the experience of Juliet Ashton, a writer after World War II who is looking for a subject for her new book. By coincidence she receives a letter from a man in Guersney, a British crown dependency that was occupied by German forces. This man tells Juliet

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about how some of the citizens of Guersney got together to form a Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in order to get them through the occupation. Fascinated, Juliet starts writing to the other members of the society and learns their stories.

This is a charming book, rich with the details of small town life mixed with the very real experiences of war. It’s a testament to the power of human capability and the richness of books. I thought Shaffer and Barrows did an excellent job in capturing the details. The events in Guersney feel like they could have actually happened, which makes me think like the writers did an impeccable job in research.

However, the characters, originally entertaining, did start to get boring towards the end. With a few exceptions everyone is so nice and welcoming that I started to feel like I was in Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. The Guersney locals adored Juliet a bit too much for a woman they have only exchanged a few letters with. It was like Juliet could do no wrong. What happens with her and Kit in the end feels tacked on and cliche. I felt the same way about Elizabeth. In her absentia, the book made her out to be some sort of demi-goddess. Shaffer and Barrows were good at characterizing the nuances of the “bad guys” (the Germans and the unpleasant locals) but I thought the “good guys” could use more depth.

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I fell in love with this book and I was sad when I finished it. The story is told completely in letters beginning in 1946. By chance, the main character Juliet recieves a letter from a man who has one of her books and would like more. This sets off a string of events that lead to Juliet's discovery

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of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as well as more meaning for her life. It is refreshing to read a novel that can encompass both the good and the bad and leave you feeling hopeful. I especially loved the characters and the writing is delightful. I highly recommend the book.

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In 1946, Juliet Ashton is a London-based writer who has gained some degree of fame writing fictional accounts of wartime under an assumed name. Now, as London begins to rebuild and recover, Juliet is casting about for new material with which to continue her career. Out of the blue, she receives a

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letter from a man on the Island of Guernsey, who has found himself in possession of a book she sold through a used bookshop. This begins a correspondence between Juliet and Dawsey Hawkins. Through Dawsey's letters Juliet learns of the formation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and the set of circumstances which resulted in a collection of islanders meeting regularly to discuss books. She also begins correspondence with several other society members, and becomes fascinated on an intellectual level with the German occupation of Guernsey during the war, and begins to develop emotional ties with the society's members. Her eventual visit to the island turns out to be a life-changing event.

The novel takes the form of a series of letters: between Juliet and island residents, and with other significant characters such as her publisher, and another long-time friend. The letters, being highly personal, express characters' thoughts and feelings in a deeper way than a traditional narrative. And various elements of the story are revealed in small bits, so that everything comes together only after reading several letters from different people. I found some aspects of the plot easy to predict, but in no way did this spoil the book for me. The writing style is breezy and full of humor, the characters are folks you could easily imagine and identify with, and the story is touching on many levels. This is a delightful, highly-recommended book.

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Lovely little romance novel published out of its genre and hugely successful therefore. No new ground broken here, and not one single surprise. But it's a charming story, it's nicely told, and it's got something that makes a novel worth reading: A beginning, a middle, and an end that flow naturally

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from one to the next. The end is the logical consequence of the beginning, and that's all too rare in fiction.

Had I bought this book, I would be grumpy, but it was free so who cares? Anyone who likes romances will like this gentle, pleasurable afternoon companion of a book.

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a delightful book of epistolary fiction. Soon after the end of World War Two, newspaper columnist Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a Guernsey Islander (and member of the Literary Society) who had come across a second-hand book with Juliet’s

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name in it. So begins a series of letters, which gradually paint a picture of life on the small island in the English Channel during and immediately after the years of the German Occupation. The characters in the book are a quirky, unpretentious crew and their Literary Society came about quite by chance, with some members having read little besides The Farmers’ Almanac before the war. Sometimes with humor, sometimes with great poignancy, the vignettes in the letters show how their lives were affected by the war, the Occupation, their friendships and the books they read.

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"The old adage - humor is the best way to make the unbearable bearable - may be true." - Thoughts on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Dear Reader,

Forgive me if I succumbed to public opinion, but I have been enjoying reading books on, well, books

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- or writing, or authors, or something to that effect - and this one was everywhere, books-on-books catergorically speaking. And The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows was a good enough read, too, though there was more Guernsey and literature and not enough potato peel pie in it.

Let me tell you what it's about (or maybe just a gist): it's about Juliet, a writer/columnist, who receives a letter from Dawsey, a practical stranger from a little island off the coast of France that is Guernsey, who got his hands on a book that was formerly hers - and as with any other story involving books and serendipity, they start a correspondence. This exchange of letters grows to include Dawsey's accidental book club, Juliet's childhood friends, her publisher, and her mysterious suitor. What started out with a secondhand book on Charles Lamb ends up becoming a book in writing about the people she corresponds with. A lot of other books were mentioned in the process.

As for the unbearable: this was set in 1946, just after the Second World War, and the characters all have sad, painful, and unforgettable war stories to tell. The way they made these stories less horrible was by telling them with humor, and it is with humor, too, that they learn precious things about each other. "I think you learn more if laughing at the same time." This is true indeed.

It is, in all honesty, not a book that sticks, but it is a good read nonetheless. Come to think of it, it feels like that dependable friend that you may not often get to see, but is easy to remember when memory beckons him.

I hope you have as much a good time reading it - maybe even more - on the chance that you do.

Pauline

PS. I didn't catch your first name.

Originally posted here.

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