The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.39 You Save: $20.61 (86%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel
Book Review: "Reading Lolita in Tehran" meets "Island at War" and "84 Charing Cross Road"
Summary: 5 Stars
Who says the epistolary novel is dead? Although the letter format is old-fashioned, it absolutely works in this charming story, and I expect we'll see a revival of this eighteenth-century genre in the future. (Please, no emails. Not emails.)
Think of this novel as "Reading Lolita in Tehran" meets "Island at War," seasoned by a healthy dose of "84 Charing Cross Road." The story, co-written by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows, takes place in 1946, as feisty thirty-something London author Juliet Ashton is picking up the pieces of her life after World War II. Casting about for a subject for an article which morphs into her next book, she begins to correspond with several members of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, an ad hoc book club formed in the Channel Islands during the five long years of German occupation.
As they write to Juliet,the society members reveal both the hilarity and the horror of the war. Juliet decides she can't get the full story unless she travels to Guernsey to interview these survivors, and of course falls in love with the people and the place and stays far longer than she intends. There is a bit of a love triangle between Juliet, a London rake, and a shy but proud Guernsey farmer named Mr. Darcy -- er, Dawsey. Sound familiar? But Jane Austen is not the only great writer whose work is honored here: Charles Lamb, Seneca, Oscar Wilde, Marcus Aurelius, Geoffrey Chaucer, the Bronte sisters, and others pop up like old friends. If there is a theme to this story, it's that great books--and good friends--can get you through anything. As one character says, "We clung to books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us."
Not only did I love this novel; it gave me Reader Rabbit trails to follow for months. It's chock full of enough literary recommendations for other novels, essays, and stories to keep bibliophiles busy. This is precisely what Juliet loves about reading: "...one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive--all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment."
Book Review: "Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I think this quote (the review title) from early on in the book may just become my motto! There's not a whole lot to add to the other excellent reviews here, but I'll just add a few things important to me as a reader.
I haven't read an epistolary novel since Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford World's Classics), and let me assure you, this is much more enjoyable, though Richardson should be given his due. The most important theme that the authors deal with is, I believe, the universality of positive gain from reading, and one doesn't have to be a college student or professor to learn from the Classics or other Literature or even to understand them. Even if one is a pig farmer -- who may not notice each nuance of Latin rhetoric in a given translation -- one can still learn from, and enjoy, Seneca or Aurelius, to take two examples from the book.
And speaking of farming, this is one touch the authors have that I most admire -- the ability to make you fall in love with "simple" folk by making you realize through their interactions (letters or speech) that "simple" is a complete misnomer. These oft-overlooked people, whom some might call "local yokels," are absolutely delightful folk, and their stories, widely varied by their own personalities and temperaments, even on this small island, deserve to be heard, and they deserve to be loved and laughed/cried with.
When this reader picks up a work of historical fiction, he doesn't want poor historical research to distract from what might otherwise be good storytelling, and this work does not disappoint. The Nazi occupiers of the Channel Islands truly did intend and initially adopted a different occupation strategy here than they did elsewhere: they truly were trying to appear beneficent, even issuing currency to their soldiers to PAY the denizens for their food, products, and services. Thus, the authors' portrayal of the Germans disembarking from their sea journey and running wild on a shopping spree downtown is not AT ALL a stretch of the imagination or reality. I'm sure it happened in some form.
Of course, as the Germans began to fare worse in the War, their approach to interacting with the islanders changed much for the worse, and the authors VERY accurately reflect this fact too. Point being, if one is looking to nitpick historical fact, one isn't likely to find much to nitpick in this novel, and that's a real treat in reading about what has become an obscure part of Nazi occupation in the last World War. Kudos to the authors here too.
The only nitpicks I'd have with this really touching, charming book would be with two characters who are cookie-cutter-stock -- you can't miss them. And, in a sense, I guess, that is a good thing: there are only TWO "stock" characters used in the book, they are far from being the most important ones, and all the others are remarkably original and well developed.
The words _delightful_ and _charming_ have been so overused in reviews of this book, but allow me to overuse them again myself. Delightful characters. Charming story. Love it. Best book I've read in quite a while.
Book Review: "The Guernsey Literary ... "
Summary: 5 Stars
A splendid read about a little-known subject, the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII. I recall either it or something similiar as the subject of a BBC series - the book was better.Book Review: 2.5 out of 5: I Don't Understand the Hype
Summary: 3 Stars
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a lighthearted epistolary novel about an author who travels to Guernsey, a British island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy. The protagonist, Juliet Ashton, is a writer with a warm personality and an adventurous spirit. As Juliet researches her next book about the German occupation of Guernsey during WWII, she befriends the quirky members of a book group on the island. Although The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is charming at times, this book is mostly lacking in substance. The characters are formulaic, and the plot is entirely predictable. A quick and forgettable read.Book Review: 4 1/2 if I could
Summary: 4 Stars
I really was not expecting to like this book (Eliz Gilbert blurbed it? Ew....) but a good friend was reading it and liking it and so I started it Labor Day weekend. When I started I thought, oh, its just another Helen Hanff type book, charming and light. It didn't take me long to realize it was much more than that. I didn't come up for air that next Monday, when I finished it. So yeah, I guess I liked it.
I won't go into the synopsis, but suffice to say that not only did I laugh, and not only was I moved, but I learned a great deal about that time period. I did not know that the Nazis were in the Channel Islands, and as much as I have read and heard stories of the Nazis occupations, the stories of the occupants in this book were original, and yet very familiar. This a book about the inhumanity, hypocrisy and brutality of man, as well as the grace and dignity of people who have overcome it, and still care about their fellow man. On a lighter note, I loved the romance - tho predictable, do well enough for me to want to shout Mazel Tov! And while there are moments of twee (to which I am allergic) it was enough to show people being human, sincere, and honest.
BTW, there really isn't a lot of book discussion going on here, tho many books are mentioned and quoted. If you are expecting more you might be disappointed. I did have a quibble about the time span between some of the letters: a day between London and Guernsey? (and they weren't telegrams, as she noted those). I could let that one stand and it didn't keep me from my enjoyment of the book. If the author had not added the dates to the letter, it probably would have been better. The story, the characters, the setting was more than enough to keep me engaged and satisfied. The only thing that keeps it from being a five is that I reserve 5 stars for books that are outstanding and great literature themselves.
I was looking foreward to more books by this author, but it seems she died before it was published. How very sad that there will be no more excellent reads like this one, but oh, what a gem she left behind for the rest of the world!