The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

What a wonderful book! Having just finished this one, I am still smiling and thinking of the characters. Had I the time and money, I'd be booking a trip for Guernsey right this minute. As it is, I feel as though I've already visited and been made to feel at home.

Set in both London and Guernsey Island, this novel follows author Juliet as she becomes friends with the inhabitants of the island shortly after the end of World War 2. Told in epistolary style, Juliet learns of the occupied island and its deprivations, as well as the resounding spirit of the people who live there. As she writes, she becomes more and more intrigued with the stories of the people who survived the hard times, and she decides to create a book based on their experiences. In order to gather more information, Juliet moves temporarily to the island and soon finds herself immsersed in the culture and relationships.

This is absolutely one of the most delightful books I've read all year. The characters are real, the relationships are unique, and Juliet is hysterically funny, as well as warm hearted and genuine. I did have a bit of trouble keeping all the characters straight in the beginning, but once I caught on, I was enthralled. The pages just fly by and while you will learn a little of what happened to Guernsey during World War 2, you will learn much more about love and friendship. Highly recommended!

I wasn't that eager to read this lovely book. The title sounded silly and I've read a few other books that were told entirely in the form of notes or letters like this one and I wasn't too impressed. And an aunt and her niece authoring a book together? I couldn't imagine it. Yet, miraculously, THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY manages to offer wonderful well rounded characters, a genuine sense of historic time and geographic place, some real inspiring stories of courage under hardship during World War II and a sweet if rather predictable love story.

The book takes place in England during the mid 1940's when the country was recovering from the effects of the long war years. The central character of the novel is Juliet, a thirty something single Londoner who has had some success writing a humorous newspaper column and is now looking for a book subject. Through chance and a mutual love of the power of literature Juliet begins corresponding with a group of diverse people on the British island of Guernsey who used books and the fellowship they found discussing them to help them get through the hideous occupation of their island by the Germans. The authors do a wonderful job giving unique voice and style to each of the letter writers (maybe having two authors really helped in this case) long before Juliet meets her new friends face to face. In the second half of the book, also written in letter form, Juliet is on Guernsey herself and this part of the book is not quite as strong as the beginning as the plot settles in to more of a traditional love story form and the literature themes are somewhat lessened. Still,through its final page, this is an original and entertaining book.

During World War II, the Germans occupied Guernsey in the Channel Islands, so close to France that, apparently, you could see cars on the highway on a clear day. The Germans built heavy fortifications against the islanders, built a concentration camp on Guernsey, and Guernsey's children were evacuated to England.

Juliet Ashton is an author looking for her next great idea, when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, who lives on Guernsey, about Charles Lamb, to whose works we was introduced through the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. The Society came to be in an unusual fashion: one evening after curfew, on their way home, some of its members were stopped by German soldiers, and Elizabeth McKenna had to make something up on the spot. Over time, the members got together whenever they could to talk about what they'd read. That's how Isola, for example, became addicted to Wuthering Heights.

Juliet lives in a London that was decimated by war; her apartment by the Thames has been lost, as well as all of her books (as you can imagine, horrifying). But her career as a writer is going well, and she has a potential love interest: the handsome and rich Mark. But Juliet's life changes as she receives more and more letters from the Guernsey Islanders, and she decides that she just might have to pay them a visit

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is an utterly charming novel, written in an epistolary fashion, between not only Julia and her new friends, but her best friend from childhood and her brother (who also happens to be Juliet's publisher). It's a sweet, funny novel, and it reminds me a lot of 84, Charing Cross Road--mixed with a little bit of Excellent Women (Penguin Classics). The characters are all wonderful--you can't help but wishing you'd known them yourself--even Adelaide Addison. Each member of the cast of this book has his or her own unique voice. Some of the stories told in this book are tragic; some are funny; but I guarantee that all of them will be touching.

There is so much to like about this book that I almost feel guilty for only giving it three stars. The book consists of a series of letters written during the post-World War II years from and to Juliet, a London-based writer, Juliet's publisher, Sidney, Juliet's friends, Juliet's suitor, and a group of residents of Guernsey (in the Channel Islands) who formed a book club of sorts during the German occupation of the island. In the course of their correspondence, Juliet develops a friendship with the members of the unfortunately named Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while discovering what their lives were like during the German occupation. The writing is beautiful and by the end of the book you feel like you know all of the characters extremely well -- especially the simple country folk of Guernsey who discover the magic of books while trying to survive the depredations of wartime. So what's the problem?

The authors obviously have a knowledge and love of great literature, but their loving description of so many classic and wonderful books and authors can't help but remind the reader of the elements that are missing here. The characters in the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are so unfailingly good and lovable that they ultimately don't seem real. There's a token curmudgeon and, of course, there are the Nazis, but it's all a bit WWII lite. I kept waiting for some depth or nuance, some real sense of wonder or horror, or just a new perspective, but nothing really develops. It's a sweet little story and I liked the book, but I doubt it will stay with me very long. It's enjoyable, well-intentioned and commendable, but ultimately, like the potato peel pie of the title, made with love but not truly satisfying.

I have no doubt most people will probably like this book quite a bit and that I'll probably be in the minority with my lukewarm review. It's just that when I think back a year from now on books about WWII that I've read over the years or even the books I read during 2008, a heartbreakingly beautiful and original novel like The Book Thief will stay with me and I'll read it again, while I'll probably have trouble remembering much about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society other than a general warm and fuzzy sense. It's a feel-good book and that's probably enough for a lot of people, but I can't help wishing there had been a little more to this novel.

I have, in the past, had occasion to say that reading was one of the most important things in life, right up there with family, food and sleep. This book not only reminded me why I believe that, but it gave me the warm, satisfying sense that I was among like-minded people.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (From now on, referred to as GLP3S) is an epistolary novel set at the close of WWII. It chronicles the correspondence of a London author who is suffering not so much from writer's block, but from idea block. Her letters to and from friends, her editor, and eventually the members of the aforementioned society, begin in a humorous tone -- if you're the sort who puts a great store in statistics, I'd estimate that I had a good, loud laugh about every three to five pages to start. I didn't think to tally the grins. But as the book goes on, the witty exchanges take on a deeper and more touching edge. We learn the background of the GLP3S, and then of its members. We learn what they suffered during the war, and their five-year-long occupation by the Germans, and we learn how they endured it. They don't fight the Germans so much as observe them, trick them when they can, endure them when they must. They are people of strength, compassion (most of them) and deep feeling. Their reading, and the exchange of ideas it inspires literally keeps some of them alive.

I don't want to say too much and spoil the novel. I want everyone to read it for themselves and come to know these people and how lovely and dear they are. And I hope, I hope every reader will be reminded of his/her love of the written word, and the understanding of how deeply it matters.

Five stars just aren't enough.

ETA: This book will not leave me alone. No sooner did I finish it and write the review than I began it again. I love every character, even the awful ones. I love the place. I love the way it's written. It's not just a book to cherish, but one to escape into when your day has sucked the soul from you. Juliet and the people of Guernsey will put you right.

The only quibble I have is that we never do find out what Juliet thought of the Potato Peel Pie with the festive topping. An oversight to be sure, but a minor one.