The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
This was a book club pick that I'd been half meaning to read ever since the movie came out. I'm glad I finally got around to it. It's a quick, sweet read about finding yourself and finding love.
That said, it also deals with a lot of heavy material. The island of Guernsey was occupied during WWII, and this is basically the tale of a secret book club that sprang as an outlet and refuge for the residents of the island. As the Germans stole their food and their freedom, as they witnessed horrific acts and found themselves unable to help, as their children were sent away and their friends began to die and disappear, the residents of the island sought comfort in literature. They read books by candlelight and shared them with each other, each searching for an escape from a world that they could no longer control or escape.
The main action takes place some years after the occupation and the war, when a journalist and author begins to correspond with the members of the literary society and ultimately travels to visit them. She goes in search of a subject to write about, but she finds that the experience radically alters her entire life.
The story is told entirely through letters passed between the characters. And while the author cheats a little bit at the end to get her emotional resolution on the page, for the most part she plays fairly. This requires the reader to read between the lines quite a lot, but that's part of the fun of the book. Each character is incredibly well-defined, and it's fun to spot where their own prejudices and limited knowledge turn them into unreliable narrators. Having so many different narrators (or letter writers) makes for a really rich cast of characters. It lets the author stitch together an impressive tapestry using not that much thread because she has so many different colors at her disposal.
For all that this is a sweet book with a happy ending, it also made my heart ache. It's one of those nearly perfect books that you can read as deeply or as shallowly as you like. I only wish I had been able to make it to my book club's discussion. I'm sure they had a lot to talk about.
That said, it also deals with a lot of heavy material. The island of Guernsey was occupied during WWII, and this is basically the tale of a secret book club that sprang as an outlet and refuge for the residents of the island. As the Germans stole their food and their freedom, as they witnessed horrific acts and found themselves unable to help, as their children were sent away and their friends began to die and disappear, the residents of the island sought comfort in literature. They read books by candlelight and shared them with each other, each searching for an escape from a world that they could no longer control or escape.
The main action takes place some years after the occupation and the war, when a journalist and author begins to correspond with the members of the literary society and ultimately travels to visit them. She goes in search of a subject to write about, but she finds that the experience radically alters her entire life.
The story is told entirely through letters passed between the characters. And while the author cheats a little bit at the end to get her emotional resolution on the page, for the most part she plays fairly. This requires the reader to read between the lines quite a lot, but that's part of the fun of the book. Each character is incredibly well-defined, and it's fun to spot where their own prejudices and limited knowledge turn them into unreliable narrators. Having so many different narrators (or letter writers) makes for a really rich cast of characters. It lets the author stitch together an impressive tapestry using not that much thread because she has so many different colors at her disposal.
For all that this is a sweet book with a happy ending, it also made my heart ache. It's one of those nearly perfect books that you can read as deeply or as shallowly as you like. I only wish I had been able to make it to my book club's discussion. I'm sure they had a lot to talk about.
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