The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.”

“Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”

“It would have been better for her not to have such a heart.

Yes, but worse for the rest of us.”

Books, letters, notes, they all connect people. It only took one second-hand book by Charles Lamb for Dawsey to pen a letter to Juliet (its previous owner), a letter that would begin a flow of correspondence from Guernsey to London and back.

Books were also the reason why a group of neighbours (who had made up a literary society to fool the Germans invading their island) became the best of friends by arguing and discussing about their favourite authors. When nearly everything has been taken from you: food, wood, children, pets, radios… literature, in all its shapes, is what keeps you sane and in touch with your humanity.

Thanks to this multiple perspective narration we get to know what happened, even though in a fictional way, in the only part of Britain occupied by the Nazis. We learn about its isolation, about the hardships its inhabitants had to endure, about the scarcity of almost everything but also about kindness among the enemies, about friendship and love.

The novel has too many characters, but each one of them is fabulously represented by the way they write their missives, they have their own voice, and after a while, you don’t need to see who signed the letter to know who wrote it. You even feel a bit guilty for reading other people’s correspondence!

LRB

Critical perspective:

A novel in letters about books, bibliophiles, publishers, authors and readers, it centres on an imagined post-occupation Guernsey. Juliet Ashton, the whimsical, intuitive heroine, is an up-and-coming writer. While casting about for a new subject, she hears from a Guernsey pig farmer, Adam Dawsey, who has found Juliet's name and address in a second-hand copy of Charles Lamb's essays. From this fragile contact grows a web of correspondents, who feed Juliet's obsession with wartime Guernsey and the tragicomic interwoven stories of its people.

Madeleine Bunting's The Model Occupation of 1996 revealed, to uproar, the extent of Channel Island collaboration with the deportation of 2,000 British subjects to Nazi Europe. Seen in this light, Shaffer's novel seems a version of pastoral, thronging with lovable people (or perhaps a version of piscatory, for the islanders were fishermen in a maritime world). But we remain aware that "Europe is like a hive broken open, teeming with thousands upon thousands of displaced people, all trying to get home". Exuberance is seamed with distress, and a vein of pastoral elegy centres on the lovely and exhilarating character of Elizabeth, Juliet's alter ego.

Her narrative is a weave of bright and dark, threading through the gentle humour of the islanders' stories. Elizabeth embodies a comic law of the novel: the more inventive and intuitive a person is, the more pregnant her actions will be and the greater her charm, in the deepest sense of that word. Elizabeth is a fugitive presence in the novel; she exists in the tissue of communal memory evoked by the letters.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society commemorates beautiful spirits who pass through our midst and hunker undercover through brutal times. Shaffer's Guernsey characters step from the past radiant with eccentricity and kindly humour, a comic version of the state of grace. They are innocents who have seen and suffered, without allowing evil to penetrate the rind of decency that guards their humanity. Their world resembles Shakespeare's Ephesian or Illyrian comedies; but its territory incorporates both Elysium and Hades. "Prove true, Imagination, oh prove true," pleads Viola in Twelfth Night - and, sure enough, a brother is delivered from the sea.

Guernsey's dead will not return. Shaffer's writing, with its delicately offbeat, self-deprecating stylishness, is exquisitely turned, bearing a clear debt to Jane Austen. She shows, in addition, an uncanny ability to evoke period, miming its manners and mannerisms - not only in the reminders of blitzed London but also in recreating a culture that reveres books.

This is at the heart of the novel's golden comedy. The rarity of books in 1946 reminds us of an age we have lost, of stint and thrift combined with greater amplitude of time. In such a culture, hand-written letters are precious personal gifts. Each book, meeting and letter has value, commands affectionate attention, and never comes cheap.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/09/fiction4

Biography:

Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows' aunt, was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1934. Her career included libraries, bookstores, and publishing, but her life-long dream was to "write a book that someone would like enough to publish." Several years of work yielded The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was greeted with avid enthusiasm, first by her family, then by her writing group, and finally by publishers around the world. Sadly, Mary Ann's health began to decline shortly thereafter, and she asked her niece, Annie Barrows, to help her finish the book. Though she did not live to see it, this dream has been realized in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which in September of 2008, made the New York Times Bestseller List. Annie Barrows, whose career also included libraries, bookstores, and publishing, is the author of the Ivy and Bean series for children, as well as The Magic Half.

https://noveljourney.blogspot.com/2008/12/annie-barrows-author-interview.html

Reviews by our book club members:

“In spite of all the lot of different characters sending letters among one another who can discourage the reader, creating a certain confusion at the very beginning, this historical, romantic epistolary novel well deserves the chance of keeping on, since we will enjoy the humanity of people who get pleasure from books, each one finding different positive points in them that will help them to cope with the hard of their lives; and, at the same time, we will learn about how German Occupation was lived on English Chanel islands, and we will check, one more time, how absurd situations War creates and develops.

It is difficult to choose a main character, even though Juliet (herself a professional writer) is the one who gets the first letter from Dawsey just because her name was on the book he loved reading and also because a humorous situation for de them to make a Literary club, but every character has a role in the story and the reader feels like in a thriller you need to be solved.

The writer visited the UK to receive a prize and she was on the islands where she found a lot of souvenirs related to the occupation, so she decided to write about that time which supposed a lot of investigation she was not able to complete it due to serious health problems, that is the explanation for the second author, a niece who luckily ended the task and the book.”

“Novel written in epistolary format. Set in post-WWII England in 1946. Juliet is a 32 writer living in London. One day she receives a letter from a man living on Guernsey islands who found her address on a second-hand book he had. Soon Juliet is exchanging letters with the members of the Guernsey Literary Society and people talk about what books they like and why. Then suddenly everyone forgets about the books and Guernsey people start sharing their most intimate experiences during the world war with Juliet, who is only a stranger. A few weeks later Juliet goes to the Guernsey islands to meet and interview these people.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a heart-warming and inspiring novel that tells the story of the power of literature and friendship. It offers a unique, enriching blend of history, romance, and humour. It´s a captivating story through letters, revealing the resilience and camaraderie of the residents of Guernsey Island. The characters are richly developed, and the narrative beautifully captures the power of books to bring people together and heal wounds.

In conclusion, I recommend you read this novel. I really enjoyed reading it, especially the references to classic books, and the dialogue and exchange of ideas between such different people.

Don't hesitate and please read the book." Reading opens the minds, hands, and hearts of those who read."”

JLJG

Praise:

“A jewel . . . Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends.”

People

“A book-lover’s delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary.”

Chicago Sun-Times

“A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb.”

The Sunday Times (London)

“Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish.”

The Times (London)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/164594/the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society-by-mary-ann-shaffer-and-annie-barrows/

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