The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

  - Mary Ann Shaffer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the charming tale of an author, Juliet, whose chance correspondence with residents of Guernsey, blossom into something truly beautiful - her interactions with this warm, brave and closely-knit community not only give her the idea for a new book that she has been looking for, but also provide her a new purpose and direction in life.

The story is presented as a series of letters exchanged amongst Juliet, her publisher, agent, and friends, and the people of Guernsey. The fine art of letter-writing is now lost, but there is something enchanting about those long-format letters describing one’s feelings or thoughts, or the events happening in one’s part of the world. Which is what makes this book full of warmth and subtle humor, utterly delightful. Although the book is set in an era just after the WWII, and covers quite a bit of the war and Nazi occupation of the islands in the back history, it chooses not to focus on the horrors of the war, but the courage and resilience of the people. This is a story of people who are trying to recover and rebuild their lives in the aftermath of devastation.

It is a book-lover’s delight, because the one unifying thread bringing all the characters in this story together is their love for reading; some had already found their passion for the written word, while others discovered it in the times of adversity. It depicts how reading help them go through these tough times, it describes the joy of a book-lover deprived of reading material on finding a new book, and it shows how a shared passion can bind a group of people together and give them courage and hope.

For all that is wonderful, it is not without faults. It felt a little too sweet at times, and some of the characters sounded too good to be true. The protagonist Juliet seemed to be kind of shallow in the beginning, but this improves as the book progresses; overall I liked her character – warm and impulsive. And it was a bit strange to see the well-articulated letters from some of the people who did not seem very well educated (though that may be the effect of prolific reading). I also think that there are factual inaccuracies about the era it is set in (eg, a book tour in 1946, in a war-torn England?).

However, my gripes are fewer compared to the positives I saw. In all, I found it to be a sensitive, feel-good book.

I had first read this as a Reader’s Digest condensed book edition (I have read a few of the RD condensed books and liked them, though there are people who absolutely detest those). This was one story which really touched me, and I had wanted to read it in full ever since.