the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society :: mary ann shafer, annie burrows

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Burrows
Publisher: Dial Press, 2009
Read: August 2009; NYC
Format: trade paperback

What Happens: Juliet Ashton both writes and receives a lot of letters.

In them, we learn that World War II has just ended and that recently-occupied Europe is starting to pick up the pieces. Juliet’s popular newspaper column ends along with the war and she, too, is trying to figure out what’s next.

She soon receives a letter from a member of a ‘Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ on Guernsey, a small island in the English Channel. Her curiosity about the club and its members eventually prompts her to visit. There, she meets lively characters, learns of the war's effect on the islands and eventually discovers how she wants to spend the next chapter of her life.

Okay: So, beyond my humble opinion that it’s good, there’s not a lot to say about this one. It’s not super deep, heart-wrenching or anything like that. I found it really satisfying and entertaining, nonetheless. Its strengths, I suppose, lie in the characters and plot execution.

It’s important to note that almost every letter is either written to or by Juliet, the center of the epistolary novel's flurry. In her early letters, she sometimes comes off as flippant and maybe even a bit spoiled. Sure, we see that she is witty and clever, but wonder - if just initially - whether, in her, these will be good or bad traits. Thankfully, as we continue to read her letters, her character fills out: Yes, she can be glib, but she is also sensitive, caring and self-aware.

The other characters are incredibly lovable, but their development is a little thinner, of course. Although we read them through their own words, we’re only privy to those that address Juliet. All told, though, it’s no less satisfying than any other limited-perspective narration.

As for the plot, I suppose enjoyment of it rests in whether you can get behind the whole epistolary novel thing. Some decry them as gimmicky. Some (maybe more) tout their long literary history. Either way, The Guernsey...Society successfully employs the mode to execute the plot. Some might argue that the use of the device is more successful than the plot itself.

I mean, the letters don't just unfold the characters, they advance the plot and lay out Guernsey's rich history as well. They provide an imaginative execution for what is maybe not the world’s most groundbreaking plot. That is, the letters and how they move the book along make fresh what is, at its core, another story of self-discovery and love.

Overall, The Guernsey...Society is a lovely story and sentimental in just the right amount. Personally, I didn’t cry or anything. I do know some people who did, though. You know who you are.

Also excellent: it takes no time to read. This earns the whole letter thing another point in my eyes.

Light, charming and sweet. Definitely worth the couple of hours it takes to read:
4 out of 5 stars.