Article Contributed on: 6/5/2009 8:46:07 AM
Told through letters and telegrams and set in Guernsey just after WW2,
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is for readers wanting a quick read with a hope of learning something new. It fulfills. But only minimally.
The book is a lovely collaboration and family tribute. Author, Mary Ann Shaffer began the book but was unable to finish it when she became ill. It was completed by her niece, Annie Barrows.
Juliet Ashton, an author living in London, receives a fan letter from Dawsey Adams who lives on Guernsey. One letter leads to another and Juliet quickly begins communicating with multiple residents of Guernsey. She learns about the challenges of the Germany occupation during the war and how residents dealt with the restrictions of that occupation. The literary society came into being following a clandestine meal of pork, illegally kept, then eaten in a secret gathering. Granted I didn't know the island was occupied by the Germans and found that aspect interesting.
The island is filled with the quirky characters one expects in such a place, including the tragic Elizabeth, a usual assortment of stoic but kind-hearted residents, and the relentless busybody tolerated by every close knit community. We've seen all these folks before. We know what they will do and, predictably, they do it. We don't know any of the characters well, since we only hear their voices through their letters.
The book does make me long for the days when people actually wrote such long newsy letters, an art forever gone in our electronic world. Any books written in epistolary style will have to harken back to days when folks actually communicated by the written word, through the post. Author Helene Hanff wrote two charming books in this format, the best of which is 84 Charing Cross Road. Both books are a good choice for a quick vacation read and will satisfy without taxing the mind. This is after all what most of us want from our summer books.