However, when I was given the motherly direction to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows my response was less enthusiastic: What kind of a stupid title is that? It sounded like a light beach read that would be poorly written and that I didn't have time for when my shelf of unread books included Isabel Allende (who I love) and Barbara Kingsolver (who my mother told me I'd love, and she was right), and Jane Austen (who I'm still just dating casually).
You read it here first folks: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the loveliest book full of the most endearing characters and is anything but frivolous and poorly written. Mom said I'd love it. I should have trusted her track record of always being right.
The story is written in the form of letters between various people following World War II. The protagonist is fictional author Juliet Ashton, and readers follow her delightfully as she courts a friendship with a literary society of Guernsey islanders. We learn about the German occupation of the island during the war, and a story of one islander in particular emerges as the central tale. The book is delightfully clever & funny, the characters endearing, and the story both cheering and absolutely heartbreaking.
It is easy enough to read in a weekend at the Lake, but not so saccharine that you'll feel like you're wasting your time on junk. The authors expertly use the backdrop of post-war England and the story of the German occupation of the Channel Islands to tell their story, and, as Julie Ashton so shrewdly remarked:
That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive-all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.
So read this book, you'll love it.
