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

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

When I was a teenager, I really enjoyed writing letters - long newsy letters with quotes from movies, television, books and songs, mostly to my grandmother and a few friends who lived some distance away.  The letters this story is told in are similar, though there are a number of short missives sent by cable or messenger because it is late 1940.  The problem is that the phones and phone lines are in disarray because of the war. 

Juliet becomes the toast of England after World War II when her humorous newspaper articles about life during the war, written under the nom de plume, Izzy Bickerstaff, are collected in a book and published.  Now she is looking for a new topic to write about. 

Dawsey Adams, from Guernsey Island, has come into possession of a Charles Lamb book that had once belonged to Juliet and still has her address in the front.  It isn’t easy to come by anything after the war and so Dawsey writes to Juliet asking for help in locating more Charles Lamb books, beginning a correspondence and friendship that will eventually lead Juliet to Guernsey Island. 

As Juliet and Dawsey correspond, the story of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and, by extension, the occupation of Guernsey by German soldiers during the war is revealed.  (Guernsey is an island in the English Channel, actually much closer to France than England.)  The titular literary society comes about one evening as an excuse for some islanders out after curfew, to keep the Germans from jailing or killing them. 

I actually listened to this book in the car, as I do many books, and the recording had the benefit of multiple voices - two men and three women.  I think it made the story go more quickly and brought the characters to life in a way that was a little bit lacking in the hard copy, though I don’t agree with the few detractors that say there was no variation among the voices of the characters.  There was, decidedly.  The literary crowd of Juliet, Sidney and Susan have a wider vocabulary and use more complex sentences.  Amelia Maughery is a little old fashioned while Dawsey is plain but straight forward and uses correct English.  Isola and Eben frequently do not use proper English. 

Take, for example, a paragraph from Amelia Maughery, very proper, “I realize that our name, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is an unusual one and could easily be subjected to ridicule.  Would you assure me you will not be tempted to do so?  The Society members are very dear to me, and I do not wish them to be perceived as objects of fun by your readers.”

Then, Isola Pribby writes to Juliet about the Brontes, “Their Pa was a selfish thing, wasn’t he?  He paid his girls no mind at all – always sitting in his study, yelling for his shawl.  He never rose up to wait on hisself, did he?  Just sat alone in his room while his daughters died like flies.”

 

This is a quiet story of a channel island during World War II.  People try to get by, stay out of trouble, make do with what they have and get on with life as best they can.  They even fall in love, but the war intrudes. 

Juliet does come across as young, privileged and an idealist, rather a Pollyanna, even though she has gone through World War II and also lost her parents at an early age.  She’s a pleasant enough character but I’m not sure it sounds right for what she’s been through.  On the other hand, that is perhaps what it was like.  You saw horrors and had to get on with life.  At one point, Dawsey asks her about a “Doodlebug” cartoon he had seen after the war and Juliet explains that Doodlebugs are what the Ministry of Information called Hitler’s V-1 rockets.

“They came in the daytime, and they came so fast there was not time for an air-raid siren or to take cover.  You could see them; they looked like slim, black, slanted pencils and made a dull, spastic sound above you... when their noise stopped, it meant there was only thirty seconds before it plummeted.  So, you listened for them.  Listened hard for the sound of their motors cutting out.  I did see a Doodlebug fall once.  I was quite some distance away when it hit, so I threw myself down in the gutter and cuddled up against the curb.  Some women, in the top story of a tall office building down the street, had gone to an open window to watch.  They were sucked out by the force of the blast.”

Her explanation is rather matter of fact but the simple facts hit hard when you understand.  There are moments about the occupation of Guernsey and the war in England that are hard to take and made me tear up, but they are mixed in so that it is not too hard to bear. 

Overall, it is a cheerful book, though the topic is serious.  I would recommend it and even more highly recommend the audio version, the cast reading the letters are tremendously entertaining.