February 10, 2009
I am a speed reader. Most books I can devour in an hour or two; they are a way to escape. There are a few very rare and special books that make me slow down and savour every word. This is one of them.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is an epistolary novel set just after the second world war. The main character Juliet, a writer living in a post bombed-out London, begins a remarkable correspondence with The GLPPP society's members, learning about the island, their taste in books, and how the German occupation of the island affected its inhabitants. She starts out as an author looking for something new to write about, but as she becomes emotionally connected to her friends on Guernsey through letters, Juliet decides she must go to the island and meet them in person. Her life and the lives of her friends are changed in the most remarkable ways.
Initially, I grabbed this novel like any other. By the time I got to Juliets third letter and one of its lines where she explains that she had thrown...'The Shepherd Boy Sings in the Valley of Humiliation at the elocution mistress', I knew that I had to go back to the beginning. I started again and read very slowly.
It took me a week to finish this amazing, wonderful, story and I savored every word. The characters became my friends-they became so real I had to remind myself that this was a novel & just fiction. This book has done something for me that has not happened in many years; heart & my entire being became engaged. I laughed out loud; I felt utter horror & shock when a heart-wrenching piece of bad news was delivered. In one particular touching scene between Juliet and her little friend Kit, tears slid down my face and I cried. This was the first time in my life that I truly wept while reading a book. The tears continued all the way through to the last page and for hours after I put the book down all I wanted to do was pick it up and again immerse myself in the world of Guernsey.
I was so deeply moved that I checked out the website for the book & what I found made my experience all the more poignant. The main author Mary Ann Scaffer's health began to decline shortly after her book was accepted for publication and her neice, Annie Barrows, had to help her finish the book. February 2009 will mark the one year anniversary of Mary Ann's death so she did not live to see the release of her dream but I hope it will bring solace to her family that this book is already beloved by just about everyone who has read it.
It is my strong belief that millions of people will fall in love with the book and share my sentiments that we can all be thankful that Mary Ann graced this earth long enough to share Guernsey and her characters in that world with us. This work has made me want to stretch my reading to include the works of Charles Lamb, the life story of the Bronte sisters, and to explore the holocaust more fully. If you belong to a book club you cannot ask for a better choice; you get to read about and discuss someone else's Literary Society & the characters within. Seriously, if you finish the book & don't already belong to some sort of book club you'll soon want to join one!
The copy of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society that I read was borrowed. The afternoon after I finished it I went to my closest bookstore, bought the book at full-price (which is something for me-I'm always looking for a discount!), stopped at my favorite tea shop and started reading it again. On the way home I carried it close to my heart and when I finally did put it down, it sits on the shelf that holds only those few books that have touched the deepest parts of my soul.
Salynne ©2009
It really is a book you can lose yourself in. It harks back to a time when pretty much everyone was kind, helpful and concerned about each other. I think that is what I enjoyed the most, the closeknit friendships between all the characters, despite their VERY different personalities, quirks and foibles. It is a relationship we all need and seem to only find with our brothers and sisters in our congregations (and then, only sometimes....).
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