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A review by thelizabeth
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer
3.0
Funnily, I'd never heard of this book before it was put in my hands a couple months ago. Popular though it is, it was off my radar. I can see why so many like it, though, because it fits in a really nice place, as a book! Like probably most American readers these days, I don't know a ton (or anything) about the Channel Islands (British dependencies, but nearer to France) or their wartime German occupation. And actually, it's a really happy book.
My friend who lent this to me told me, "This book made me want to move to the Channel Islands and fall in love." These days I am a lot mushier than I used to be, so that sounded like a perfectly fine recommendation to me. In fact I thought it would be moreso, lusher and romantic. But via the epistolary format, it comes out just a bit girl-talkish and is probably its weakest element. Not quite enough whatever it is, longing looks.
It does, to use a phrase that gets a bad rap, romanticize the setting, and to a certain extent even the war. The characters have experienced some hardship and grief and loss, but in a way, just enough of just the right kind. Not so much that their lives are ruined, but enough to make them good characters with good stories to tell, and boatloads of dignity and pathos. I suppose you could read it as cheap, but also, it's nice. A way of showing that people do well with each other.
What you've really got here is straight and good wish-fulfillment, which also gets a bad rap in fiction. It's usually a criticism, but with this book it was just pleasing. Which is the entire point: wish-fulfillment gives you a story about something that most everyone would love to have happen to them in real life. Duh. That is often quite lovely. And that's precisely what you want as you read this. It would be perfectly awesome to enter Juliet's shoes. I'd take it. I might want to bring the internet with me, and a few books newer than 1946, but. (Read: I will totally go see Kate Winslet play her in the movie, come on.)
So, yes, perhaps things go a little too well and everyone is a little too nice, but the book will make you happy. In a way it reminds me of something a bit like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, one of those sweet books that's both extremely optimistic and honest at the same time. There's a spot, it hits, it's good.
My friend who lent this to me told me, "This book made me want to move to the Channel Islands and fall in love." These days I am a lot mushier than I used to be, so that sounded like a perfectly fine recommendation to me. In fact I thought it would be moreso, lusher and romantic. But via the epistolary format, it comes out just a bit girl-talkish and is probably its weakest element. Not quite enough whatever it is, longing looks.
It does, to use a phrase that gets a bad rap, romanticize the setting, and to a certain extent even the war. The characters have experienced some hardship and grief and loss, but in a way, just enough of just the right kind. Not so much that their lives are ruined, but enough to make them good characters with good stories to tell, and boatloads of dignity and pathos. I suppose you could read it as cheap, but also, it's nice. A way of showing that people do well with each other.
What you've really got here is straight and good wish-fulfillment, which also gets a bad rap in fiction. It's usually a criticism, but with this book it was just pleasing. Which is the entire point: wish-fulfillment gives you a story about something that most everyone would love to have happen to them in real life. Duh. That is often quite lovely. And that's precisely what you want as you read this. It would be perfectly awesome to enter Juliet's shoes. I'd take it. I might want to bring the internet with me, and a few books newer than 1946, but. (Read: I will totally go see Kate Winslet play her in the movie, come on.)
So, yes, perhaps things go a little too well and everyone is a little too nice, but the book will make you happy. In a way it reminds me of something a bit like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, one of those sweet books that's both extremely optimistic and honest at the same time. There's a spot, it hits, it's good.