Saturday, October 23, 2010

Book Review - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society


January 1946: Writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Soceity. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Gurnsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.


This was my bookclub's October pick. I do not usually seek out historical fiction and the last one I read, Shanghai Girls, was good but depressing as hell. I was afraid that this novel about World War II and the German occupation on the island of Guernsey would be equally depressing. After all, how could war not be depressing?


I was pleasantly surprised. The format of the novel is a series of letters written by the different characters and it made for a very interesting read. The letter writers were able to weave in their "war stories" from their point of view and while some parts were a little graphic, I didn't find myself getting depressed. It was beautifully written. It made me smile and actually giggle to myself at certain points. And in the midst of it all, a love story emerged. I loved it.

5 comments:

Carol said...

Glad you loved this one.
One of my favourite reads.
I too thought this would be depressing but gave it a go as it had such good reviews.

Such a feelgood novel from what should have been a very downbeat subject

carol

PoetessWug said...

Never even heard the name before! Guess I should check it out then, huh?! :-)

~Truly Tina~ said...

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is [surprisingly] one of my favorite reads. After browsing through the "B&N Recommends" section when the book was first released, I decided to step out of my genre comfort zone to give it a go. Glad I did! The format alone was enough to woo me, but add the unforgettable characters and I was done...in a good way. :o)

TJ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TJ said...

The last historical novel I read had depressing elements too (must be that whole war thing) but it was a good read, too.