Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Pages: 274
Finished: February 22, 2020
First Sentence: Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder.
Summary: While on tour for her Izzy Bickerstaff essays, Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a man named Dawsey Adams. Dawsy, a resident of the Channel Island of Guernsey, mentions how reading saved him and many of his friends during the Nazi Occupation during World War II. This spawns a rampant curiosity in Juliet who finds herself not only corresponding with the residents of Guernsey, but also traveling there to write a book.
Thoughts: Full confession, this book has been on my radar since it came out, but my first actual experience with the story was through the adaptation on Netflix. I remember the title and the cover catching my eye when I was a shelver, but for some reason, the story never caught my attention enough to convince me to check it out. So I have seen the movie now three or four times and felt it time to read the book. Thus, many of my reactions to the novel are in relation to how I compare it to the movie.
I was surprised to find it's an epistolary novel. The epistolary nature of the novel made it a fairly quick read. The only reason it took me so long to get through it is due to the general plague that has entered our household. 2020 starting out with a bang.
In general, I really appreciated this book. It was simple enough that I didn't feel I was analyzing. Having seen the movie already, it was a familiar story, though with the many understandable differences that come with a book vs. movie adaptation. Even though there was discussion about the WWII atrocities, most of the book was about the recovery which made it less horrific to read. And there was the general reverence for reading that was just lovely.
Though the movie version changed some of the characters around a bit and obviously took quite a few of them out, I found myself unbothered by the differences. A book is a book, and a movie is a movie. Movies tend to need more conflict than books do.
Really I just liked Guernsey. I loved that Juliet never felt the need to leave it in the book. I also liked how quickly she kicked Mark to the curb in the book too, though to be fair, his character was fairly different in the book vs. the movie.
I think the authors really touched on the humanity of war. That just because two countries are at war with each other doesn't mean that all humans on "the other side" are necessarily evil. That there's a lot of grey area. And that people are much more resilient than we like to give ourselves credit for.
In general, I really appreciated that Juliet got to know many of the Club members through letters before she met them. I felt that was fairly impetuous of her in the movie and am glad it didn't come across that way in the book. I appreciated all the stories about Elizabeth. What a remarkable character who we never meet in person! I absolutely will be adding Charles Lamb to my list of authors to read. This was a fun, diverting story through the last two weeks.
Counts for Beat the Backlist, Library Love, and Virtual Mount to be Read challenges.
I was surprised to find it's an epistolary novel. The epistolary nature of the novel made it a fairly quick read. The only reason it took me so long to get through it is due to the general plague that has entered our household. 2020 starting out with a bang.
In general, I really appreciated this book. It was simple enough that I didn't feel I was analyzing. Having seen the movie already, it was a familiar story, though with the many understandable differences that come with a book vs. movie adaptation. Even though there was discussion about the WWII atrocities, most of the book was about the recovery which made it less horrific to read. And there was the general reverence for reading that was just lovely.
Though the movie version changed some of the characters around a bit and obviously took quite a few of them out, I found myself unbothered by the differences. A book is a book, and a movie is a movie. Movies tend to need more conflict than books do.
Really I just liked Guernsey. I loved that Juliet never felt the need to leave it in the book. I also liked how quickly she kicked Mark to the curb in the book too, though to be fair, his character was fairly different in the book vs. the movie.
I think the authors really touched on the humanity of war. That just because two countries are at war with each other doesn't mean that all humans on "the other side" are necessarily evil. That there's a lot of grey area. And that people are much more resilient than we like to give ourselves credit for.
In general, I really appreciated that Juliet got to know many of the Club members through letters before she met them. I felt that was fairly impetuous of her in the movie and am glad it didn't come across that way in the book. I appreciated all the stories about Elizabeth. What a remarkable character who we never meet in person! I absolutely will be adding Charles Lamb to my list of authors to read. This was a fun, diverting story through the last two weeks.
Counts for Beat the Backlist, Library Love, and Virtual Mount to be Read challenges.
