The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, received brilliant reviews in the English speaking world. The story does Guernsey proud.


Here is a synopsis:
❝A cynic might think that this feel-good story about a book club formed during the German occupation of Guernsey whose history is uncovered by a journalist in gloomy postwar London was written to order for modern book clubs in search of an uncontroversial read. But its exuberant lightness and unremitting charm are tempered by wit and a forceful, knowledgeable defence of the power of literature to comfort and provide a moral framework. At its centre are two women - Juliet, who made her name through a morale-boosting wartime magazine column, and Elizabeth, who invented the society to fool a German patrol when she and fellow islanders were caught out after curfew. The epistolatory form and Juliet's numerous correspondents make for a jolting narrative at times. This, though, is easily forgiven and cynicism is banished when you discover that former librarian Mary Ann Shaffer struggled for 30 years to turn her fascination for Guernsey into fiction and died before the final edit, leaving her niece to complete the book.❞
taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/20/guernsey-potato-shaffer-barrows

View Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society in a larger map, worth taking a look at, with references to the story.

Although this was a best seller around the globe in the original English, and the book was translated into many different languages, the German version "Deine Juliet" was not so well received. The German critics detected a hint of Rosamunde Pilcher, one reviewer commented it "was at times quite boring", some thought the story was too old fashioned in today's world of SMSs, tweets and emails, and in general it was deemed to be no "literarisches Meisterwerk"  but a  "hinreißender Roman".

I think these evaluations of the story and book are due to cultural differences. The book plays on the British sense of humour, understatement, sarcasm, which can be hard to appreciate - unless you are an Anglophile already. The translation by Martina Tichy and Margarete Längsfeld are fine - but every book loses out in a translation.

I loved the book. When I had read the last page I flicked back to the first page and started reading the novel for a second time. The story is so coherent. There are no lapses, the line of information never muddled. The islanders have a hard time, and the occupying forces are in the wrong - but they are no monsters. Even with a German background I don't feel threatened by the well researched story. This was war, and terrible things happen during such conflicts.

The islanders are cunning, but they have respect for the orderliness and administrative capabilities of the occupying army. Finally this is not a story of "us beating them" but a novel full of real characters: good (perhaps too good?), quirky, sometimes righteous, sad and humiliated (Miss Adelaide Addison) who survive in a bad situation. I realise that difficult times bring out the best (and worst) in people. Perhaps it takes an American author to see both sides of the story, even in a setting which can be turned into a black-and-white tale so easily.

What will Sherwood Book Club think of it on 1st February 2011? Will the participants want to be reminded of the War? The language register should not be a problem this time. It is so beautiful polite and measured. The story reminded me of The Purple Rose Of Cairo [DVD] [1985], another modern production of a story set in the olden days.