The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I finally read it. It seems everyone’s been raving about it for a few years. Verdict: good. I knew it had to be with all that raving. The whole book is told in letter format which takes a little bit of effort at first, but then you get lost in the voice and the story, and the letter format won’t bother you at all. Speaking of the voice—I liked it. Somehow the book reminds me a bit of The Help. The voices aren't the same at all—but I suppose both books are funny and have a strong sense of voice.



I also liked learning some historical facts about WWII. I do have to say that some parts of the book are serious because of the WWII content. However, I would still call it a light-hearted “easy read.”

Though I liked the voice and sense of history, I think my favorite aspect of the book was the motif of the significance of literature. I loved hearing what the different characters said about the books they loved and what the literary society meant to them. Some lovely stuff here, folks.



I do have one objection, however. I didn’t like the end as well as the beginning. Somehow at the end the book sort of shifted tone a bit. I think this is related to the dual authorship. After the manuscript was sold, Shaffer’s cancer caused her to hand over the project to her niece. Sources say the niece finished the book. I don’t know if this means she literally wrote the end or if she just did substantive edits, but I suspect she really did write the end because she is listed as a coauthor. Also I noticed the shift in tone before I even knew the book was co-authored. The niece, Annie Borrows, is a published children's author which I think may be why I didn’t like the tone shift. The end of the book became…a bit cheesy. The end felt more like a romance novel than what the book started out as. The element of romance was always there subtly, but it was just handled differently somehow in the end.





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