The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Dial Press, 2008
U.S. trade paper, reprint
ISBN 978-0-385-34099-1
290 pages; $14.00

I admit that I am, in some ways, a literary snob. Yes, I read and enjoy mysteries and fantastic literature, but I find those to be where the most imaginative stories are being told these days; my snobbery isn’t genre-based. What I avoid is the mega-blockbuster or soap-opera-ish bestsellers of Mary Higgins Clark, Danielle Steel or John Grisham, among others. If Michael Connelly, George R.R. Martin or Lee Child happen to wind up with mega-blockbusters, well, that’s coincidence – or better yet, it indicates that there is hope for the American public, because they’re reading the superior sort of genre literature I’m reading. I can be quite insufferable when I want to be.

So it surprised me that I got curious about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. This book seemed to come out of nowhere but suddenly to have been read by everyone, making it the sort of book I would normally avoid. But it is an epistolary novel – that is, told entirely in letters – and I love that form of storytelling. And it is about a subject of which I knew nothing: the occupation by the Germans of Great Britain’s Channel Islands during World War II. When the wife of one of the members of my writing group said she was reading and loving it, I took note. When I saw it on the library shelf, finally available after being on hold for about two years, I picked it up. It wasn’t high on my list of priorities, but one afternoon I was looking for something that would be easy on my mind, something I could read in short gulps, and this seemed ideal.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is, in fact, ideal for just such a mood, though sometimes those short sections make it surprisingly hard to put down. I’ll read just one more letter, you think, and the next thing you know you’ve read seven or eight “just one mores.” The romance that gives backbone to the story is charming, if utterly predictable (indeed, before I was ten pages into the book, I knew precisely who the heroine would wind up marrying). It’s just plain fun to read.

But the real value of this book to me was that it gave me a picture of how World War II affected a part of the world I hardly even knew existed. I had had no idea that the Channel Islands had been taken by the Germans; I had thought that the United Kingdom defended every inch of its territory. The occupation was not as brutal as it might have been, at least at first, because the Germans were interested in attempting to show the English how lovely it would be to have them as overlords. But living with the Germans in charge meant that everything was different. Not only were there the usual privations of war: no sugar, eggs, flour, fruit; but there was no news of the progress of the war, making it that much harder to bear. Most families had sent their children to the English countryside to be out from under the occupation, and they heard nothing of what was happening to them for five years. And there was the constant danger of setting a foot wrong – being late for curfew, for instance.

It was just such tardiness that gave rise to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The Society was the brainwave of a Guernsey woman when a group was stopped for being out too late one night. The group had actually been feasting on forbidden food, not discussing books, but after that, they met to discuss books. At first the meetings were only held to conceal the original lie, but the members soon came to cherish their meetings, their books and each other. Their gatherings sustained them through the dark days of the war, and several members found that reading was a new passion for them. And yes, they really ate potato peel pie, a delicacy made with peels for the crusts and mashed potatoes for the filling.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society feels quintessentially British. I could not help but be reminded of 84, Charing Cross Road, another story told in letters with a foundation in books. The wit displayed in both books is sometimes biting, sometimes dotty, sometimes just lovely. But always, at the base there is strength and charm in equal measure.