"German patrol officers suddenly rose out of the trees with their Lugers drawn and began to shout – Why were we out after curfew? Where had we been? Where were we going? [...] Elizabeth drew in her breath and stepped forward. Elizabeth isn't tall, so those pistols were lined up at her eyes, but she didn't blink. [...] She walked up to the officer in charge and started talking. You never heard such lies. How sorry she was that we had broken curfew. How we had been attending a meeting of the Guernsey Literary Society, and the evening's discussion of Elizabeth and Her German Garden had been so delightful that we had all lost track of time. Such a wonderful book – had he read it?"
Overview
The year is 1946. Though World War II is over, its consequences are still fresh – for many, a painful presence in everyday life. The novel, an exchange of letters, reveals story-by-story a historical portrait of life during the war while following the protagonist, Juliet Ashton, as she solicits information for her new book. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society is itself a work of fiction, but that it not to say it does not depict truth: authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows write colorful, convincing characters and accounts that successfully capture the universal elements of war – the tragic, and the human – within the frame of the wartime-occupied isle of Guernsey.
Plot
The story begins with Juliet Ashton, successful British wartime writer, finishing a tour for her most recent and acclaimed work. She returns home to find a letter from Dawsey Adams, a farmer from the isle of Guernsey. Dawsey explains that he is in possession of a book which once belonged to Juliet – a selection of essays written by Charles Lamb – and requests, might she tell him the name of a bookshop in London so he can order more of Lamb's works? Though the Germans are gone, there are no bookshops left on Guernsey.
"Charles Lamb made me laugh during the German Occupation, especially when he wrote about the roast pig. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came into being because of a roast pig we had to keep secret from the German soldiers, so I felt a kinship to Mr. Lamb."
Through on-going correspondence with Dawsey, Juliet learns the first details of occupied wartime life in Guernsey. She learns that islanders were denied news of the outside world for five years, foreign paper delivery cut off and wireless sets collected by the Germans; why a roast pig dinner was an occasion of utmost secrecy; how The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came by chance to be, and how it became something which helped islanders cope with the trials of life during occupation.
The book is a two-part piece. Part one follows Juliet's branching letter correspondence with numerous members of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and other islanders as she settles on the German Occupation in Guernsey as the subject of her next work. But the rich content of the letters – accounts of the war in turns miserable and uplifting, terrible and touching, as well as voices kind and biting, wise and humorous, and the growing friendships they foster – drive the book to part two, in which Juliet travels to Guernsey to live among her new friends and write her book. Her experiences there surprise even her, and ultimately change her life.
The Society
The Guernsey Literary Society was created during the German Occupation, but its participants continue regular meetings even after the war is over. Besides being a community stronghold in troubled times and a place for lively conversation which helps distract from the war, those involved in the society connect with literature in a way that helps them deal with difficulty and loss both during and after the years of occupation. Where one member finds comfort in the Brontë sisters, another looks to Wordsworth, another to Marcus Aurelius; others find refuge in gardening books, or old inherited letters; one woman even reads from a cookbook when it is her turn, though her mouth-watering descriptions are quickly stopped since, in the food-scare time of occupation, birdseed is ground for flour and vegetables are cooked in seawater for lack of salt.
Two sides of the war
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is rare in that, in addition to accounting for many of the ordeals of war – bombings, the cruelty shown to exhausted, starved laborers and those sent to concentration camps, the corruption of those who would betray their neighbors for a little extra ration, the misery of those children and parents separated, or lost – it portrays human kindness and grace in unexpected places. Islanders shelter and feed Todt workers at their own risk. German soldiers purposefully drop potatoes, oranges, and coal when weak island children follow lorries bound for the army's mess hall. Orphans are taken in. One soldier shows up at an elderly woman's doorstep clenching flowers to declare his intentions for the islander he has befriended and loves.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, though written under a lens concentrated on a single channel island, doubtlessly speaks truths relevant to many tales of war beyond.
Additional information
Though the book makes reference both to children who were sent away from the island and those who stayed during the war, it gives only a few details about what their lives were like at the time. For a more developed depiction, see Peter Le Prevost's account, in which he recalls life in occupied Guernsey through the eyes of a child.
Details about life during the war, and especially of what became of those who were shipped off to work camps and never heard from again, are still emerging today. As recently as 2010, a compiled prison camp archive was found in a Guernsey islander's wardrobe.
Source:
Shaffer, Mary Ann & Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The Dial Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-385-34099-1.
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