I adore this book! Kelly's ardor in recommending it to me hastened it's climb to the top of my "books to read" list. And her enthusiasm was not unfounded…I devoured it in 3 days.
This novel is short, sweet, and entirely charming! I loved everything about The Guernesville Literary & Potato Peel Society including the eccentric characters (Juliet, Kit, Isola, and Dawsey are my faves), the history of the German occupation of the Channel Islands, and the beautiful language in the letters that form the novel's structure. The characters are so delightfully vivid they stayed with me in my dreams and I found myself wishing they were my friends. I wish we still wrote letters and I'd want mine to be just like Juliet's!
I loved that the authors, Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows, wove in some of the true history of the German occupation in England. The cruelty during World War II is astounding, but the wonderful community the characters build around their love of literature to deal with a harrowing adversity is an inspiring story, even if it is fictional. The novel is written in the form of letters between all of the amazing characters. The letters are simple, sweet, funny, heartbreakingly sad, and full of so much emotion it's no wonder they all became fast friends. I was partial to Sidney and Juliet's letters filled of witty repartee or Dawsey's letters that were so modest, yet the most heartfelt. ALL of the letters are enjoyable, even Adelaide's indignant complaints to Juliet and affronts to Elizabeth's morality produced a chuckle, especially as her character unfolds and we learn that she gets SLAPPED!
This blog quotes a part in the novel when Juliet explains the joy of reading, "all with no end in sight and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment." Juliet's statement is exactly how I feel about this book, it was "sheer enjoyment." In short I love, love, LOVED this book and would recommend it to everyone!
chelsea, this is one of my favorite books ever. kelly bought it and i borrowed it to read. i enjoyed it so much that i went out immediately and bought my own copy, so that i didn't have to steal hers.
ReplyDeleteone of my favorite lines, in addition to the one that kelly has used for our blog, is the following:
"Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers."
sometimes you read a book, and you feel such a strong connection, with the writer, the characters, the plot, the setting or all of the above. this was one of those books for me.