December 9, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

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


Discussion:

Despite several difficulties in parking due to another event, we had a very good turnout at this month’s meeting. We held the meeting a few weeks early to accommodate the holidays this month and chose Mary Ann Shaffer’s slim novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for our discussion. The book received a warm reception, as the voting illustrated. Fourteen group members voted thumbs up, one went sideways, and two abstained pending completion.

One Page Turner had been given a booklet containing photographs and brief first person accounts of people living in the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey during the Second World War. We began the discussion by having her read a few of these accounts, several of which were similar to events in our book. One told of a family who kept a contraband radio inside a church organ, while another detailed a second family’s attempts to keep an illegal pig. The whole group agreed that the war definitely brought out the islanders’ resourcefulness in the book and in real life.

Many of us did not know much about the Channel Islands before reading this book, or that they were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. We did, however associate them with cows, Guernsey and Jersey cows in particular. One of our members informed us that the population of Guernsey was forty thousand, and another told us about a British television series, Islands at War, which relates the story of the Islands’ occupation.

The next major topic of discussion concerned the book’s epistolary style. One Page Turner said that normally she is not a fan of books composed of letters, but she enjoyed this one very much. Another reader said that some reviews of the book suggested that the book’s style could be limiting, though none of us felt that was the case. We mentioned some other epistolary novels, Pamela, an eighteenth century novel by Samuel Richardson, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and the film of the same name, and the Griffin and Sabine series by Nick Bantock. One group member brought three of the Griffin and Sabine novels to the meeting and passed them around for us.

As usual, much of the rest of our discussion revolved around the characters. We talked a lot about Kit’s parenting situation. Her drifting from household to household would not fly today, with the required court orders and legal guardians. We were all glad that she seemed likely to stay with Juliet, who she seemed to bond with. Though we thought Juliet’s proposal to Dawsey was a bit forward for the time period, and a bit humorous too, we felt confident that they would take over the parenting of Kit full-time.

We also discussed Sidney and how he and his sister, Sophie, were the perfect friends for Juliet since they were a family; something she was lacking. They also provided her with a great deal of support, another thing Juliet lacked due to her orphaned status.

We talked about some of the villains in the novel too, namely Adelaide Addison and Billee Bee Jones. One reader compared Adelaide to Hilly Holbrook in The Help, saying that she, like Hilly, attempted to run society where she lived. Everyone thought Billee Bee Jones was awful as well, especially for trying to steal Isola’s Oscar Wilde letters. One Page Turner pointed out that Juliet once commented to Sidney that his secretary was too good to be true.

We mentioned the character of Eli a bit too. We discussed his evacuation to the English countryside and were thankful that his experience was a fairly good one. Some group members had heard that evacuees were sometimes treated as servants, and many felt this was more often the rule and Eli’s experience was the exception. One Page Turner related the personal story of a friend who had been evacuated as a child. She was lucky enough to have a good experience like Eli. Another group member compared the evacuation of British children to the American orphan train. Both were instances of children traveling far from home hoping for someone to take them in, often with unpleasant results.

Near then end of the meeting a group member asked if anyone had ever read any Charles Lamb. Unfortunately, none of us had. In fact, very few of us had read any of the books referenced in the novel. We were, however, glad to have read Mary Ann Shaffer’s book, though we were sad to hear of her death right before its completion. She was an author like Kathryn Stockett, one we wished we could talk to.

As usual flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier were distributed at the close of the meeting. We will resume our meetings on the fourth Thursdays of the month on January 27. Due to library renovations the Central Library meeting room will be unavailable so we will meet at the North Garland Branch Library.