The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
2009
Random House
Ms. Hen picked up this book at a Little Free Library near
where she lives;
she had heard
it wasn’t that good, but wanted
to pick out a free book. She read the novel in letters,
the epistolary novel, if you will,
about the woman writer in post-World War II England;
she makes pen pals on Guernsey, an island occupied by
Germans in the war;
she wants to write a book about it,
but she doesn’t know where to start.
One thing this novel does well is that it reeks
of charm, which shines on every page, but does charm
make a novel work? Ms. Hen thinks a person without charm is
worthless,
but a book stuffed with it doesn’t always cut the chocolate
cake.
The problem Ms. Hen had with this book is that it doesn’t
know what it wants to be.
It is a romance novel, a novel about war and occupation,
the horror of concentration camps,
and a humorous novel?
Oscar Wilde materializes suddenly;
this novel is too many things for one book.
It’s not the letters which make it difficult; it’s the
story:
there’s too much happening all at once, and it is not to
Ms. Hen’s taste.
Ms. Hen didn’t like this book enough to write a real review,
so she wrote this review,
to let everyone know this book isn’t good enough for her,
you would be better off walking in the woods,
or making chili,
or watching movies,
than reading this book.
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