Ruth's Reviews > The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
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![335159](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1678150682p2/335159.jpg)
I won an ARC of this book either from the NYer or from the publisher. I forget which, as it's been sitting around for a while.
This epistolary novel is something I should have loved. I generally like novels in letters, it’s almost like peering into lighted windows at night as you pass, sewing the bits of life seen there into a coherent whole.
It’s fun, this book, in its witty comments, sort of the way I wish I could talk all the time. Yet, about halfway through it began to pale. Everybody in the book writes witty letters, but they are all witty in much the same way. The authors have taken pains to write clearly different characters, but their manner of writing letters boils them down to the same soup.
I also began to tire of all these characters who are characters. As in, “Isn’t he a character?" Just too many odd bits of spice milling around.
Add to that, the unsatisfactory conclusion, where everything is tied up in the nice pink ribbon of The Happy Ending. My disbelief refused to be suspended.
Still, if you enjoy a bon mot as much as I do, it’s a fun, if frothy, read.
This epistolary novel is something I should have loved. I generally like novels in letters, it’s almost like peering into lighted windows at night as you pass, sewing the bits of life seen there into a coherent whole.
It’s fun, this book, in its witty comments, sort of the way I wish I could talk all the time. Yet, about halfway through it began to pale. Everybody in the book writes witty letters, but they are all witty in much the same way. The authors have taken pains to write clearly different characters, but their manner of writing letters boils them down to the same soup.
I also began to tire of all these characters who are characters. As in, “Isn’t he a character?" Just too many odd bits of spice milling around.
Add to that, the unsatisfactory conclusion, where everything is tied up in the nice pink ribbon of The Happy Ending. My disbelief refused to be suspended.
Still, if you enjoy a bon mot as much as I do, it’s a fun, if frothy, read.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
August 19, 2008
– Shelved
August 19, 2008
–
Finished Reading
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Ruth
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rated it 2 stars
Aug 20, 2008 08:52AM
![Ruth](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1678150682p1/335159.jpg)
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![Lisa Vegan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1243394822p1/83445.jpg)
![Jennifer](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1238364597p1/2171197.jpg)
![Ruth](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1678150682p1/335159.jpg)
Much the way I felt about WWII and Hogan's Heroes!!
![Eva-Marie](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1357707739p1/1336770.jpg)
:)
![Ruth](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1678150682p1/335159.jpg)
![Irisjade](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![Claudia](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1489842416p1/1706287.jpg)
![Marsia](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1248586667p1/2534403.jpg)
I was not, however, distracted by what some readers saw as a lack of variety in characters's voices or letter-writing style, and I thought the book did quite a respectable job of capturing the WWII-era sense of humor. I found it perfectly appropriate to a story set in 1946, when quick wit was valued and practiced.
To Irisjade:
Read Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), the epistolary novel by Frenchman Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (first published in 1782). The story has been filmed at least twice (see Wikipedia for details). The way this author created a group of living, breathing characters of various genders and ages is impressive, absolutely brilliant, and a fine model for anyone wishing to write a novel told through letters. If I hadn't read it for myself (it's available in paperback), I never would've believed that an eighteenth-century work could be so riveting and exciting--but it is--and full of social and sexual intrigue.
![Sheila](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1247323433p1/2216519.jpg)
![Karen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1284227417p1/3075354.jpg)
![Ellie](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1408062147p1/949455.jpg)
![Jude](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1342061814p1/925949.jpg)
![Cadiva](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1670692148p1/4247172.jpg)