Adele Geras was one of the winners of the recent book draw for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and very kindly agreed to review it for Random Jottings. While I am happy to blather on about books and give the world my opinion, I am neither a writer or a reviewer so I am delighted that Adele, who is both and in abundance, agreed to my request. Here is her review below:
"I was overjoyed when Henry the very clever bear picked my name out of the hat to win this book. I don’t often win things in raffles and this was a particular treat. I’d seen reviews of it on various blogs and it looked interesting. Bloomsbury, of course, are well-known for bestowing on each of their books a silky ribbon to mark your place, so I always look forward to getting something from them. Still, while I am on the subject of production, I was dismayed to find a real howler on the cover. The postmarks on the letters (and the whole novel is LETTERS) depicted on the jacket say clearly ‘1947’ and the whole book is set very firmly in 1946. It’s the kind of thing I notice and maybe others wouldn’t but it annoyed me. It’s such an EASY thing to get right and I do hope it can be corrected for the paperback. There’s also an extra ‘a’ in ‘husband’ in the back flap copy....I’m sorry...I’m being pedantic!
The book itself is, as everyone has been saying, a delight. It’s amusing, moving, interesting about a time and a place about which most people know very little. It’s an epistolary novel (I’ll come back to the advantages and disadvantages of this form in a minute) about a London writer who becomes involved with the members of the GLPPPS through letters and eventually goes to the islandand meets them. In the course of the story, we have romance, humour, historical detail about the German Occupation of the Channel Islandsand even a sort of recipe for the eponymous pie. It’s easy to get carried along by the enchanting voices of the letter writers and particularly by Juliet, the heroine, who is charming and kind and funny and just the sort of person to be a heroine in a book like this. The dark side, the historical side, appears with the revelations about the Occupation. The author became interested in this story while she was alive and it’s good to see the past evoked in a way that is truthful, moving and fascinating. The parts of the story dealing with the evacuation of the children to the mainland is heartbreaking. Juliet finds out about it by talking to the survivors and we find out through their accounts in their letters. We even get a glimpse of life in Ravensbruck, through a character called Remy, who was befriended by one of the Islanders when they were there together.
You can’t put this book down, it’s true. It has many absolutely sterling qualities, that’s also true. Its heart is well and truly in the right place and Mary Ann Shaffer is a lively and honest writer, but when you’ve thought about it for a while after finishing it, several thoughts spring up and most of these have to do with the form Shaffer has chosen.
One thing is clear: the postal service in 1946 was a great deal better than it is now. Julia, the heroine, exchanges several notes with her beau in Londonduring the course of ONE DAY and it was possible to do that. But if you tell a whole story in letters, especially one involving a) historical facts and b) a great deal of talking between various groups of people, it can be a little contrived to put the whole thing down on paper, so to speak. Shaffer has various ways of dealing with this problem and is for the most part very successful, though at times you couldn’t help thinking that the person would much more convincingly have spoken to the heroine who was, after all, just up the road on a very small island. You do have to suspend a bit of disbelief in all epistolary novels and if you’re prepared to do that, there’s no problem. I also thought that letters from Oscar Wilde to the grandmother of one of the characters was just one plot strand too many. Also, in spite of elementary education then being a whole lot better than it probably is today, the universal good prose style of all the correspondents stretched credulity a little but to be truthful, I didn’t care because while I was reading, I was enjoying the book so much.
Around the story of the Occupation, Shaffer has woven a very pleasant romantic tale and for the most part it works very well, this blending of love story and grim historical fact. Again, I’m not sure I’d have brought Remy back from the horrors of Ravensbruck to be a cog in a romance plot machine, but that’s a small quibble. For the most part, this book is everything the bloggers say it is: a really good read. It’s full of characters who spring to life on the page. It’s a well-written story and one that has a moral purpose, too. I’m quite sure it will be a massive bestseller and I can already see the movie/tv adaptation. Miriam Margoyles for Isola! Book groups will love it and find much to discuss, including whether the title is the right one. One person who knew I was reading it told me the title had “put her right off.” There’s a fashion, post Ukrainian tractors, for long titles and I don’t mind this one, but others may disagree.
So, thanks to Henry and the gang at Random Jottings for giving me the chance to read what is a terrific book, my few reservations notwithstanding"
My grateful thanks to Adele for taking the time to write this review and for letting me post it on Random - please do read her latest newsletter, just up on: http://adelegeras.com
