Thursday, September 10, 2009
Book of the day
posted at 9:29 AM |
Permalink |
Just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (well, listening to the audio book) and I want to say that I enjoyed it very much. I kept hearing about it and seeing people buying it so I read the descriptions on B&N and Amazon. I was concerned that it would be awfully cute and romancy and it is a bit of both but it's also startling and often quite wonderful.
One remarkable feat of the book is its casual and friendly interweaving of serious literature into a story that isn't particularly intellectual. The members of the eponymous literary society - whose origins I will not reveal because it's one of the early surprises in the story - have a (perhaps not entirely believable - to me, anyway) passion for authors like Charles Lamb and Seneca which makes for delicious quotations and references.
And the well-researched historical details are enthralling. For example, I knew the Guernseys were occupied by the Naziis during WWII but I had no idea it was for so long (nearly six years) nor how vicious. Obviously I knew Naziis were extraordinarily cruel as a rule but I'd always thought their island outposts were relatively quiet as far as that went. Some of the random and utterly casual cruelties described here are beyond astonishing.
The vivid descriptions of the geography and the air on the island make me want little more than to go there right now and walk along the cliffs and beaches.
And if the characters in the book are even remotely like actual islanders, then that is yet another reason for a nice long visit.
My only quarrel with the book is that once the last quarter begins, all the historical and literary threads pretty much disappear into a not-unexpected winding-down and ending.
One remarkable feat of the book is its casual and friendly interweaving of serious literature into a story that isn't particularly intellectual. The members of the eponymous literary society - whose origins I will not reveal because it's one of the early surprises in the story - have a (perhaps not entirely believable - to me, anyway) passion for authors like Charles Lamb and Seneca which makes for delicious quotations and references.
And the well-researched historical details are enthralling. For example, I knew the Guernseys were occupied by the Naziis during WWII but I had no idea it was for so long (nearly six years) nor how vicious. Obviously I knew Naziis were extraordinarily cruel as a rule but I'd always thought their island outposts were relatively quiet as far as that went. Some of the random and utterly casual cruelties described here are beyond astonishing.
The vivid descriptions of the geography and the air on the island make me want little more than to go there right now and walk along the cliffs and beaches.
And if the characters in the book are even remotely like actual islanders, then that is yet another reason for a nice long visit.
My only quarrel with the book is that once the last quarter begins, all the historical and literary threads pretty much disappear into a not-unexpected winding-down and ending.
1 comments
Missy http://www.missyisms.com
< home >