Reading Group Discussion - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

[SunnyChick]

Reading Group Discussion
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows)

For a very brief intro/background to our reading group/rules, etc please see:
http://forum.caithness.org/showthrea...oup-on-the-org

This reading group discussion is open to everyone who has read the book.

I have some set questions ready, and will introduce these on this thread over the course of the next few hours/days. Hope everyone enjoys taking part!

[SunnyChick]

1.
Did you like how The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was written as a series of letters? What are the pros and cons of this format?

[SunnyChick]

1.
Did you like how The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was written as a series of letters? What are the pros and cons of this format?

Well, I think this is the first time I have ever read a book written as letters, so it took a bit of getting used to. However, once I got to about Page 16 (the tea pot incident) I was hooked!

Pro's
I enjoyed having a direct insight to the thoughts of and stories behind each of the different characters.
The mixture of serious and casual letters/telegrams. You would find yourself having just read through a grim letter and in need of a lift, and there it would be, a short flirtatious/lighthearted telegram that would cheer you up again.
The author was good at building a pitcure of Guernsey during the occupation, in a way that made you want to read more, all the while, learning little snippets of history along the way.



Con's
I would have liked to see a little more narrative/descriptive about some things, for example, just off the top of my head, there were brief mentions of Todt workers throughout the letters, but I would have liked to have read more about this.
Because the book solely consists of letters, this has made it short at only 240 pages and you could easily devour it in one sitting. But it deserves more attention than this, so I had to drip feed it to myself over 3 weeks.

[SunnyChick]

2.
How would you characterize Juliet? Did you like her?

[SunnyChick]

3.

Did you want Juliet to end up with Sidney, Mark Reynolds or Dawsey?

Did you suspect why a romantic relationship with Sidney was not possible?

[SunnyChick]

4.
What did you learn about World War II from this book?

Please note - I have a total of 10 questions for discussion, however I'll give time first to allow you folks a chance to enjoy the first 4 before moving on (either tomorrow or Sunday all being well).

[Tilly Teckel]

1.
Did you like how The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was written as a series of letters? What are the pros and cons of this format?

I loved this format, especially as it was new to me in a novel. I could literally hear the characters speaking to each other and felt like a privileged eavesdropper. Who doesn't like listening in on other people's conversations?

I felt like I got to know the characters very quickly, particularly of course Juliet. Seeing people through a few different pairs of eyes was interesting too as it revealed more aspects of their personality and of that of the person doing the 'seeing' (if that makes sense?!). I felt the author(s) carefully chose who got to say what according to the subject matter. Some topics were very emotional and by using a character who spoke plainly and stated facts to tell that part of the story, it never strayed into melodrama and was often all the more intense for the restaint used in the language. The variety of long/short/serious/lighthearted/letters/telegrams made the story ebb and flow pleasantly and it kept me turning the pages....

...which is also a downside, as the book was definitely too short! I was left wanting more and missing my new 'friends' immediately. A couple of the characters were too lightly sketched (Eben and Amelia spring to mind) and I found myself wondering about them. I must admit that at the very beginning I did think I would find Juliet irritating as she was so damn chirpy but she grew on me very quickly!


2.
How would you characterize Juliet? Did you like her?

As I said above, I did think I would find Juliet irritating initially. She seemed frivolous and flighty and a bit of an airhead to be honest. However, when her dry, quirky wit and 'take me or leave me' attitude kicked in I loved her. She was a very independent young woman carving her own path in life acording to her own rules, although beset by the insecurities and social pressures we all feel. She was open and friendly, willing to go out of her way to help others and she took pleasure in the little things in life. If I had endured a war in such close quarters I'm not sure I could have kept my spirits as high as Juliet's. She was accepting of others' individuality and seemed to revel in their eccentricities and differences. Juliet was nobody's fool, naive yet wise beyond her years. She put me in mind of Kipling's 'If'; "If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same". Juliet would be a fine friend to have, in triumph or disaster.

[Tilly Teckel]

3.

Did you want Juliet to end up with Sidney, Mark Reynolds or Dawsey?

Did you suspect why a romantic relationship with Sidney was not possible?

I usually hate it when, early on in a book or a film, there's two characters who you just know will be together by the end. It kind of takes away the mystery of the story. However in this story it was comforting, knowing that Juliet and Dawsey would eventually be together. They were so obviously meant for each other. Juliet was frustrated at the lack of progress in their relationship throughout but I felt they had to experience the things they did to realise what they wanted in life and get to a point where they had to reach out and grab it.

It was obvious that Juliet would never marry Mark - she's far too smart to be his trophy wife and I would have hated it if she had. As for Sidney, I'm not sure when I came to realise he was gay - maybe when he went to Australia and there was mention of Piers looking after him. Either way, he and Juliet were like brother and sister and I couldn't imagine them being a couple.

At the end of the book I was left with a lovely picture of Juliet and Dawsey raising Kit together in Guernsey, and a very happy family they looked too!

4.
What did you learn about World War II from this book?

I was shocked and ashamed that my knowledge of WWII contained nothing about the Channel Islands. I was vaguely aware that they had been occupied but I had no idea they had been left undefended by the British Government and had to fend for themselves. the extent of the deprivation they suffered under the Germans was horrendous. I took time to imagine what it would be like to have an enemy force come into Caithness, my own rural paradise with fresh sea air, open countryside and small villages. To have someone take over my land, my house, commandeer my crops for their own use, take my animals to feed their soldiers and leave me with nothing to feed my family... it's terrifying. There was nothing they could do, no-one to whom they could turn and it went on for so long. I don't know how they kept going.

The portrayal of the concentration camps was more familiar but still as horrifying. The story of the women being sent out of the camp to walk to freedom when the Germans' downfall was imminent was new to me. How those women must have felt - desperate to reach safety but without the energy to make it, dying on the roadside, so near and yet still so very far from home.

Human nature in all it's forms was illustrated; in Elizabeth's relationship with Christian we saw that love can grow in the poorest soil; we saw that desperate people will do terrible things, when the islanders gave information to the Germans for reward; the starving Todt workers who stole food because a person's will to survive surpasses their morals; the islanders who helped them with compassion at risk to their own safety; and overall that the human spirit is not easily broken.

We need to never forget.

[Tilly Teckel]

On a brighter note and slightly off-topic, I came across this today whilst looking at the top 100 April Fool's hoaxes... could this be where the name 'Izzy Bickerstaff' came from??
Isaac Bickerstaff was the pseudonym of a newspaper columnist, who was also a bit of a mischief-maker. Just a coincidence that Juliet was Izzy...? hmmmmm

#26: The Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff
1708: In February 1708 a previously unknown London astrologer named Isaac Bickerstaff published an almanac in which he predicted the death by fever of the famous rival astrologer John Partridge. According to Bickerstaff, Partridge would die on March 29 of that year. Partridge indignantly denied the prediction, but on March 30 Bickerstaff released a pamphlet announcing that he had been correct: Partridge was dead. It took a day for the news to settle in, but soon everyone had heard of the astrologer's demise. Thus, on April 1st Partridge was woken by a sexton outside his window who wanted to know if there were any orders for his funeral sermon. Then, as Partridge walked down the street, people stared at him as if they were looking at a ghost or stopped to tell him that he looked exactly like someone they knew who was dead. As hard as he tried, Partridge couldn't convince people that he wasn't dead. Bickerstaff, it turned out, was a pseudonym for the satirist Jonathan Swift. His prognosticatory practical joke upon Partridge worked so well that the astrologer finally was forced to stop publishing his almanacs, because he couldn't shake his reputation as the man whose death had been foretold.

[SunnyChick]

2.
How would you characterize Juliet? Did you like her?

For some unknown reason I found Juliet not dissimilar to Nigella Lawson! Domestic goddess? Hardly! More that she was a confident, cheeky, flirtatious and outspoken individual, who made good and proper use of the English language, and came across as a well educated but pretty mischevious. I don't know if her character physically resembled Nigella, all curves and dark bouncy curls...but I think her personality seemed to fit very well.

At first I thought she was a little self indulgent, and slightly annoying. However as time went on, and I quickly learned that her heart was in the right place, I thought she was simply fabulous!

[SunnyChick]

3.

Did you want Juliet to end up with Sidney, Mark Reynolds or Dawsey?

Did you suspect why a romantic relationship with Sidney was not possible?

At first I thought Sidney was the obvious candidate. I thought he would come to sweep her off her feet, confess undying love and have a set-to with Mark Reynolds. I pictured something like a girly fight (like in Bridget Jone's Diary - the fight at the fountain - LOL).

I did not guess the real reason why Sidney would not have in interest in Juliet. If anything I did just wonder once or twice if the only barrier to a possible relationship between Juliet and Sidney would be that she saw him like an older brother, and him seeing her as the annoying little sister.

I knew she wouldn't settle for Mark Reynolds, whom I took instant dislike to! Arrogant self obsessed man who seemed to expect women to falll for his superficial charms and throw themselves at his feet. Why did he persue Juliet? She didn't exactly make it easy for him. Perhaps he was one of those types who just like the chase? I would not have been surprised had he been the cheating type.

[SunnyChick]

4.
What did you learn about World War II from this book?

My historical knowledge is "limited" at best and most of what I've learned about our history has come from historical fiction, such as this book. The letters in this book helped to take me back in time and pitch it at the right level for me to understand.

I learned that Guernsey was left completely undefended during the War.

I didn't know that 16,000 of Germany's slave workers (Todt) were sent to Guernsey to fortity the island and build cement bunkers. Being continually subjected to hard labour throughout the day, with little or nothing to eat, and then being loose at night to scavenge for food and steal from the islanders vegetable gardens. They were starving and Islanders were unable to take pity on them as they were threatened with imprisonment if they tried to help a fellow human.

The islanders were exposed to many difficulties and sometimes turning against one another when someone would get in-step with the German soldiers and then inform on their neighbours, just so they could score a few lumps of coal to keep themselves warm. Absolute desperation.

The islanders were in a unique position where the enemy and them were "in it together" and occasionally you would see signs of a kinship between them. For example, Juliet's letter to Sidney 19th July 1946 (page 181) - "I met more than one nice German solider. You would, you know, seeing some of them as much as every day for five years. You couldn't help but feel sorry for some of them - stuck here knowing their families at home were being bombed to pieces. Didn't matter then who started it in the first place...........just ask Mrs Godfray about her boy. He had the pneumonia ad she was worried half to death because she couldn't keep him warm nor give him food to eat. One day there's a knock on her door, and when she opens it she sees an orderly from the German hospical. Withough a wor, he hands her a phial of that sulphonamide, tips his cap and walks away. He had stolen it from the dispensary for her. They caught him later, trying to steal some again, and they sent him off to prison in Germany - maybe hanged him. We'd not be knowing."


This book put a face and human valule on the German soldier, something I hadn't really imagined before.

[SunnyChick]

[QUOTE=Tilly Teckel;836581][B]On a brighter note [COLOR=blue]and slightly off-topic, I came across this today whilst looking at the top 100 April Fool's hoaxes... could this be where the name 'Izzy Bickerstaff' came from??
QUOTE]

LOL! Could well be! How funny - it's just Juliet's kind of humour! HA HA!

[SunnyChick]

5.

If you had lived on Guernsey just before the occupation, do you think you would have sent your children to England without you?

[SunnyChick]

6.

What did you think of Elizabeth's relationship with Christian? Was it wrong of her to love a Nazi?

[SunnyChick]

7.

Who was your favorite character in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

[SunnyChick]

5.

If you had lived on Guernsey just before the occupation, do you think you would have sent your children to England without you?

As much as it would destroy me to send my children away, if I was felt that their lives were in danger on the island then I would have no other choice but to let them go.

This book really did bring home to me these difficult decisions taken by many parents during the war, to evacuate their children. They must have felt pretty desperate to go along with that, and absolutely helpless, not knowing for sure if they would ever see their kids again, at the same time having to reassure their bairns that everything was going to be ok, when no-one could predict what was going to happen next. Imagine the fear of not knowing whether your children would really be safe, how difficult it would be to accept that your child in the hands of another person, unknown to you. Would they be loved or abused, safe or vulnerable? Also, what would happen to them after the war if you lost your life?

Hope this isn't digressing too much but... I was at the Bank Row memorial garden in Wick yesterday, and read the names of those who perished in those first bombings on mainland Britain. How utterly tragic, many of them were children. What is 5 years away from your evacuee child, compared to the very real risk that your child may not survive those 5 years if he/she was kept at home with you?

[Tilly Teckel]

5.

If you had lived on Guernsey just before the occupation, do you think you would have sent your children to England without you?

It hurts even to think of it but I suppose I would have. I'm not sure that the islanders anticipated just how difficult life would be under the occupation but they obviously guessed well enough to know that the children would be better off elsewhere. Any decent parent just wants their child to be safe but we can usually be sure that they are safest with us. It must have been torture to know that some stranger could keep your child safer than you could. And to have no information about their safety and no communication with them... well I shudder to think how that felt. I would have been out of mind with worry.

I don't think the islanders realised how long they would be gone for though. It made me wonder how the families adapted when the children did eventually come back. The younger children especially must have been very confused to return to families they would hardly remember. Firm bonds can form under pressure and I wonder, if a child was lucky enough to have had a lovely foster home and parents during the war, might they have been reluctant to leave? What would be worse - not getting your child back or getting back a child who no longer called you Mum?

[Tilly Teckel]

6.

What did you think of Elizabeth's relationship with Christian? Was it wrong of her to love a Nazi?

How can you choose who you fall in love with? Maybe she could have ignored her feelings but Elizabeth seemed to be the kind of person who judged people by their own actions and she obviously saw nothing wrong with Christian's. He was a good man in a very bad situation. The Nazis could tell him what to do but not who to be and he remained true to himself as far as he could.

I can see how Elizabeth's fellow islanders may have judged her for her actions but she was not in any way siding with the enemy or betraying her country. She was just a young woman who know her own mind and her own heart and lived by her own moral standards. She could see through uniforms and badges to the person inside and was wise enough to know when that person was worth loving. I admire her greatly for her courage.

[Tilly Teckel]

7.

Who was your favorite character in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

Although we never 'met' her, Elizabeth was my favourite character. She has all the qualities I admire most. She was a strong, independent woman who could look after herself, and others. She was quick-witted (hence the origins of the Society!) and intelligent. She valued her friends and let them know it. She loved books and stories, the sea and the fields. She was a free spirit, unbound by social conventions and expectations but still a very moral person who knew right from wrong and was not afraid to say so. I loved her compassion, particularly in the scene where the children are being made ready to leave the island and she is cheering them up and helping them to be brave. Even more so, I love the fact that she wasn't afraid to give Amelia a good old slap when she needed one!

Elizabeth's ultimate demise displays all her best attributes - her courage, her love for others, her strength of character and her innate 'goodness'. She was no saint but, in my humble opinion, deserved to be made one.