I must confess, I have reached something of an impasse in my Summer Reading program. All of a sudden, what started as a challenge, has gotten light and easy. I am trying to vacillate between hard and paper back, serious and fun, but I am nowhere near ready yet for "Cities Of Fire" by Garth Risk Halberg; the plan is to end my summer with that.
Now, I had heard about "The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society"--my, that title is a mouthful, unlike something like "The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs," which literally roles off the tongue. But, then, William Inge was a lyrical writer.
I had heard of this book for years, but paid it no mind. What got me interested was discovering the circumstances under how the work was written and published.
The novel is largely the work of Mary Ann Shaffer, an older woman, who, during the course of her life, had been a book seller, editor, and librarian. The novel was her idea and she wrote it. But, as publication neared, and editors asked for rewrites, her health began to fail, and so she asked her
niece, Annie Barrows, an author, herself, to step in and put the finishing touches on it. And so she did. Which is why the book has two bylines on the cover. Unfortunately, Mary Ann passed on before publication. It is so sad she could not realize the success of her achievement.
All this reminded me of one of the fuss, twenty years back, over Helen Hooven Santmyer's novel, "...And Ladies Of The Club," one of my faves. Of course, that was a thousand plus page book, she worked on it for fifty years, but lived to see it published, at the grand old age of 98! There is still time for me, hons!!!!!!!!!!!
So, I was expecting, more or less, a scaled down version of the earlier novel, with literary references. Oh, they are there, to be sure, but the entire novel is epistolary, and having read "Everyone Brave Is Forgiven" and "The Light Between Oceans," I came to feel I was spending too much of my reading time in England. Especially when you factor in Curtis Sittenfeld's "Eligible," which is set in Cincinnati, but, being a reworking of "Pride And Prejudice," I am reading Austen's work in my head, as I go along, so I was feeling stuck in England. And needing to get out.
My initial reaction was ambivalence. But I will say this much, as soon as the character of Elizabeth came into the story, it all clicked for me, and I was able to move on, and go with the story at hand. The book is charming, in a reserved sort of way, and the male characters are just as interesting as the women. The title makes it sound like a "woman's book," but like "Everyone Brave Is Forgiven," it is for everyone.
In Annie Barrows comments at the end, she advises against trying to make a potato peel pie. I am with her.
Any reader minus my expectations will love it. But if you share mine, I promise, once Elizabeth comes onto the scene, you will be hooked.
And two bitches deservedly get slapped. and who among us, does no love that, darlings???????????????
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