The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Meeting Date:  May 28, 2010
Hostess:  Stacey

We had a new member join our B&B Club for the first time tonight, Rebecca.  It was a small group, only five of us, but we had quite a lengthy and in-depth discussion.
Overall this book was well-liked by the group.  It was such a unique concept to write a book in the form of letters.  Many of us were skeptical at the outset both because of the format of the book and the topic being related to the war.  We actually felt that the idea of letters allowed the authors to get to the point more quickly and there was not a lot of description to get muddled up in.
We had a lengthy discussion of how the authors were able to develop characters and make them 'knowable' to the reader, yet without all the added narration of a typical book.  From time to time, some of us did note that it was hard to remember who some of the characters were, including some of  the more prominent (say secondary characters) in the book, but for the most part it was straightforward and understandable.  We also noted that it was clear that some of the letters were missing in the chronology, and we wondered how the authors came to decide which letters to omit.
We discussed the questions included in the book, some of which made for a very interesting discussion, such as:  why Juliet would be such a good mother to Kit; whether Juliet and Dawsey would have gotten together without Remy and/or Isola; the discussion about Elizabeth and how we believed we knew so much about her, even though she was not a character in and of herself in the book, but only a a character of other people's thoughts, minds and memories.  We talked about being surprised that Sidney was gay; Mark was only about the "show" -- how he looked and he only wanted to do what he wanted for himself.  We noted that many of the characters changed throughout the book, and we also noted, interestingly that many of the characters "fell" into their professions without and specific training. 
We also had a discussion of what a "great catch" means to us and how that differs from the prevailing ideas of what women want in a relationship.
We had numerous favourite characters:  Isola, Juliet, Dawsey and Elizabeth.  Our least like characters were:  Mark and Adelaide Addison.

Ratings:
Barb ...................6.75
Stacey .................8.5
Lynne ..................7.5
Rebecca ...............6.75
Natalie .................9.5
Overall:  7.8