Reflections: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

A few years back, this book was talked about highly in every bookish circle. I waited for the hype to die down and gave it a read recently. It is indeed an uplifting and charming book that remains with you for a long time.

Guernsey, or better known as the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel. This little island was occupied by the German troops during World War II. After substantial research on this island, the author Mary Ann Shaffer has woven a bitter-sweet historical-fiction set right after the end of World War II.

In order to ameliorate the pain and bleakness of the German occupation, the inhabitants of Guernsey end up creating a Literary Society - the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society. The story behind the Literary Society’s initiation is both sad and uplifting - it was literally an excuse that was concocted by a quick-thinking inhabitant to escape punishment from the German soldiers. What is a Potato Peel Pie? It was a regular dish that was served during the meetings - a pie made from potato peels, because there wasn’t much else to feed on. The title says it all - the hopes, positivity, strength, and communal harmony among a simple group of people who lived through five years of mistreatment and despair.

Back in London, Juliet Ashton is a witty newspaper columnist who successfully employed humor to diffuse the sadness and tension during the war. Although the war is over, she is still haunted by it and struggles to find her footing as a writer. But, this tale is full of happy, serendipitous events. She comes to know of the unique Literary Society in Guernsey and begins communicating with the members. Before long, she is in love with the island and the friendly people, and the writer in her is awakened. The rest of the book focuses on the stories Juliet discovers, and how they shape her book as well as her life.

A unique aspect of this book is that it follows an epistolary format - that is, the whole book is a series of letters exchanged between the various characters. The stories, the social scenarios, and characters unfold through the letters. I loved this novel element as it gives a lot of character to the book! But the downside to this narrative style is that it becomes much harder to define and develop the characters. It is a challenge to infuse distinct writing styles that tie with the character’s personality. So, some characters have identical writing styles, making them lose their individual “voices”. The characters are also not complicated or layered - they are either good or bad, which works well in this format.

Juliet, the protagonist is downright witty, humorous, and genial. And so are most of the other characters. Therefore, the overall tone of the book is quite Wodehousian. The phrases, the adjectives, the narration, the British tongue-in-cheek sense of humor is all Wodehouse-inspired, which is to say, I was smiling almost all through the book. And this is a delightful quality in a book that sounds so dreary and heavy with tragedies of war. The writing is eloquent and witty.

There is also a bit of Pride-and-Prejudice-inspired romance in this tale, which is predictable, but endearing all the same. Annie Barrows (the second author) is a children’s writer, so I could definitely see her influence seeping into the tale. Guernsey is turned into an idyllic sister of Avonlea (the fictional community in a Canadian island that frames the “Anne of Green Gables” series). Guernsey is projected as an Utopian haven, very much like Avonlea. The inhabitants also remind us of the friendly characters in Avonlea, each with a unique quirkiness, loads of goodhearted traits, and innocence. And the end of the book most certainly reminded me of a fun episode in Anne’s life, where everything just comes together to make a happy ending.

So, a book that is inspired from Wodehousian humor, children’s classics, and real, tragic, historical events - sounds like an interesting mix, doesn’t it? It is. For all its predictability, the contrived feel-good moments, and the horrific stories of war, the book is still a unique and uplifting read. It is also a pleasant treat for book worms, literature enthusiasts, and bibliophiles who turn to words, stories, and refined expression to take a break from life’s challenges. Mary Ann Shaffer writes - “I hope, too, that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art - be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music - enables people to transcend any barrier man has yet devised.” I cannot agree more. The book is a testament to the strength one can gain through communal harmony and interest in art. It also reiterates my belief that humor (and laughter) is the best healer.

The pages are filled with positivity, wit, hope, strength, kindness, and humaneness, in sharp contrast to the dehumanization of man during the war. 

Reflections: The Samurai's Garden

With the onset of the Second World War, Stephen, a young Chinese man afflicted with Tuberculosis is quarantined to an ancestral beach house in the quaint and small village of Tarumi, in Japan; this was at a time when the Japanese Imperialist Army was gradually taking over China. With his mixed emotions on setting into the land of the "enemy", Stephen faces loneliness in the simple village where he seems to be the only young man not to have been drafted off to fight the war. With a concerted effort, he starts forming bonds of friendship - first with his caretaker and loyal servant of the beach house, Matsu. The book recounts Stephen's emotional journey and growth, as the friendships he forms at Tarumi turn out to be more stronger than most bonds he has ever known.

Tsukiyama has crafted an evocative tale that can be peeled into different layers - a man coping with loneliness in a foreign land, the price people pay because of society's shallow prejudices, the courage required to rebuild one's life, the value of friendships, the meaning of love, betrayal and much more. Through Stephen's stay in Tarumi, Tsukiyama recreates the essence of what a small-town Japanese culture holds. Her writing distinctly brings out the flavors of the dishes cooked, the wafting aromas of the cedar and burning incense, the blissfully elegant gardens and their flowers, the pungent smell of salty fish, the vivid beauty of the simplistic homes with their neatly lined tatoma-mats and shoji windows, the peace that fills the temples, the quiet dignity of the people, their furious dedication to honor their families... and much more. Matsu, the care-taker, represents a Japanese Samurai - large framed, yet gentle, Matsu has a depth of goodness and wisdom in him, and an endless pool of inner strength. Although aloof, and a man of very few words, Matsu's life revolves around channelling his goodness to those in need of it and in spending his energy in creating life and beauty around him through his exquisite gardens. Sensing Stephen's loneliness, Matsu takes him to the withdrawn mountain-village of Yamaguchi, where resides Sachi, the woman who anchors Matsu to Tarumi.

Yamaguchi is a leper colony - the colony comprises of people who were unfortunate enough to contract the disease, and were courageous enough to live their lives, despite being ostracized by their families and society. Sachi, a once beautiful woman, rebuilds her life in Yamaguchi with Matsu's help, after her family and fiance couldn't bear to be dishonored by her and wished that she rather ended her life. Sachi's personal struggle and courage to bury her past, her quest to find inner strength and peace to live alone in the mountains, away from the society that shunned her, are very inspiring and poignant. Matsu's devotion to Sachi exemplifies the meaning of true love. Sachi's tale and Tsukiyama's dignified prose in exploring such a topic, were my most favorite aspects of the book. Tsukiyama discusses the undue focus on external appearance and beauty in our society, and how such vanity is not just shallow, but also cruel. True beauty lives within - it radiates through human virtues such as compassion, empathy, courage and determination.

In addition to Sachi and Matsu, Stephen meets many more interesting personalities in Tarumi and Yamaguchi. He also starts to both repair and reestablish his bond with his father. With the war escalating and Japan striding closer to Hong-Kong, Stephen struggles to face the inevitability of leaving Japan soon. Oddly, his best friends were now Japanese. The book thus captures how the war affected even simple people in a remote beach town in Japan, who were ready to look beyond differences in race and nationality to forge indelible bonds.

The only aspect that lacked realistic depth to this novel was how Stephen's illness was handled. While Tsukiyama does a wonderful job with detailed attention to how debilitating leprosy can be, she somehow barely paid any attention to the fact that Stephen was afflicted with a severe illness himself - Tuberculosis. Barring spurious mentions of Stephen's cough and constriction in the lungs, for the most part his character was shaped as if he just had a slight cough and was otherwise quite healthy, active and normal. The fact that Tuberculosis is contagious and air-borne was hardly considered as the tale progressed. I was disappointed at this glaring neglect.

Aside the lack of research and detail on Tuberculosis, Tsukiyama's writing has a tranquilizing clarity. Every time she described the gardens, I was completely absorbed in serenity. My love for gardens, especially Japanese gardens with their fragrant blossoms, Cedar and Koi pond, has been drastically heightened. The different layers of themes handled in this book, make it refreshingly unique.