Ms. Hen reviews THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

2009

Random House

Ms. Hen picked up this book at a Little Free Library near where she lives;

she had heard

it wasn’t that good, but wanted

to pick out a free book. She read the novel in letters,

the epistolary novel, if you will,

about the woman writer in post-World War II England;

she makes pen pals on Guernsey, an island occupied by Germans in the war;

she wants to write a book about it,

but she doesn’t know where to start.

One thing this novel does well is that it reeks

of charm, which shines on every page, but does charm

make a novel work? Ms. Hen thinks a person without charm is worthless,

but a book stuffed with it doesn’t always cut the chocolate cake.

The problem Ms. Hen had with this book is that it doesn’t

know what it wants to be.

It is a romance novel, a novel about war and occupation,

the horror of concentration camps,

and a humorous novel?

Oscar Wilde materializes suddenly;

this novel is too many things for one book.

It’s not the letters which make it difficult; it’s the story:

there’s too much happening all at once, and it is not to Ms. Hen’s taste.

Ms. Hen didn’t like this book enough to write a real review,

so she wrote this review,

to let everyone know this book isn’t good enough for her,

you would be better off walking in the woods,

or making chili,

or watching movies, 

than reading this book.