Novel Tea 'n Pages Book Club members recently held their second meeting and discussed the month of May selection, 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer.The evening began in a relaxing manner where each member gave their overall view of the book, followed by a more in-depth discussion of specific questions that allowed the members to explore the book and author's objectives at a deeper level.
The overall feed back from the majority of members reflected a positive response to the story line, and an affection, especially to its endearing characters. A few members decided that it really was a little 'hard going' for them and not really their 'cup of tea', but decided to persist with it.
During interval, the hostess, Deb, shared out mini Potato Peel Pies (see photograph) she had baked using a recipe found on a web page. Although not an authentic recipe (as the more authentic recipe was extremely basic), the recipe used was still very basic and quite bland. However, the novelty idea gave the book club members a taste of what it might have been like had they been holding their book club meeting post war during the German occupation. The small pies created interesting comments and discussions alone, separate to the book.
After interval, discussion turned to individual elaboration of feelings about the book. Each member discussed why they felt a certain way, ensuring interaction from fellow members who shared their views as well. Discussion of favourite characters stemmed from this conversation. Favourite characters included, Juliette, Dawsey and Isola as well as Elizabeth.
Two points of interest came out of the discussion. The first: when enjoying fiction, book club members enjoy it more if they learn something factual using fiction as the method to discover the knowledge and, secondly, the book works if the author successfully entices us to want to visit the place they are writing about. 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' successfully fulfilled both criteria for the members present.
Members discussed their thoughts on how they felt about reading someone else's 'personal' letters and more so, how everyone felt about reading a whole book made up of only letters. Comments made from the discussion were that it was like 'finding your grandmother's box of old letters' and reading through them and learning about her and her life back then. Most agreed it didn't feel weird that they were reading someone's private letters like it would if they read someone's diary.
Another point made was that it was a great way to learn about each character. Each layer was shown via a different letter, either addressed to the same person or to another person, revealing, little by little, lives woven throughout the story to make a fabric of community. One member felt it was hard work to get to know the characters at first because there were so many of them and it was hard to remember who was who.
Juliette was the favourite character chosen by the attending members.
Other comments flowing from the narrative was that the author managed to teach us about true friendships and how the best friendships interact with one another. Each character was independent, yet interactive between each other. It also revealed the challenges Juliette faced each day as a writer.
An important point made, concerned the trust that some of the characters felt toward others and the betrayal of those least expected, in order to survive. Sadly, it really came down to the 'survival of the fittest' sometimes. Much of the discussion centred around Elizabeth and her role throughout the story.
The members in attendance highly recommend 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society' to others. Overall, most members thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Our next book for the month of June is: 'The Story of a Marriage' by Andrew Sean Greer. This is a book that will provide some twists for the reader.
Our meeting concluded with refreshments and socialising. Another pleasant get together. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, new members are always welcome.
so, until next time...
happy reading...
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