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Popular Culture Review
Pie Society takes place in Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of
England. The immense popularity and attraction of this novel are characterized
by themes that are valued among popular literature—a series of engaging, easyto-read short letters, character development, an unfamiliar location that feels
familiar, and pure romance. The timeframe of this epistolary novel occurs from
January through September 1946, when the shock, fatigue, suffering, and
isolation of Guernsey’s wartime occupation was beginning to dissipate. Invaded
by Germany on June 30, 1940, with the occupation lasting until early 1945, the
Guernsey Islanders were shut off from newspapers, food, household goods, and
other everyday items. Prior to the novel’s publication, few persons in the United
States knew of the Guernsey Islands or realized that the Germans had captured
this territory early in the war. The popularity of the novel has even led to several
large cruise ships stopping at the Guernsey Islands during tours around the
British Isles or to other European countries.
To lessen the weariness and drudgery that the inhabitants experienced
during the Occupation, they formed the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie
Society one night after a resident (Amelia Maugery) hosted a secret roast pig
dinner. As the dinner guests walked home, obviously past curfew, Elizabeth
McKenna convinces the German guards that the revelers are simply late in
leaving their literary society meeting. And from that incident, the Guernsey
Literary Society is bom as Elizabeth scurries to locate and assign books to
society members. The “Potato Peel Pie” portion of the society’s name was added
when one of the recalcitrant members affirmed that he would not attend the
literary society meetings unless there were refreshments. Without the usual
baking ingredients, a potato peel pie was concocted: “mashed potatoes for
filling, strained beets for sweetness, and potato peelings for crust” (51).
In the novel, Guernsey is viewed through the eyes of writer Juliet
Ashton, a minor author, who becomes popular in England from her wartime
series of newspaper columns. After the war, one of the Guernsey Islanders,
Dawsey Adams, writes to Juliet about Charles Lamb, his interest piqued after
having read one of Juliet’s books. Juliet was also asked to write a column for a
London paper’s literary supplement on the practical, moral, and philosophical
value of reading. So a series of letters between Juliet and other Guernsey
Islanders begins. From those letters and a later visit to the Guernsey town of St.
Peter Port, the reader becomes immersed in the daily life of many of the
residents. Themes of classic, contemporary, and 1930s contemporary English
literary works are threaded through the novel against the backdrop of humorous,
ordinary island life.
During the war, the novel describes sacrifices ranging from everyday
hardships to those of the greatest tests of humanity. Severe shortages were
normal, as well described in many historical accounts, of common foodstuffs,
supplies, and medicine. But the lack of information (such as current newspapers,
books, and radio shows) created one of the greatest hardships imposed by the
German occupation. As a result of forming the Literary Society, the dearth of