Popular Culture Review Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 2012 | Page 58

54 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