The Bauer Confidential

Through a twist of serendipity, a couple of weeks ago I started reading the blog Dry as Toast (through a link on a blog I found because the owner fo said blog had commented on this blog, it’s like the blog-o-sphere’s version of 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon).  Anywho, the author of Dry as Toast wanted to know if anyone would like to do an on-line book club and read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer.  It just so happened that I was reading that very book at that very time.  I thought why the heck not, I like to post reviews of books anyway.  This one is going to be a little different, in two parts, because of the on-line format.

Reading this book can be a little discombobulating.  Not your typical novel, The Guernsey Literary etc., is told through the exchange of letters, chiefly between the main character Juliette, an author, and her friends and publisher.  World War II has just ended and though London is still deep in rubble and destruction, normalcy is slowly creeping in to Juliette’s world.  By an unusual twist of fate, a book belonging to Juliette has made its way into the hands of man residing on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands.  This stranger is so enamored with the book, finding Juliette’s name-plate in it, he writes to her to know more about the author.   A series of events are set in motion that drive Juliette to learn more about the lives of the residents of Guernsey through the letters they send her concerning their experiences in the war, as Guernsey was occupied by the Germans for several years.  Juliette’s life is full with touring for her book, insidious reporters trying to smear her good name, and a dashing American trying to sweep her off her feet.  And yet nothing in her life seems as interesting as the stories told by the people of Guernsey.  Their trials and adventures capture Juliette’s imagination and she decides to base a series of articles on their lives during the war.

The first half of the book introduces the many characters and sets the scene for a world we’re quite accustomed to reading about and seeing portrayed in movies.  World War II is so often the subject of cinema and novels, so frequently fictionalized that I had to remind myself that the events so central to this book are real, not just made up for a great story.  The things that happened are so incredible and horrible, it would be easy to believe they were the work of an over-active imaginations.  The author does a good job of getting you to imagine what London was like after being decimated by German bombing, the feelings people experienced, the mixed euphoria and sadness at the war’s end are palpable on the page.  The book is interesting enough and the characters engaging enough to pull you in and compel you to follow their lives.  I was anxious to keep reading this book….more to come next week.