Rose's review of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society > Likes and Comments
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Yes, but would you describe the book as pablum?
If it weren't pablum, would you have liked the way she used the "letters" device? The "letters" in multiple voices, I think was supposed to be part of the attraction of the book.
The epistolatory format was okay, although sometimes felt a bit shoe-horned. Once Juliet moved to Guernsey, for example, she had to get an awful lot of notes under her door from the members of the society. And she had to write loads to her friends in lieu of being able to just describe stuff not in a letter. Maybe I would have preferred a mix of standard prose & letters.
Listened to this as an audiobook & I did like having a different reader for each character.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the "letters" device is that it inevitably leads to a lot more "show" than "tell". We can't really pick up Dawsey's feelings for Remy or Juliet for ourselves, through the subtle clues of his behaviour; we only know what Juliet reports to her friends, and then it's in the context of "I think Dawsey might fancy me/Remy, because he did this and said that." Juliet tends to gush, and she has some of the analytical and descriptive tendencies of a teenage girl, especially when it comes to lurve and her feelings.
I guess perhaps my main problem is that it doesn't leave me very much room for interpretation or drawing my own conclusions. Everything is spelt out for me. (Not that that is a characteristic of epistolatory novels only, of course).
Having said all this, the letters from the bitchy lady (gah can't remember her name) are great.
Daniel wrote: "I still will never, ever, ever, ever read this. Ever. Ever!"
Methinks the lady doth protest too much...
Oh terribly sorry. I thought the "never ever ever" indicated the string of pearls, punctuated by the petulant stomping foot. :) *flees!*
Hi Rose - in regard to being manipulated - I feel this on some level about nearly everything cultural - perhaps that's an overstatement - but sometimes I think there's a kind of novel that's aimed at my type, a kind of movie, a kind of music - to give a British example, take Merchant/Ivory films - I knew people who would always go to every one and always really like them. But they weren't for me. Instead for me there's old Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, the Glimmer Twins of English miserablism. Etc.
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Daniel
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Sep 24, 2009 02:22pm
Yes, but would you describe the book as pablum?
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If it weren't pablum, would you have liked the way she used the "letters" device? The "letters" in multiple voices, I think was supposed to be part of the attraction of the book.
The epistolatory format was okay, although sometimes felt a bit shoe-horned. Once Juliet moved to Guernsey, for example, she had to get an awful lot of notes under her door from the members of the society. And she had to write loads to her friends in lieu of being able to just describe stuff not in a letter. Maybe I would have preferred a mix of standard prose & letters. Listened to this as an audiobook & I did like having a different reader for each character.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the "letters" device is that it inevitably leads to a lot more "show" than "tell". We can't really pick up Dawsey's feelings for Remy or Juliet for ourselves, through the subtle clues of his behaviour; we only know what Juliet reports to her friends, and then it's in the context of "I think Dawsey might fancy me/Remy, because he did this and said that." Juliet tends to gush, and she has some of the analytical and descriptive tendencies of a teenage girl, especially when it comes to lurve and her feelings.
I guess perhaps my main problem is that it doesn't leave me very much room for interpretation or drawing my own conclusions. Everything is spelt out for me. (Not that that is a characteristic of epistolatory novels only, of course).
Having said all this, the letters from the bitchy lady (gah can't remember her name) are great.
Daniel wrote: "I still will never, ever, ever, ever read this. Ever. Ever!"Methinks the lady doth protest too much...
Oh terribly sorry. I thought the "never ever ever" indicated the string of pearls, punctuated by the petulant stomping foot. :) *flees!*
Hi Rose - in regard to being manipulated - I feel this on some level about nearly everything cultural - perhaps that's an overstatement - but sometimes I think there's a kind of novel that's aimed at my type, a kind of movie, a kind of music - to give a British example, take Merchant/Ivory films - I knew people who would always go to every one and always really like them. But they weren't for me. Instead for me there's old Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, the Glimmer Twins of English miserablism. Etc.
