Monday, October 24, 2016

Dear Reader,

Q: If you woke up one day not wanting to write another crime novel, what would you write instead?

-from Susan




Persuasion…oh, wait, that’s already been written.

One of my favorite relatively recent novels is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I’ve read it twice, a copy sits on the TBR pile, and I admire the late, lamented Mary Ann Shaffer and her still-with-us niece, the children’s author Annie Barrows, almost beyond reckoning. If I were to venture beyond the mystery genre, that’s the direction I’d go in.




Why? It’s set in a fascinating place I liked learning about. It’s set in a massively significant historical period but with such an intimate perspective about that time. It IS a mystery because we don’t know for a very long time what happened to the absent heroine of the story. The story’s in epistolary form – letters – that show us what we need to know about the writers, bit by charming bit. A cast of eccentrics who reveal both their flaws and their goodness as the tale progresses. A tragedy, a thriller, a love story wrapped up as sweetly as a packet of love letters in ribbon. But not treacly, not with much ‘telling’ except in the voices of the cast, who reveal their biases and affections in their distinctive points of view. Honestly, the novel has, for me at least, a thousand virtues.






8 comments:

Meredith Cole said...

Is it Tolstoy who said that every good book is either a mystery or a romance (and has a bit of both)? If he didn't, he should have...

Art Taylor said...

We should make a meme of that, with Tolstoy's face on it. If he didn't say it already, we'll make the quote stick, Meredith.

And fun post, Susan! Haven't read the book but intrigued indeed. :-)

Judy Bobalik said...

I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Susan C Shea said...

Meredith and Art, Either Tolstoy or Mary Ann Shaffer! (Or both.)

Art, it's a slender, fast-moving story and I hope you do get a chance to read it. A gem.

Judy - you, me and all those people who gave it an incredible run on the NYT bestseller list!

Cathy Ace said...

I loved the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society too... :-)

RJ Harlick said...

Sounds like a great book. I will have to give it a try. And Susan, why wait until you are tired of writing mysteries? Start writing your own The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book. Man, what a title.

Susan C Shea said...

Robin, I thought I was doing something like that with Love & Death in Burgundy until my agent said she could sell it best if I tweaked it into a firmer genre story...

Jacqueline Vick said...

I read that book and I agree. It was a wonderful read.