The Ninja Reader

Some years ago I wanted to read Byron. Don't ask me why I wanted to read him, I just wanted. However, the library had only one tome of poetry, which was too big for me to carry in my knapsack, so I picked up a lighter version of the "Collected Letters". Three pages into the book, I gave up, thinking "Who the H*ll wants to read this stuff?", which was promptly followed by my wondering if Byron ever thought his private correspondence would one day be available in bookstores for all to see, and, if so, did he ever feel tempted to somehow alter his writing. In the end, I reached the conclusion that people, even the dead ones, have no privacy.That being said, the epistolary genre lost a lot of its appeal to me, not to mention the books where the whole story is told from the hero's POV, or, heaven forbid, his diary ("Mr. Darcy's Diary", I'm looking at you right now). I didn't give you this huge exposition, however, because the book in question is bad. In fact, it is the rare exception. The Second World War seems to be one of my favorite topics lately, and oddly enough, most of the books that are set in this time period are really, really good... I mean, those that I have read. This particular book is told almost completely through Juliet's correspondence with her friends and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, with only a small portion being the Detection Notes of Miss Isola Pribby. And if you think the title is a mouthful at first, you will be surprised to find that it is one you'd be quite willing to chew up.The characters are, for the lack of better word, alive. Not perfect, oh no, but alive. Real. Not like a gallery of intricate studies, but more like a palette of selected character traits. The book adopts a "story within story" sort of narrative - Juliet is the one around whom the story revolves, but the actual heroine is Elizabeth McKenna, a young woman who brought the Society together and who was sent to a concentration camp because she hid a Todt worker in her house. Elizabeth never makes an actual appearance outside of the stories involving her, but she is the heart of the society, and a true life hero in her deeds.The books itself is charming, easy to read, written in a style that is neither too literary nor too simplistic. In fact, I don't think there is anything in this book that could deserve reprimand, other than the fact that it's perhaps too short. But all good things come to an end, and to be frank, the book pulls the stops at the exact right time. So, I'm giving it a five out of five and hope that you guys read it as well.