Guernsey Vachak Mandal By Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

गर्नसी - इंग्लिश चॅनल आयलंड वरील एक निसर्ग रमणीय, चिमुकले बेट. १९४६, जानेवारी, दुसरं महायुद्ध नुकतंच संपलंय आणि गर्नसीलाही या युद्धाच्या झळा बसल्यायत.लंडनही या युद्धाच्या छायेतून वर येतंय. पुन्हा ‘जीवनाला’ सामोरं जातंय. ‘इझ्झी गोज टू वॉर’ या पुस्तकाने प्रसिद्धीच्या प्रकाशझोतात आलेली ज्युलिएट आता तिच्या पहिल्या पुस्तकासाठी विषय शोधतीये आणि तसा तिला तो मिळालाही – गर्नसीकडून. चार्लस् लँबचा नि:स्सीम भक्त असलेला डॉसी एका प्रतीवर ज्यूलिएटचं नाव पाहून तिला पत्र धाडतो. त्याला लँबची अन्य पुस्तकं कुठं मिळतील विचारायचं असतं आणि इथून सुरू होतो हा पत्रांचा सिलसिला. ‘गर्नसी लिटररी अ‍ॅण्ड पोटॅटो पील- पाय सोसायटी’ असे लांबलचक आणि मजेदार नामकरण झालेल्या या वाचक मंडळातले अन्य सभासदही डॉसीच्या पाठोपाठ ज्यूलिएटचे ‘पत्रमित्र’ बनतात. युद्धाच्या गडद काळोख्या रात्रींमध्ये त्यांना जवळ आणलं या वाचक मंडळानं, त्यांना जिवंत ठेवलं या भेटीगाठींनी. लोभस, गहिरी माणुसकी असलेली ही पात्रं एखाद्या सत्यकथेइतकी जिवंत उतरली आहेत. त्यांच्या साध्यासुध्या आयुष्यातील करुण युद्धाच्या कहाण्या, मजेदार प्रसंग सारं काही ते आपल्या या नव्या मैत्रिणींशी शेअर करतात. त्यांच्या पत्रांतून ज्यूलिएटसमोर त्या अनोख्या बेटाविषयी, त्यांच्या आवडीनिवडी, त्यांची आवडती पुस्तकं आणि ‘नाझी अंमला’तून नुकत्याच स्वतंत्र झालेल्या, मोकळा श्वास घेतलेल्या समाजजीवनाविषयी माहितीपट उलगडत जातो आणि विलक्षण भावबंधांनी हे रहिवासी तिच्याशी बांधले जातात. मग आपसूकच ज्यूलिएट गर्नसीच्या जलप्रवासाला निघते आणि याच बेटावर तिच्या आयुष्याला एक निर्णायक कलाटणी मिळते. कधी करुणरसात भिजलेली, तर कधी सौम्य विनोदाची पखरण असलेली ही स्नेहाद्र्र पत्रं म्हणजे शब्दांचा आनंदोत्सव आहे. हा जल्लोष रसिक वाचकांनाही तितकाच भावेल यात कसलीही शंका नाही. When the title of the book is so intriguing, you expect a lot from the book itself. Once you get over the intrigue factor of the title, you find that the book is about a book club formed in the town of Guernsey which is the only British land occupied by the Germans during World War 2. The name of the book club is ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’. (My fingers ache!) There is an interesting story behind why the club was named that way and I think you should read the book for that. The book starts with Juliet Ashton celebrating the success of her latest book and searching for a topic for her next book. She gets an unexpected letter from Dawsey Adams from Guernsey who has a copy of her old and abandoned book “The Selected Essays of Elia” by Charles Lamb. Dawsey contacts her wishing to know where he can find more books from the same author. Dawsey happens to be a member of the book club and thus starts Juliet’s interaction with the other members of the book club. Juliet finds the club and its survival during the Occupation very engaging and decides to explore further if it can be turned into a book. We see Juliet landing in Guernsey and meeting other people on the island to collect their version of the Occupation. The entire book is written in the form of letters. We see letters being exchanged between all the characters and this gives a different structure to the book. There is no single omnipotent narrator and each character takes turn to narrate the story and though this is some form of omnipotence, it introduces its own set of complexities. There are many places where a character would not include certain things in the letter, but since this is intended for a reader, the author had to include it. There is a letter from Juliet to Sidney about a gift that he sent. Dear Sidney, What an inspired present you sent Kit – red satin tap shoes covered with sequins It’s obvious the author included this because there is no other way the reader would have known what gift Sidney sent, but if Juliet was actually writing this letter, she would not have included this detail. Since the main essence of the book is the idea of letters being sent by a group of people in an unknown island to a writer, I can understand why the author chose her entire book to be in the form of letters. But tactless inclusion of details like above (the author could have included the detail in a smarter way) makes you click your tongue and distracts you from the story. I personally found the structure unappealing. To keep track of who sent the letter to whom and when was a big problem for me. I have read similar structured books before (We Need to Talk about Kevin), but this book is particularly taxing because of the short letters and too many characters. After a point of time, I wanted to scream ‘Forget the letters, just get on with the story’. Characters – there is no dearth in this book. There are characters in all forms – gender, race, nationality, quirks, nature, age. One character that stood out for me was Elizabeth McKenna. The irony is she doesn’t appear in the book but is only mentioned by the other characters and this adds a bit of mystery to her. Isola also springs to my mind as an interesting character. The protagonists though leave a lot to be desired. Mary Ann Shaffer started writing this book and had to rope in her niece Annie Barrows to complete it because Mary was diagnosed with cancer. She didn’t live to celebrate the success of her book. It’s a charming little book, as the English would call it, but I didn’t find anything extraordinary in it. Yes, there are some good things in the book, but I don’t think you would miss anything by not reading it. I wouldn’t stop someone from picking it up, but why waste time on this when you have better books to read, eh? PS: Oscar Wilde appears as a character in this book, but I cannot reveal more without marking this review as a spoiler. Go read the book.