It was only after I had finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society did I realize that they had turned it into a movie. I knew right then and there that I needed to do it as my next book to movie comparison. I hoped that I wouldn’t be disappointed.
Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a Dawsey Adams on Guernsey. He has gotten a copy of her Charles Lamb book at a bookstore. He is writing to see if she can send more books to him. All the bookstores on the island have been destroyed. Slowly a friendship begins and they start regularly writing letters back and forth. What starts out as one person communicating turns into a whole literary society. Eventually, Juliet decides that she needs to visit these people and plans a trip to visit them. Before Juliet leaves for the island, her boyfriend proposes. She tells him she needs to think. Slowly Juliet falls in love with the island and the inhabitants, specifically one Dawsey Adams, who she asks to marry her,
I LOVED this movie. My mom asked me how it rates and I told her that I would rate it up with the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice (which I religiously watch every winter). The movie was so good. All of the characters looked just like I thought they would. Some of the events in the movie did happen a bit premature, like when she met her future fiance. They just sort of meet, there was none of the sending of flowers to various places she was reading her books. To me, that was part of the romance albeit a little creepy. They did show her rented room filled with flowers so they did at least acknowledge it. Also, her accepting his hand in marriage. In the book, she never gave him a definitive answer but in the movie, he literally put a ring on it. And a massive one at that. The one thing they did in the movie that was not in the book was at the end showing Dawsey and Juliet married. Happily married at that. While there were a few other differences in the book to the movie it wasn’t enough for me to get angry over. In fact, they added to the charm of the movie for me. The scenery in the movie is absolutely stunning. It makes me want to take a trip to the tiny island in the English Channel. All in all, definitely read but the book but most importantly watch the movie. It definitely does the book justice. I will be adding this movie to my yearly winter watching list.
Pick up the book at any of the links below and add to your To Reads list on Goodreads. Also watch the movie on Netflix with a subscription.
