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Just two weeks before her own book lands on the bookshelves, and Annie Barrows is animatedly speaking of the 16th century British essayist Charles Lamb while nibbling on a quesadilla in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood.
"He certainly was gloomy, and he certainly was drunk a lot of the time," she muses, her sea-glass-blue eyes widening. "And his sister! Nutty as a fruitcake. She did murder her mother, and was about to murder her father when Charles came in and stopped her. And she really did have to go to the madhouse much of the time."
It's an odd topic for a mild summer afternoon in the 21st century, but not if you are Annie Barrows and not if you have read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." Charles Lamb figures into one of the first letters in this epistolary novel, which takes place shortly after the end of World War II in London and Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. Its premise: A Guernsey inhabitant comes across a secondhand Charles Lamb book and writes to the original owner, Juliet Ashton, a London journalist. Thus begins a series of correspondences between the two, as well as the many quirky characters who surround them.
Booksellers across the country began the enthusiastic buzz on the book months ago. Early reviews are peppered with words such as "Smart," "Delightful" and "Poignant." It's predicted that "Guernsey" will be a best seller, with clubs dedicated to the book already forming
It's a bittersweet thrill, because the book's original author, Mary Ann Shaffer, died early this year. Shaffer was Barrows' beloved aunt. The two families lived in Marin County and the four girl cousins grew up together. When "Guernsey" was sold in a bidding war among 12 publishing houses, Shaffer was too ill to do the all the editing the publisher wanted. Barrows, her niece — herself a published author of children's books, the award-winning "Ivy and Bean" series, and "The Magic Half" — was happy to help out.
"Mostly what the editor wanted was more," she says. "More more more more more. I started writing, and it was like being with Mary Ann. I could hear her talking, and I'd heard that all my life, and I thought, I can do this. I just started inventing."
Barrows, 45, won't say which parts are hers and which are Shaffer's because she says she doesn't want to "carve the book up. I think it works so you can't tell, and I don't want to mess with that." All she'll admit to is having created one "big" character and adding details to others.
It's the characters that make "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" so eccentric and delightful. The title comes from a quickie alibi thought up by the islanders to fool the Germans who occupied Guernsey during World War II. Through their correspondence with Juliet, this "society's" members reveal their quirky selves and explain what life was like under German watch. Juliet believes she's found an idea for a novel and travels to Guernsey, where she gets more than she bargained for.
Stuck on the island
It was Shaffer's own visit to Guernsey in 1976 that got her thinking about writing the book.
"She got there, and, as she said, 'a terrible fog enshrouded the island,'" Barrows explains. Her aunt was stuck there, hanging out at the airport for 72 hours until the planes could fly again. She spent the entire time under the hand dryer in the men's room (apparently the only source of warmth) reading all the books in the Guernsey airport bookstore.
"Apparently at that point, the Guernsey airport bookstore was the outlet for all the publishing on the island, and all the publishing on the island was about the Occupation. This is how she discovered the story of what happened during the war. By the time the fog lifted, she was an expert on the Channel Islands."
Still, it took another 20 years for Shaffer to buckle down to write the book.
"Mary Ann is one of those people "..." Barrows pauses for a second. "Was one of those people "... my tenses are still a problem "... was one of those people who you'd talk to for five minutes and just think, oh, this woman has got to write a book! She's an incredible storyteller. And, she could make anything funny. If she fell down the stairs, she made it a riveting story."
Writing group push
When it came to writing, though, she never finished the projects she'd start. She'd decide she didn't like the story, or was too busy. But in the mid-1990s, Barrows' mother and two of Shaffer's friends formed a writing group with the sole purpose of forcing Shaffer to write a book. Each would duly churn out a few pages, then guilt Shaffer into doing the same. Finally, the beginning of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" was written. The writing group went through several drafts of the book with Shaffer until one day she decided she didn't want to work on it any more.
The group was standing on the steps of the San Anselmo Library when Shaffer made this announcement.
"My mother describes the scene of her friend Julia grabbing Mary Ann by the shoulders and said 'You. Are. Going. To. Finish. This. Book!'"
The implied threat worked. Shaffer then found an agent, and sold it to Dial Press, a division of Random House. After the publishers auction, Barrows says, Shaffer called her and said, "This morning I was vacuuming my grandson's floor, and this afternoon I'm a published author!" It was a wonderful time for the close family, Barrows says. But then Shaffer's health began to fail and she knew she couldn't do all that needed to be done in the editing process. That's when she turned to her niece, who lives in Berkeley with her husband and two young daughters.
When she first read Shaffer's manuscript, Barrows says, "It has its shadows, but it is like Mary Ann, completely charming and beguiling. It's got that sweetness and a generosity to it, and it's very funny. (Juliet) sounds like Mary Ann. They both have a quirky view of life."
Shaffer was able to hold one of the first bound volumes in her hand before she died in February at age 73. "She said, 'I can't read this,'" Barrows recalls. "I told her, 'It's in Norwegian!'"
All the pre-publication fuss has been gratifying, Barrows says, but she is quiet for a moment. "It's such a combination of emotions. I'm overjoyed and thrilled, but so sad she's not here to see it. I like to think she's here somewhere, enjoying all of it."
Reach Lynn Carey at times bookclub@yahoo.com.
club@yahoo.com.
