Chocolat
by Joanne Harris
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joanne HarrisEdition: Paperback
Published: 2000-11-01
ISBN: 014100018X
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Chocolat
Book Review: Short and Sweet
Summary: 4 Stars
Looking for an easy read, I picked up Chocolat at a nearby bookstore. I expected something simple and enjoyable, and that's exactly what I got; no more, no less. This book is by no means a literary classic; I cannot imagine readers many years from now picking it up with reverence, regarding it as the epitome of anything remarkable. Furthermore, I didn't experience any epiphanies or deep changes in my personal beliefs as a result of reading it. But honestly, that was exactly what I wanted. Joanne Harris has an undemanding writing style where the reader isn't expected to read too deeply into the text.
I would recommend it as a fantastic summer book. Set in a small village in France where chocolate shops are an unnecessary luxury, the book has a rather romantic, fantasy feel to it. Magic is referenced to lightly, as an ingredient to the wonderfully described confections served up by Vianne. This ties in well with the sweet, rather fairy-tale like ending in which many of the loose ends created by the small town characters are tied up nicely as all those deserving reach their own personal happiness. It's a good escape from boring reality, and as pleasant as the confection after which it is named.
Summary of Chocolat
Vianne Rocher and her 6-year-old daughter, Anouk, arrive in the small village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes--"a blip on the fast road between Toulouse and Bourdeaux"--in February, during the carnival. Three days later, Vianne opens a luxuriant chocolate shop crammed with the most tempting of confections and offering a mouth-watering variety of hot chocolate drinks. It's Lent, the shop is opposite the church and open on Sundays, and Francis Reynaud, the austere parish priest, is livid.One by one the locals succumb to Vianne's concoctions. Joanne Harris weaves their secrets and troubles, their loves and desires, into her third novel, with the lightest touch. There's sad, polite Guillame and his dying dog; thieving, beaten-up Jos?phine Muscat; schoolchildren who declare it "hypercool" when Vianne says they can help eat the window display--a gingerbread house complete with witch. And there's Armande, still vigorous in her 80s, who can see Anouk's "imaginary" rabbit, Pantoufle, and recognizes Vianne for who she really is. However, certain villagers--including Armande's snobby daughter and Jos?phine's violent husband--side with Reynaud. So when Vianne announces a Grand Festival of Chocolate commencing Easter Sunday, it's all-out war: war between church and chocolate, between good and evil, between love and dogma.
Reminiscent of Herman Hesse's short story "Augustus," Chocolat is an utterly delicious novel, coated in the gentlest of magic, which proves--indisputably and without preaching--that soft centers are best. --Lisa Gee, Amazon.co.uk
Greeted as "an amazement of riches ... few readers will be able to resist" by The New York Times, Chocolat is an enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the arrival of a bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her spirited young daughter.
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