Joanne Harris

a novel

Chocolat

Sarah Sammis

** spoiler alert **
           While the novel has a distinct and solid sense of place, it isn't placed well in time. I struggled through the first two thirds of the novel trying to understand when the novel was taking place. For much of the novel it read like a historic novel. At different times I could imagine it at the end of the nineteenth century, the 1920s, the 1950s and the 1970s. Only near the end did it become apparent that the setting was contemporary — meaning end of the twentieth century.

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Jessica Ford

I read this years ago, and really enjoyed it. I watched the movie recently (who doesn't love Johnny Depp?!?), and forgot how much I had enjoyed the book. Great characters, and a fun, creative story line.

Try me...Test me...Taste me.When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock especially as it

Chocolat. Joanne Harris

Klára Kováčiková 

Amy Maddess

This book has a surprising amount of content in common with Needful Things by Stephen King:
 —mysterious shop owner who comes and goes from small towns, irreversibly affecting the lives of those who inhabit it 
- the devil as represented in a brooding man 
- store merchandise with magical properties uses repeatedly as plot device 
- church makes people act evil and kooky (and in total denial of this). Indulgence in vices makes ppl happy and maybe isn’t evil. 


I was kind of hoping for some rich love story, or really, any story at all, but this continuously fell farther into the Joanne Harris style food-description-over-plot type of book. If the writing was a little better I’d commit to reading more of the series, but I think I’ll pass on continuing with this.

Nona G

Damn this book is beautiful! I didn't think it could top the movie, which is one of my all-time favorites, but the novel just made my very short list of go-tos for rainy days. I just finished it and I'm already looking forward to reading it again. I'm also waiting - impatiently, I might add - to get my hands on the other two novels in the "Chocolat" series.

It as an absolute pleasure to read this book. Its round phrases and delicate wording feel like drinking a cup of dark smooth hot chocolate. I felt each shiver, each fear and worry, each laugh and hope and each bite of chocolate cake. It was all so easy to let myself get lost in the story, to live it so fully and intensely.

I read a lot of reviews condemning the author for villanizing the church. I really don't see it like that. I think that it's a realistic approach. I'm actually quite skeptical regarding Reynaud's asceticism, I've never met any priest who really practiced what he preached. The novel raises the hard question of acceptance - of one's differences, of one's choices in life, of one's right to happiness. It is, basically, an essay on tolerance.

The movie is different from the book in some areas, but I recommend both with the same warmth. They are both very visual, each in its own way, and a real treat for lovers of all things beautiful and chocolately.

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I have read almost all of Joanne Harris's books and enjoyed them for the most part. This one has been missing or checked out from my public library forever, so when I spotted it on the shelf recently, I snapped it up.

Chocolat is a fairly quick read but very enjoyable. Despite the fact that the book is not very long, the author does a nice job with developing both main and supporting characters so that you feel like these are real people whom you have gotten to know. The small French town setting was charming and quaint and I think the novel could have taken place in any one of many different decades.

I really liked how the author didn't just spell certain things out; instead, she left them for the reader to discover or figure out for themselves. For example, throughout much of the book, I wondered if the main characters' magical abilities were real or just something that they believed in. The author only hints at past events in some of their lives, leaving the reader to put together why the character is the way he/she is. The relationship between the priest and the person he addreses as "mon pere" is also left a little fuzzy until late in the novel.

Flavia

23 Luglio 2013 

Quando finisco un libro, ci metto sempre qualche giorno a digerire la cosa, per me è una specie di lutto. Ma non è una cosa triste, specialmente quando un libro mi è piaciuto, diventa un piccola parte di me. Un osservatore accorto potrebbe conoscermi alla perfezione solo rovistando nella mia libreria (ma finirebbe bruciato da qualche maledizione da me piazzata con saggezza a protezione della cosa a cui tengo di più).



Ho finito proprio da qualche giorno “Il giardino delle pesche e delle rose” ultimo della trilogia di Chocolat, di Joanne Harris. Il noto film, per quanto piaccia a tutti, non ha assolutamente a che vedere con la storia. Qui si parla di streghe!

Questa serie di tre libri non è proprio una saga di romanzi fantasy, anzi, è ambientata ai nostri giorni, in una vita di tutti giorni. Impariamo a conoscere Vianne e sua figlia Anouk grazie alla narrazione in prima persona di Vianne stessa e del suo “nemico”, il cu ré Francis Reynaud. La magia in questi romanzi non è violenta, è come quella che possiamo conoscere “noi altre” solo con qualcosa in più, quel qualcosa di cui spesso fantastichiamo e ci piace pensare che sia effettivamente così.



Nel secondo capitolo della serie poi, cominciamo a capire di più come Joanne Harris vede la magia, che sia anche lei una strega? Sicuramente ha una conoscenza di quello che è il neopaganesimo e la stregoneria “moderna” e non. Senza dubbio conosce la mitologia. Ma cosa più importante fa sognare. Ti catapulta in un mondo pieno di segreti, ricette, parole sussurrate e rituali: spezie magiche, sacchetti, rune e canzoni di buon auspicio. Senza contare che ha suscitato in me una voglia di divenire una traveler, conoscere posti nuovi, portare quello che hai da dare al prossimo. Lenire le pene con il proprio talento. Senza fissa dimore, seguire il Vento che cambia.



Questi romanzi mi hanno appassionato perché mi dava una calda sensazione di torpore, come se io stessa fossi un’avventrice della Celeste Praline, seduta insieme ad Armande mi gustavo il mio cioccolato speziato al peperoncino, chiaccherando con le altre dei pettegolezzi di Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. Felice di aver trovato altre “diverse” come me. Mi chiedo se Vianne potrebbe sapere quale è il mio preferito. Lei conosce i preferiti di tutti.

Neeti Choudhari

Instead of reading a book, it feels like you're watching one of those soothing chocolate making videos. Beautiful writing and descriptions, and food!

Janet Doré

Loved this book - the writing, the setting (I have close friends in France), the characters, and the subject matter (chocolate, et al!). A bit quirky and lots of fun.

Francine Corry

Emma Lechner

Séduites par Lansquenet, Vianne Rocher et sa fille Anouk décident d'y établir leur chocolaterie. Mais dans ce petit village du sud-ouest de la France, le père Reynaud veille sur ses ouailles comme la cuisinière surveille le lait sur le feu. Aussi voit-il en l'ouverture de La céleste Praline l'oeuvre d'une sorcière. Et s'il avait raison ?

Hyshe Thaufeeg

When the beautiful and mysterious Vianne moves to Lansquenet and opens a chocolate shop across from the church, the inhabitants of the tiny village find themselves torn between the solemn law of religion and the joyful rewards of Vianne's confections. Reprint.

Chocolat a novel

Reviews