... Rather, I've decided to review another book by Joanne Harris - Blackberry Wine. The reason I mention Harris' previous novel Chocolat is that this novel is set in the same small town in France - Lansquenet.
The story of this book is fairly complex, but I'll try to simplify it for you. ... Read review
Joanne Harris weaves spells of "everyday magic" once again in Blackberry Wine. Her ... more
previous novel, Chocolat, was a delicious confection, melding together bewitchment and romance in a chocolatier, in the sleepy French village of Lansquenet. This time ar...
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Joanne Harris weaves spells of "everyday magic" once again inBlackberry Wine. Her previous ... more
novel,Chocolat, was a delicious confection, melding together bewitchment and romance in a chocolatier, in the sleepy French village of Lansquenet. This time arou...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Compelling Story and characters Disadvantages: We are not bottles of wine, lazy writer cannot find a new town in France and new minor characters to fill it - shame!
...book by Joanne Harris - Blackberry Wine. The reason I mention Harris' previous novel Chocolat is that this novel is set in the same small town in France - Lansquenet.
The story of this book is fairly complex, but I'll try to simplify it for you. Jay Mackintosh is a writer whose first hit novel "Jackapple Joe" was based on a man he met as a boy in the late 70s in an ex-mining town in England called Pog Hill. It's now 1999, ... ...the boy's mother. In Blackberry Wine we find another case of this estrangement – while here, the grandmother is estranged from her granddaughter because the daughter-in-law is afraid that her mother-in-law might try to take the child from her. While in Chocolat this conflict comes to a satisfactory solution, here it is left as a loose end which I found to be dissatisfying.
However, despite these drawbacks, this book did have some redeeming ... more
I have a confession to make. I've read the novel Chocolat, but I think it isn't the best book by Joanne Harris, and personally, I think the movie is better. Sacrilege? Maybe - but opinion is opinion, no? And this is mine. But, I'm not going to review Chocolat. Rather, I've decided to review another book by Joanne Harris - Blackberry Wine. The reason I mention Harris' previous novel Chocolat is that this novel is set in the same small town in France - Lansquenet.
The story of this book is fairly complex, but I'll try to simplify it for you. Jay Mackintosh is a writer whose first hit novel "Jackapple Joe" was based on a man he met as a boy in the late 70s in an ex-mining town in England called Pog Hill. It's now 1999, however, and he hasn't written anything serious since - only junk novels under an assumed name. Suddenly, inspiration catches him and he impulsively buys a house in some no-where town in France, and leaves, determined to get back his muse.
My first impressions of this book were immediately mixed. The first chapter is actually told from the point of view of a bottle of wine. Yes, that's right - Fleurie, 1962 to be precise, and I assumed that the book was supposed to be totally from this viewpoint. Now, the main reason for this - I assume - is in order for the author to write in omnipresent. Clever, perhaps, but I immediately remembered something that John Irving once said about a short story that a student had written for one of his classes, from the viewpoint of a spoon. The problem is, we are not spoons - and nor are we bottles of wine. Therefore, it struck me as being a mechanic that was trying too hard to be clever. However, luckily for us all, Ms Harris must have realized this as well and while she continues to write in the omnipresent, she only seldom comes back to the bottles speaking for themselves. I also noticed that the wines were unable to get into the minds and/or bodies of anyone besides the protagonist (Jay), except after someone had consumed some of the bottle's contents.
Another thing that bothered me about this book was what I can only describe as laziness on the side of the author. This is not a sequel to Chocolat, and yet, Harris has placed this book back in Lansquenet, and has peppered it with many - if not all - of the minor characters from her previous novel. She even makes a passing reference to the story behind Chocolat, but neither Vianne Rocher nor her daughter Anouk actually appear in this story. I guess they had their 15 minutes of fame, and didn't need more here. Wise decision, if you ask me. Still, I felt that I was cheated by this, since Harris has such a wonderful knack of developing characters - even the minor ones. And yet, since these characters are already known from Chocolat, one feels that they have been trivialized here, and she doesn't do much to make them as well rounded as she could. My main thought was, had I not read Chocolat and already gotten to know these people, and then here they would have been very flat and one-dimensional. I think it was arrogant and, frankly, wrong that Harris seemed to assume her readers had previous knowledge of these characters.
Another aspect from Chocolat seems to have entered this book as well. Those who know the story of Chocolat will recall the grandmother who was forced to be estranged from her grandson because of the boy's mother. In Blackberry Wine we find another case of this estrangement – while here, the grandmother is estranged from her granddaughter because the daughter-in-law is afraid that her mother-in-law might try to take the child from her. While in Chocolat this conflict comes to a satisfactory solution, here it is left as a loose end which I found to be dissatisfying.
However, despite these drawbacks, this book did have some redeeming factors. For instance, Harris likes to use flashbacks extensively in her novels. While some authors like to do this within a chapter, Harris likes her flashbacks to be in different chapters. Personally, I prefer this method, and have no trouble keeping track of where we are in the story when this method is used. Furthermore, these flashbacks give us valuable insights into the characters as they are in the present day of the story. In this way, we are relieved of tedious narration that talks about a character's past, and instead we are shown that past – which is classic "show, don't tell". Unfortunately, in this book all of the flashbacks have to do with only Jay Mackintosh's past, and so we find ourselves with one character in this book that is fully rounded where most of the rest are left as two-dimensional at best. Personally, I think that a good character driven story is better than a plot driven one, so on one level I am willing to disregard this discrepancy.
Still, we seem to get enough of the minor characters' flavour to not feel totally deprived of their import in this story. For instance, rumours and conversations around Jay's neighbor, Marise d'Api (the woman who is keeping her daughter from her mother-in-law), give us enough background about her to set us up with our own prejudices about her, and then recant (at least some of) them as we get to know her first hand. Harris is a master at this push-and-pull with the reader – leading you in one direction about a character through conjecture, and then allowing you to completely change your mind about that person when you get to know the truth. This is one of the reasons why I like reading Harris' books.
This doesn't mean that the plot doesn't intrigue as well. To the contrary, Harris seems to know how to get one wrapped up in the story as well as with the characters. In Blackberry Wine, we become involved in Jay's life on several different levels. On one level, we have his motivation to return to being a "real writer" and regain his muse. On another level, we have his attachment to the man who inspired his first novel – Jackapple Joe – and how Joe continues to be part of his life despite Jay's move across the channel. Yet another level is his relationship with the town and its inhabitants versus his cutting himself off from his previous girlfriend in London and his sham of a life there. There are even more levels than this, but it is Harris' simplicity of language mixed with a good deal of charm and wit that keeps all of these different levels in play without ever losing the reader's interest or complicating things beyond understanding. This is a rare gift indeed, and another reason why I'll continue to read Harris' books.
Finally, I have to say that the last reason why I like reading Harris' books, despite some of their shortcomings, is the way she imbues her stories with a sense of magic and the supernatural. This isn't to say that these are Harry Potter stories for adults – not at all. No, Harris seems to believe that there are many unexplained things that happen to people which – if we examine them too closely – will lose their feeling of the extraordinary. Instead, she works these things into her character's lives and lets them help move her story along. In this book, it is the spirit of Jackapple Joe that embodies the exceptional things that happen to Jay – both in his real-life actions and in his "haunting" (if you will) of Jay in France. It really is hard to say how she succeeds with this without the readers saying "oh, give it up, I just don't buy it" but somehow she does.
All in all, while I had some problems with this book, I still think that I would recommend people read it. There are compelling characters and an interesting story line mixed with a touch of the famous Harris fairy dust. This is a good easy read, which has short enough chapters to allow one to pick it up and put down at will, without feeling like you're missing something or will lose something in the interim. I'd say it may just be perfect for your summer holiday reading. This is why I'm giving it only three stars, but still recommending it to you all.
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~ Technical Stuff: This book can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk in paperback for £4.98 (with many used ones for much less). The hardcover edition is out of print, but I see a couple of people selling it from only £5!
Details of the book: Paperback 336 pages (April 2, 2001), Publisher: Black Swan, ISBN: 0552998001. ~~~~~
Advantages: Easy to read, a cosy, interesting book Disadvantages: Slightly underdeveloped characters, inevitable comparisons to Chocolat
...the characters around myself. Blackberry Wine was one of those rare books where I felt I really had to plough through the first few chapters until I got to a point where I could look forward to picking it up again next time. I always persevere though, and on this occasion I’m glad I did. The book begins to open up nicely a few chapters in, and you start to feel as if there might be a story to tell. But let’s go back to the beginning shall we?
Jay ... ...characters you might recognise in Blackberry Wine. The café owner Josephine Muscat, the baker Poitou, the market gardener Narcisse, Georges and Caro Clairmont all had an outing in Joanne Harris’s earlier novel, Chocolat. None play a central role in Blackberry Wine however and you certainly wouldn’t need to have read Chocolat to understand the part they play here. There is something comforting in their inclusion however. Perhaps it’s the sense of ...
amyturtle 09.11.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
Advantages: Warm and enchanting,with a touch of magic Disadvantages: None,in my opinion
...a very special occasion….
Blackberry Wine follows many of the themes found in Harris’s bestseller Chocolat, such as the food theme (in this case wine), magic and alchemy. It is an enchanting novel, which I could not put down. I was delighted to revisit Lansquenet and to meet up with some old friends. In fact, I think the novel really takes off once Jay arrives at his château. I was so enthralled by Chocolat that I was hoping that I would ...
Suzan 29.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
Advantages: Sweet and, eventually, absorbing tale Disadvantages: Not quite there
I read Blackberry Wine a year after Chocolat, but I could still remember the latter well. Although I liked Blackberry Wine, it seems to me that I could not enjoy it as wholeheartedly and warmly as I had its predecessor. Blackberry Wine is the story of Jay Mackintosh, a blocked writer whose only outlet for his stifled creativity is a slew of science fiction written under a pseudonym. He writes them on his computer, saving his old, trusty typewriter ... ...There is no doubt that Blackberry Wine is a sweet tale, interweaving neatly between Jay's past and present. It is absorbing, but I found that it took me three full chapters (I've only ever given up on one book, American Psycho) to really get a feel for it, and it was the passages set during Jay's childhood, and his early introduction into Lansquenet (the setting for Chocolat) that really got me hooked. Although it is not necessary to have read Chocolat, ...
ruth_cole 23.01.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
...will have guessed is called Blackberry Wine. This time, instead of magical chocolate, being the food theme, we have magical fruit wine as the drink theme. However, this is not a novel about wine it is far more than that, let me enlighten you.
Jay Mackintosh, is approaching middle age, he is trapped in a loveless relationship, with the rather fake and media crazy, Kerry. Drunk for most of the day and angry at who knows what, Jay is a blocked writer. ... ...explored using this method. Blackberry Wine, therefore, slips in and out of two separate but linked stories, in an ambitious style, but nothing is lost in the flow of the book because of this.
In Blackberry Wine, Harris has recaptured that wonderful descriptive writing style, she flourishes with beautiful descriptions of the smell of herbs, the character of wine – “He pours me, releasing the scents of summers forgotten and places long ...
KingHerrod 22.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
Advantages: A good story, to charm so much Disadvantages: none
Really, Joanne Harris is one of the best writers of this Century. If she made us dream and feel so much in "Chocolat", in this novel she make the same again.
The novel is brilliant. It tells the story of Jay, a British writer that one to take a decision: left all and go to a little French Village. In this Village, he tries to start a new life and live truly. This Village, gives him all that he is looking for: himselve.
The story has a lot of flash ... ...good because give rhythm to the story. Like "Chocolat" all the characters has a big and special personality, making stand out Jay.
I think he is a brave guy, a few cowardly at the beginin of the story, but more strong and sure at the end. He knows what he wants to do, or make, with his live and, because of that he lefts London and goes to France looking for his past, and his present.
There is a nice surprise in this story, if you have read "Chocolat" ...
Aurea 12.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
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I have just finished reading Chocolat and thought it was wonderful. It was a mixture of reality and hoccus poccus witchcraft. I would not normally read this type of novel but once started it was compelling. The characters are deep and colourful and you feel like you know them and their community by the time you finish. The writing is so vivid you can smell and taste the chocolate as you are reading. JoanneHarris has a great way of writing and I can't wait to read the BlackberryWine. I believe they are making a film about it staring Jonny Depp, like always I would suggest reading the book first and build the pictures yourself. ...
Advantages: Interesting characters, rich descriptions Disadvantages: A few unnecessary scenes
and the situations were real enough to me and the characters similarly were easily believable but there was such a strange feeling of otherworldliness that loaned an air of a fairytale, not unlike the effect JoanneHarris has created in novels such as ?Chocolat? or ?BlackberryWine?. This novel can be as deep as you want it to be. On its most basic level it?s a gentle romance but if you delve deeper there?s are much darker themes, such as progress and globalisation, summed up in the difference between Claude?s old job as a provincial tailor and his new life as an internationally acclaimed haute couturier.
The basic story is pretty predictable but a small cast of expertly drawn characters renders this fact unimportant. Claude is depicted as a man who up until now ? aged 46 ? has been sleepwalking through life; he?s been married before but this is ...
Advantages: indulgent sensory fest Disadvantages: tastes like soggy paper
First there was Chocolat, then BlackberryWine, and now there are oranges. JoanneHarris has been credited with inventing a new literary genre ? 'gastromance' and I for one am hooked on this indulgent and sensuous feast of a novel.
You only need to look at the names of the central characters to see Harris?s preoccupation with food: Framboise (Raspberry), Cassis (Blackcurrant), Reine-Claude (Greengage), Pistache (Pistachio), Noisette (Hazelnut), Piche (Peach) and Prune (Plum). The novel centres on Framboise, or ?Boise for short.
?Boise is a froggy faced, angular, and devious little torag who is her mother?s favourite, probably because she is most like her. Unlike her beautiful sister Reine-Claude, she?s never going to make it as the Harvest Queen, but that doesn?t stop her dreaming. The only problem with her dream is it involves ...
Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscapes of his childhood, more enticing than the present, and to which he longs to return. A strange bottle of home-brewed wine opens a doorway into another world for Jay. From the author of THE EVIL SEED and CHOCOLAT.
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