Book Bloggin': Chocolat / Joanne Harris

Hello!

So today is going to be my first book review on this blog. 

I recently read Chocolat by Joanne Harris, which has been sitting in my 'to read'  pile for far too long.  The film adaptation of this book is one of my favourite films (Johnny Depp, Irish accent, 'nuff said) and so I knew I had to read the book.  

The strongest points of this novel were its rich, evocative language and the intense descriptions of landscape.  Harris appeals to every one of the senses to describe the heady, chocolatey atmosphere in Vianne's shop, the road and river leading down to Les Marauds, and the balmy evenings by the water outside Armande's river house.  The chapters are also alternately narrated by Vianne and Reynaud, creating a balanced narrative that looks at the unfolding events from two very opposing viewpoints; the clash between the devout Christian community of Lansquenet and the mysterious, free-spirited Vianne create a powerful dialogue - I found that my empathy came to lie with different characters throughout the book.  

This comes under the category of an 'easy read', I'd say, but despite its accessibility it deals with very important themes and is overall a wonderful book that kept me hooked until the very end.  If you've watched the film you'll be surprised at a few of the differences in the novel, but I'm willing to overlook the fact that Roux has short, ginger hair at one point (ahhh!) because Harris' writing was simply divine. Like caramel. Oh yeah.

So there we go! Definitely give it a read. It's a good 'un.

Later!

Steph x