Chocolat
by Joanne Harris
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 3361)
Read in February, 2007
The first is Chocolat by Joanne Harris. This book was given to me by Rebecca at our book club Christmas party book exchange. I was very excited to get it because I have been wanting to read it for a long time. I am a Francophile (I think that's the word) I love all things French. I took French in High School and at BYU. I have always wanted to go to France. I like French food. You get the idea. This book was a great armchair travel book. It takes place in a small village in France. It is filled ...more
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Read in June, 2008
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Before reading The Lollipop Shoes in which Vianne Rocher returns, I decided to revisit Lasquenet during Lent and rediscover all those wonderful characters.
Vianne and her daughter Anouk, mysterious strangers arrive in the village and open a chocolate shop which immediately begins to have a strange but generally good effect on the inhabitants. However the bigoted village priest Father ...more
Before reading The Lollipop Shoes in which Vianne Rocher returns, I decided to revisit Lasquenet during Lent and rediscover all those wonderful characters.
Vianne and her daughter Anouk, mysterious strangers arrive in the village and open a chocolate shop which immediately begins to have a strange but generally good effect on the inhabitants. However the bigoted village priest Father ...more
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Driven by the changing wing and fear of the Black Men Vianne Rocher (one of her many names), has wandered for years. But when her little daughter Anouk urges her to stay in a little provincial French town, she opens up a chocolaterie across from the church in the middle of Lent – and sparks a war with the curé. With her knack for guessing everyone’s favorites and sensing other’ emotions, Vianne offers sweet indulgence and a new, unconventional way of solving problems – because for Viann...more
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I adored the film. It's one of my favorites. So, when I discovered that it was based on a book, I had to read it. And, it's not a bad book. The film adaptation is quite different, although many of the characters are the same. For instance, in the book, Reynaud is the priest not the mayor and Caroline Clairmont is not a widow working for him. Armande is still feisty and Guillaume sweet. Josephine also appears prominently. Roux was far more appealing on screen: I wonder why? ;)
There i...more
There i...more
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I loved the movie...but I didn't enjoy the book. Actually, I didn't finish it either because I just wasn't enjoying it. Too many details had been changed from the movie and what really bothered me was the priest. I'm certainly not denying that priests/religious figures have their problems or are total hypocrites and I'm not denying that many horrible things have been done in the name of religion BUT I am tired of reading books where the evil character is the religious leader. Inevitably the ...more
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Read in April, 2008
Very good book. A delight to read. I read this because it is currently featured on the "Wake Reads Together" program through our county library system. I saw the movie years ago when it first came out. I throughly enjoyed both, though some of the characters are portrayed differently. In both, Vianne, the main character is my favorite; she brings life into the small town of Lansquenet. She opens a small chocolaterie on the square which evokes heavy criticism from pious churchgoing folk ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone!
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Like most people I saw the movie first and then found out that it was an adaptation from a book, like most good movies are, and I quickly picked it up and devoured it...like chocolate you might say. With very few exceptions, the book is always better than the movie. You find that everyone has secrets, and that a small shop facing an oppressively massive church can succeed. A newcomer can be a catalyst of change, especially one who is a free-thinking, independent woman with a child whose father i...more
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Read in December, 2005
recommends it for:
Stories of life, food, and conflict
This is a powerful book, very evocative of the sights, smells and sounds of France and its food, especially chocolate! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and had to force myself to slow down! I watched the movie afterwards, which did not do justice to the novel at all. It changed the menace from being the catholic priest to the mayor of the town, which destroyed any power that the movie could have had and instead, made it twee. The movie director inserted parts in the plot that were not in the nove...more
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Read in August, 2008
This book is about a woman and her daughter who move to a small town in France and open a chocolate shop. She is not religious and she opens her shop during the period of Lent (which is where church members would abstain from certain things i.e. rich foods). The local clergyman is against Vianne and her chocolate shop, and tries everything in his power to get people to abstain and thereby drive her out of town.
This was a pretty good book. I liked the characters a lot. Vianne especially was ...more
This was a pretty good book. I liked the characters a lot. Vianne especially was ...more
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Surprisingly, I liked the movie version of this story better than the novel. Perhaps I was prejudiced because I loved, LOVED, the movie so. When I read the book, I found the period the Harris set the novel in not as good a fit with the magic and mysticism present in the characters, as well as the small town small-mindedness, as in the film version. I'm sure there are plenty of places where folks think the same way they did decades ago, but in the novel the relationship between the characters ...more
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Read in August, 2008
The writing was very good. Descriptive, etc. I felt the plot didn't make sense at some points. I followed it fine, but it just didn't seem like certain events should be happening. The priest was very evil. I was surprised that it seemed to be set in rather modern times but the priest's role, or the role he was trying to have, felt like it was set in the past.
The basic story is that a woman and her daughter move into a small French town and set up a chocolate shop. She befriends many of the ...more
The basic story is that a woman and her daughter move into a small French town and set up a chocolate shop. She befriends many of the ...more
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Read in February, 2008
When I saw the movie I was enchanted but now that I've read the book, I feel sad about the movie's shallowness. The book is rich and deep, like Valrhona 85% cacao from Trader Joe's. It's another mother-daughter book, about intuitions, guilt, love between generations, building an intentional family if not a blood line one. In this book the French church is the antagonist, with a bow to Joan of Arc, not the aristo. The characters are not the same, Johnny Depp not there, Roux has a different, more ...more
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Read in June, 2007
I loved this book. I had already seen the movie, (which I also loved), but the book was so much richer! This is a magical story, which deals with the themes of acceptance, of religious (and personal) freedom, of loyalty. It addresses the loneliness of being "different", and of following ones calling. Vianne is one of the most real characters I have ever encountered, despite the fact that she may very well be a witch. She is truly human in her fallibility, yet noble in her ethical ...more
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I picked this book up only because my local bookstore was promoting the royal heck out of it, and I needed a change of pace from my usual very hefty historical reading. I am glad I bought it--and I wish more books were like it! The book itself is like chocolate: delicious, delightful, sinfully fun, and easy to swallow. It may not be the "deepest" tome in the world, but I found myself surprised by its champagne-like sparkles. The main character is involving and sympathetic, which you al...more
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Read in April, 2008
This is my book club's book for April. I liked it. It's a quick read, so lyrical it's like poetry, and enough of a mystery and suspense to keep my interested. (Plus, it made me hungry for chocolate.)
I liked how the protagonist and antagonist stayed true throughout. Neither one wavers or changes, where all the characters around them are affected. I loved the mystery elements too. And I loved how the priest is so sympathetic while also just so...wrong. Evil, even, but in the way that pe...more
I liked how the protagonist and antagonist stayed true throughout. Neither one wavers or changes, where all the characters around them are affected. I loved the mystery elements too. And I loved how the priest is so sympathetic while also just so...wrong. Evil, even, but in the way that pe...more
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Read in February, 2008
I liked the style, alternating chapters narrated by the heroine,chocolate shop owner Vianne Rocher, and her nemesis, the village priest. The book creates charming images of creativity and sensitivity on the part of Vianne, contrasted with dark images of guilt and rigidity on the part of the priest. Free spirits versus conforming traditionalists. Love and friendship versus control and manipulation. Color and joie de vivre versus blackness and regret. Hints of deeper mystery in the past.
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recommended to Michelle by:
the movie
recommends it for: anybody who appreciates true art in book form
recommends it for: anybody who appreciates true art in book form
I loved the book and I loved the movie equally. Read the book first (after buying the dvd) and they really aren't the same...similar, but not the same...
But I loved them both. I count the movie as one of my all time favorites (with Whale Rider and Roman Holiday). The movie is beautifully done and tells the story it is meant to tell.
But the characters in the book! Wow! I just loved them all, well nearly all...the priest was a bit of a jerk.
There are basic similarities to Like Wa...more
But I loved them both. I count the movie as one of my all time favorites (with Whale Rider and Roman Holiday). The movie is beautifully done and tells the story it is meant to tell.
But the characters in the book! Wow! I just loved them all, well nearly all...the priest was a bit of a jerk.
There are basic similarities to Like Wa...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone looking for a tasty morsel.
Chocolat was as beautiful, smooth and bittersweet as a perfect handcrafted chocolate. The language of the book was a perfect balance of sweet and pretty, dark and truthful, which made reading it for the sake of reading (as one does with poetry) absolutely delicious. The story was good as well. It was an honest story line that didn't glorify or demonize characters, but showed their complexity--the array of flavor notes in each personality.
Though I haven't seen the whole movie (i saw part of it...more
Though I haven't seen the whole movie (i saw part of it...more
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Read in December, 2004
recommends it for:
Everyone
Being at the mercy of my local library, I read the Lansquenet-sous-Tannes Trilogy in the wrong order. Chocolat was last when it should have been first. I enjoyed this as a light, quirky read. Harris invents interesting characters and recognises that even the most "ordinary" people can make interesting stories.
Vianne Rocher is the catalyst for many events and changes in the tiny village, dividing opinion and opening the eyes of many to the good and bad things in life both in t...more
Vianne Rocher is the catalyst for many events and changes in the tiny village, dividing opinion and opening the eyes of many to the good and bad things in life both in t...more
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