Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
France
Jill said, "Hi, Bonnie: I finished my 'France' read for this challenge: Chocolat by Joanne Harris. My review is posted on my blog. It's a wonderful tale of internal struggles in a small French village when a young woman and her daughter settle there and open up a chocolate shop - right before Lent. A wonderful read and highly recommended!"
Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere.
Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere.
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2 comments:
Hi Jill, Wendy and Bonnie,
I could not agree more with you about these are two wonderful books, portraying France at two very different times.
May I recommend the film Chocolat if you have not seen it yet.
Of course the 'challenge' we are faced with for each of our countries is how to decide which book is best. Each is set in its own time and generally in a specific setting. The more you 'know' a country the more variations and diversity you are aware of!
This is turning out to be a real challenge in more ways than we may have imagined at the outset!
Juliette, you have stated my reason for wanting to read MORE than one book about each country ... first, so I can get to know the country through different eyes, at different times and places; and second, so I can decide which book may be BEST to suggest to others who want to read about that particular country.
Because I know not everyone will be able to (or want to) read several books about each country, this format also allows for many suggestions for them to choose from.
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