Book-It 'o12! Book #35
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one, two, and three just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Peaches for Father Francis: A Novel by Joanne Harris
Details: Copyright 2012, Viking Adult Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "IT ISN'T OFTEN YOU RECEIVE A LETTER FROM THE DEAD
When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the beautiful French village in which eight years ago she opened a chocolate shop and first learned the meaning of home.
But returning to one’s past can be a dangerous pursuit. Vianne, with her daughters, Anouk and Rosette, finds Lansquenet changed in unexpected ways: women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the church, a minaret. Most surprising of all, her old nemesis, Father Francis Reynaud, desperately needs her help. Can Vianne work her magic once again?
In this third novel featuring Vianne Rocher, first introduced in Chocolat, Joanne Harris conjures a multilayered story full of wit and charm that promises to bewitch her readers."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've read the first two books in this "series" ( Chocolat and The Girl with No Shadow) as well as several other books by Joanne Harris that I'd really liked ( Sleep Pale Sister and Holy Fools), and I was interested to see her third installment.
How I Liked It: I was hesitant to tread into this book despite my love of the 'verse Harris created, since it was returning to the same setting, more or less, as the first book, which made Harris famous and spawned a movie that had almost nothing to do with the book (and led me to believe that Harris embraced a different setting for her characters in the second novel in part due to that).
Themes generally run strong in Harris's work; where Chocolat was drawn by "indulgence", and The Girl with No Shadow is drawn by "identity", Peaches For Father Frances is "the pariah".
It appears Harris intended to make this a trilogy, since many of the same undercurrents that ran throughout Chocolat are brought up again, and not just due to the location. Although Vianne has narrated two books at this point, this book feels the most like we get to know her. Although her identity was on the verge of being stolen in The Girl with No Shadow, and of course she was nearly run out of town (village?) in Chocolat, this book feels the most real in her experience of weakness and fallibility.
Which isn't to say the book is flawless by any means. Some storylines are a little too handy (the priest with whom Vianne sparred in the first book and who by the end was a figure of pity to be forgotten, is treated as a friend with a kiss on the cheek when she greets him again) and while the various mysteries unveiled are incredibly gripping, several of the points in getting there feel cartoonish, particularly in the second third (or so) of Father Reynaud's tale.
Harris's gift for lush prose is no less intact; frequently, the atmosphere she describes is practically tangible. That combined with the strong intent of the theme (and the ambitious scale of characters) saves the novel from its (thankfully few) scattered pratfalls.
Notable: The themes of shunning, intolerance, and the battle of moderate versus extremist in the Muslim world are admirable for the way Harris paints them. While "can't-we-all-just-get-along" sentiment stories aren't that few and far between a decade after 9/11, the fervor that still exists and the bigotry peculiar to France especially make this notable.
Title: Peaches for Father Francis: A Novel by Joanne Harris
Details: Copyright 2012, Viking Adult Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "IT ISN'T OFTEN YOU RECEIVE A LETTER FROM THE DEAD
When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the beautiful French village in which eight years ago she opened a chocolate shop and first learned the meaning of home.
But returning to one’s past can be a dangerous pursuit. Vianne, with her daughters, Anouk and Rosette, finds Lansquenet changed in unexpected ways: women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the church, a minaret. Most surprising of all, her old nemesis, Father Francis Reynaud, desperately needs her help. Can Vianne work her magic once again?
In this third novel featuring Vianne Rocher, first introduced in Chocolat, Joanne Harris conjures a multilayered story full of wit and charm that promises to bewitch her readers."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've read the first two books in this "series" ( Chocolat and The Girl with No Shadow) as well as several other books by Joanne Harris that I'd really liked ( Sleep Pale Sister and Holy Fools), and I was interested to see her third installment.
How I Liked It: I was hesitant to tread into this book despite my love of the 'verse Harris created, since it was returning to the same setting, more or less, as the first book, which made Harris famous and spawned a movie that had almost nothing to do with the book (and led me to believe that Harris embraced a different setting for her characters in the second novel in part due to that).
Themes generally run strong in Harris's work; where Chocolat was drawn by "indulgence", and The Girl with No Shadow is drawn by "identity", Peaches For Father Frances is "the pariah".
It appears Harris intended to make this a trilogy, since many of the same undercurrents that ran throughout Chocolat are brought up again, and not just due to the location. Although Vianne has narrated two books at this point, this book feels the most like we get to know her. Although her identity was on the verge of being stolen in The Girl with No Shadow, and of course she was nearly run out of town (village?) in Chocolat, this book feels the most real in her experience of weakness and fallibility.
Which isn't to say the book is flawless by any means. Some storylines are a little too handy (the priest with whom Vianne sparred in the first book and who by the end was a figure of pity to be forgotten, is treated as a friend with a kiss on the cheek when she greets him again) and while the various mysteries unveiled are incredibly gripping, several of the points in getting there feel cartoonish, particularly in the second third (or so) of Father Reynaud's tale.
Harris's gift for lush prose is no less intact; frequently, the atmosphere she describes is practically tangible. That combined with the strong intent of the theme (and the ambitious scale of characters) saves the novel from its (thankfully few) scattered pratfalls.
Notable: The themes of shunning, intolerance, and the battle of moderate versus extremist in the Muslim world are admirable for the way Harris paints them. While "can't-we-all-just-get-along" sentiment stories aren't that few and far between a decade after 9/11, the fervor that still exists and the bigotry peculiar to France especially make this notable.