Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Oh my, this book was so much decadent fun. So much, that the priest didn't even feel really threatening - which may have been a tiny flaw, except don't we all have our own Black Man to help us understand what he represents? (I was much more worried for Josephine, with her brutal husband, so the necessary tension came in that way.)
What follows isn't a review, but some questions I had about the conslusions ~
My first issue was, why is it revealed that Vianne was the long-ago kidnapped Silviane Caillou? I didn't need that fact as a reason for her mother to have been always running. Is it supposed to be telling me that Vianne will never be "home"?
And kind of connected to it is my puzzlement at Vianne's feelings at the very end - the very last section.
All through the book she has been determined to face down the Black Man so that she doesn't have to be running anymore. And Anouk is plainly wishing to find a home to stay in also.
But then, in that last section, "It seems significant that [Pantoufle] should return now that the wind has changed...My carefully built fantasy of permanence is like the sand castles we used to build on the beach..."
"Whatever it is, the neediness of the town is gone; I can feel satisfaction in its place, a full-bellied satiety with no more room for me."
Now, she does say that, with the Black Man gone, things have changed. No longer will she be running and hiding when they move on, though still moving with the wind. And maybe, someday, they will settle somewhere permanently.
And yet -- back when Anouk was hurt because Jeannot's mother forbid him to play with her anymore, and Vianne told her she would make other friends, Anouk replied that she wanted this friend. So is there no attachment to the people in the town? Are the friends Vianne made not real friends, that they don't have room for her anymore?
And then her thoughts turn again.
At the very very end, Vianne sings the song about the wind again, "Hoping that this time it will remain a lullaby. That this time the wind will not hear. That this time -- please, just this once -- it will leave without us."
Yeah, I know authors sometimes like to leave important things open-ended. But I find this quite frustrating. Might they stay after all? Or am I supposed to understand that without the Black Man, life is still not permanent but the difference is that you are moving more freely and not in fear?
I just don't know what to make of it.
Ohhhhhhhhh, but let me close with this: how absolutely scrumptious was it that the priest was defeated by gorging on chocolates? Just one more...just one more...until he could do nothing at all.
I ended by hoping a bit that he would finally find some peace. Because all along, I didn't see him as actually being the Black Man, but of carrying it inside himself. We all do - I think we all carry a bit of him inside ourselves, and it is part of our job to see that and fight it. But some of us have less chance, a harder path, than others.
And finally, please no one feel like you have to stick to what I wrote about. Anything else you want to bring up about the book is on-topic in my view. :)
What follows isn't a review, but some questions I had about the conslusions ~
My first issue was, why is it revealed that Vianne was the long-ago kidnapped Silviane Caillou? I didn't need that fact as a reason for her mother to have been always running. Is it supposed to be telling me that Vianne will never be "home"?
And kind of connected to it is my puzzlement at Vianne's feelings at the very end - the very last section.
All through the book she has been determined to face down the Black Man so that she doesn't have to be running anymore. And Anouk is plainly wishing to find a home to stay in also.
But then, in that last section, "It seems significant that [Pantoufle] should return now that the wind has changed...My carefully built fantasy of permanence is like the sand castles we used to build on the beach..."
"Whatever it is, the neediness of the town is gone; I can feel satisfaction in its place, a full-bellied satiety with no more room for me."
Now, she does say that, with the Black Man gone, things have changed. No longer will she be running and hiding when they move on, though still moving with the wind. And maybe, someday, they will settle somewhere permanently.
And yet -- back when Anouk was hurt because Jeannot's mother forbid him to play with her anymore, and Vianne told her she would make other friends, Anouk replied that she wanted this friend. So is there no attachment to the people in the town? Are the friends Vianne made not real friends, that they don't have room for her anymore?
And then her thoughts turn again.
At the very very end, Vianne sings the song about the wind again, "Hoping that this time it will remain a lullaby. That this time the wind will not hear. That this time -- please, just this once -- it will leave without us."
Yeah, I know authors sometimes like to leave important things open-ended. But I find this quite frustrating. Might they stay after all? Or am I supposed to understand that without the Black Man, life is still not permanent but the difference is that you are moving more freely and not in fear?
I just don't know what to make of it.
Ohhhhhhhhh, but let me close with this: how absolutely scrumptious was it that the priest was defeated by gorging on chocolates? Just one more...just one more...until he could do nothing at all.
I ended by hoping a bit that he would finally find some peace. Because all along, I didn't see him as actually being the Black Man, but of carrying it inside himself. We all do - I think we all carry a bit of him inside ourselves, and it is part of our job to see that and fight it. But some of us have less chance, a harder path, than others.
And finally, please no one feel like you have to stick to what I wrote about. Anything else you want to bring up about the book is on-topic in my view. :)