Chocolat - Joanne Harris
"In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful, unmarried newcomer Vianne Rocher and her young daughter sweep into the pinched little town on a wave of gossip. On the heels of the carnival, Vianne promptly opens a chocolate shop right across the square from the church, and thus begins to wreak havoc with the town's Lenten vows. Vianne finds herself embroiled in a battle for the town's souls with the local priest, Father Reynaud, who tries to cast Vianne - with her unconventional, gypsy-like ways - as the village Jezebel. Soon she has effected a civil war in the little country town between those who prefer the cold comforts of the church and those who revel in the warm delights of chocolate."
I was disappointed in this book. It sounded so delightful, and how do you go wrong with a story centred around chocolate? Unfortunately, it seems you do so by creating flat, two-dimensional characters. I feel like the story could have been pretty good, but I simply didn't care about any of these people. Some of the secondary characters were OK; I liked Guillaume, and Armande was just delightful - reminded me a little of my snarky elderly cousin. But Roux was underdeveloped, Josephine was almost a non-entity, her abusive husband was just a caricature, even Vianne herself was just kind of... there. Despite the flashbacks that I can only imagine were meant to give us insight into her character and motivations, I just didn't get a good enough sense of her to feel like she was a real person worth investing myself in. Frankly, I found the priest to be more of a human character, one who, even if I couldn't relate much to him, or sympathize much with his opinions and stuff, still seemed more real and worth caring about. And when the villain is just about the only character I find remotely compelling, a book just doesn't do it for me.
Next up: the conclusion of Le Morte Darthur.
I was disappointed in this book. It sounded so delightful, and how do you go wrong with a story centred around chocolate? Unfortunately, it seems you do so by creating flat, two-dimensional characters. I feel like the story could have been pretty good, but I simply didn't care about any of these people. Some of the secondary characters were OK; I liked Guillaume, and Armande was just delightful - reminded me a little of my snarky elderly cousin. But Roux was underdeveloped, Josephine was almost a non-entity, her abusive husband was just a caricature, even Vianne herself was just kind of... there. Despite the flashbacks that I can only imagine were meant to give us insight into her character and motivations, I just didn't get a good enough sense of her to feel like she was a real person worth investing myself in. Frankly, I found the priest to be more of a human character, one who, even if I couldn't relate much to him, or sympathize much with his opinions and stuff, still seemed more real and worth caring about. And when the villain is just about the only character I find remotely compelling, a book just doesn't do it for me.
Next up: the conclusion of Le Morte Darthur.