Setting the Bar

Joanne Harris has such a way with words, which I remembered from her novel, Chocolat (or maybe it was because chocolate played such a big role in the book, and I am a bona fide chocolate addict). This book is a sequel to the book that was released about a decade ago and features the same major characters.

This book takes place five years after the actions in Chocolat. Some things have changed - Anouk is now 12 and has a four year old sister - Rosette. The trio lives above a choclaterie in the Montmartre section of Paris, where Anouk attends secondary school and Rosette and Vianne run the chocolate shop. Life seems to be settled - Vianne has learned to conform and to fit in. Vianne has changed her name to Yanne Charbonneau and Anouk is now known as Annie. We don’t know who Rosette’s father is initially (although some fans would have their guesses). The trio then meets Zozie de l’Alba, a young, gifted woman (who reminds us of Vianne from Chocolat, but who isn’t as trustworthy) - she mysteriously appears one day and volunteers at the store.  Her gifts include withcraft, trickery and fraud, as well as assuming identities that aren’t hers.

Ms. Harris continues with her masterful work in this novel.  The novel is told from three different perspectives - Zozie, Vianne and Anouk - often alternating, but not necessarily and this was a wonderful mechanism when used that the way that Harris used them.  The plot was such that it couldn’t be moved forward unless Ms. Harris told the stories from different perspectives because, unlike Chocolat, this novel involves deception by at least one character that the other characters wouldn’t know about. The characters were well-developed and learned things about themselves and their motives as the novel progressed. Her prose was sweet and pure and I loved it. Even though it was simple, the subjects that Ms Harris wrote about so eloquently were anything but - family and the definition of family, mother/daughter relationships, identity and what and who decides a person’s identity. It was fantastic!

I would highly recommend this novel to anyone.

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