#5 - Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Fiction, 242 pages

This is one of my favorite movies. It has my three favorite things: A quaint French village, chocolate, and of course, Johnny Depp. Although I haven't seen the movie in quite a while (not Corey's style), imagine my delight when I discovered, using the Based on the Book website, that this gem was a book first.

Chocolat is the story of the bohemian Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk who blow into the sleepy French town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes on the carnival winds. Vianne takes a lease on the old bakery and turns it into a chocolaterie. The rigid curé, Reynaud immediately takes a dislike to Vianne, with her bastard child, heathen and un-Catholic ways and, above all, her sinful, tempting, indulgent chocolate shop. The fact that the chocolate shop opens during the Lenten season is further evidence to Reynaud that she is an evil temptress, sent to seduce him along with his flock into the sin of gluttony.

Vianne and Anouk try to make inroads in the secluded and unchanging Lasquenet, and they do finally begin to tear down some of the invisible walls around the townsfolk. For every inch of friendship, good humor and kindness Vianne gains with the community, the curé Reynaud increases his self imposed puritanical fasting and rigorous denunciations of the chocolate shop, Vianne and her daughter, even going so far as to 'name names' of those who need to be 'brought back to the fold' during his Sunday sermons -- always those in Lasquenet who have befriended Vianne and patronized her shop.

The unspoken war between Vianne and Reynaud (she does not witness his actions in church, where she does not attend) comes to a head with the culmination of her intervention to help a battered woman leave her abusive husband for good, her support of the 'river people' (shunned by the rest of the town) and her proposed chocolate festival on Easter Sunday. Reynaud does all he can think of to put an end to the chocolate festival, seeing it as a desecration of the holy day of Easter. In a fit of rage, (hunger induced, in my opinion), he sneaks into her shop early on Easter morning to destroy her display window. Instead of destruction, he gives into the sin he so vehemently preached against and gluts himself on Vianne's fine chocolates. This act is witnessed by the townspeople, he runs off in shame, and thus the war is finally at an end.

The author's descriptions of Vianne's chocolate delicacies was intoxicating. I could almost taste the chocolate as I was reading the book. Likewise, I could see the town in my mind's eye as I read, and I felt like I knew the characters. This could be because I have seen the movie, but still, I got a great visual and emotional sense of the story, just from the words on the page. The dichotomy between Vianne and Reynaud grew more and more pronounced during the story. Although much of Vianne's past is a mystery or a nameless blur of travel, we get the feeling that Reynaud is the one with something to hide, and indeed, he is.

Much like in the movie, Vianne's coming to the town of Lasquenet-sous-Tannes is the catalyst that wakes the town and brings it out of the decaying slumber of stagnation. I love the character Vianne. She is a gypsy at heart, but decides to stay put for her daughter's sake. This relationship between mother and daughter is central to the story. Vianne just touches on some of her experiences with her own mother, and we see how she strives not to repeat those mistakes with Anouk. Vianne and Anouk also have their own special gypsy magic, which one could argue really just comes from being able to see past people's façades, but the little element of the fantastic certainly appealed to me.

I enjoyed this book, although some of the hints dropped by the author were maddening. I wish that she had explored Vianne's past a bit more closely, but it wasn't really part of the plot of the story. That being said, I was unsure why the tantalizing glimpse of this past was even in there. It seemed odd to me to just mention in passing but not explore. In spite of this glaring, unnecessary omission, I would definitely read this book again. If you want something a little whimsical, it is a good read. I give it a 4 out of 5.