A review by chalkletters
Chocolat by Joanne Harris

dark mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Chocolat seems the perfect book to review before the Easter weekend. Not only will Joanne Harris's delicious descriptions of the wares of La Celeste Praline whet one’s appetite for Sunday's chocolate eggs, but the main plot of the book concerns Vianne's Easter chocolate festival, and Father Reynaud's outrage that it might diminish the religious significance of the holiday. 

In the years since I last read Chocolat, I'd managed to forget almost everything except the two extremes of this story. From the beginning, Vianne's story of the bells being blessed and carrying chocolate home to their bell towers, and, from the end, Father Reynaud's temptation in the window of Vianne's shop. 

What I'd forgotten was Vianne's magical abilities, which came as a pleasant surprise this time around. I find stories of genuine witchcraft in the real world appropriately spell-binding, perhaps because they allow me to believe in magic, even if only in the context of the book's world. Vianne scrying in molten chocolate is just one example of Joanna Harris’s inventiveness in bringing together fortune-telling and cooking. 

The characters in Chocolat are lovingly captured. Though my favourites are all among Vianne's friends, rather than her enemies, I can't help but notice that Joanne Harris gives even the antagonists a complexity which, sometimes, makes them sympathetic. I love Joséphine, Roux, Vianne and Armande best, but Father Reynaud is fascinating, and I was never annoyed to be given a new chapter from his perspective. 

I hadn't realised that Chocolat had sequels, but I will eagerly add them to my to-read-list, along with everything else Joanne Harris has written. 
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