About Chocolat

Chocolat by Joanne Harris is a book that has been on my list forever. It was one of my first reads of 2017.

Chocolat is the story of Vianne Rocher, a single mother who moves into a small, sleepy French village with her 6 year old Anouk. She opens a chocolaterie opposite to the church at the beginning of Lent. She wins over the villagers through her chocolate, sympathetic ways and a touch of magic. Her presence and success irks the village priest who has his own secrets. The village grows increasingly divided as a group of river gypsies move to town.

My Favorite Bites

The chocoholic in me kept drooling over the book as Vianne churns out mouth-watering bonbons, steaming mugs of cocoa and decadent dessert displays.

Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.

Written diary style, the book holds a bit of suspense and intrigue till the end. I loved Joanne Harris’s writing style at many places. She seemed to reach out to my personal views  especially when talking about travel.

Places all have their own characters, and returning to a city where you have lived before is like coming home to an old friend.

And about travelers

At first one feels a kind of superiority. We are a race apart, we the travelers. We have seen, experienced, so much more than they — content to run out their sad lives in an endless round of sleep-work-sleep, to tend their neat gardens, their identical suburban houses, their small dreams We hold them a little in contempt. Then, after a while, comes envy. The first time it is almost funny: ……….. before long it is an almost constant ache. No, places do not lose their identity, however far one travels. It is the heart that begins to erode after a time.”

I loved how Anouk seems to be alive and in tune with her mother’s feelings. Her imaginary friend, Pantoufle, is one of the most real characters I have encountered in a book in recent times.

Not So Sweet Bits

I could never relate to Vianne. She seems a little distant and maybe a tad lost. The other characters in the book were very well-developed and yet seemed a little over-the-top.

Verdict

A winner! A book that filled with wanderlust and the conflict between the church and Vianne, the church and the river gypsies are all very relevant in today’s world.

The author has also written sequels to this book. I might read those books someday.