Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Toto’s Thoughts:

Chocolat by Joanne Harris was chosen because I loved the movie and Dorothy had read other works by Harris before.  The style that Harris writes in is so beautiful that you feel yourself in the setting and feel as if you know the characters personally.  The main character, Vianne Rocher, is so likeable that you wish you could be her friend in real life.  I personally gained five pounds from reading the book because I felt I was always sitting in her chocolate shop and sometimes I could smell the hot chocolate while reading.  This book to me is the like the guy you want to fall in love with because he makes you feel wonderful and whisks you away to the French countryside but you can’t bring yourself to truly love him because there is a big obstacle that is intrinsic to who he is that goes against all you believe in.

Chocolat is a magical place and I don’t mean unicorns and rainbows magical or fantasy magic like Lord of the Rings, but rather the characters dabble in real magic.  Tarot cards, spells, mysterious creatures that can only be seen by “the chosen”.  This alone in a book I can just chalk up to learning about the gypsy culture and not take so seriously but the book as a whole and in detail are in direct opposition to the Catholic Church.  The main antagonist is a priest, the timeframe is from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, the main goal of the story is to make all people or things that are evil seem good and all good things seem bad.  An example of this is that on Good Friday there is celebration all day and then one of the village witches kills herself by the end of the night. (Decadence in spite of a day set aside to honor the extreme sacrifice of Jesus, and the acceptance of an assisted suicide are placed in highlighted opposition to the beliefs of the Church.)  Also, on Easter Sunday there was no Easter Mass as the triumph for the story and instead everyone celebrated the pagan festival of the pagan corn god.

Usually it is the case that the movie can not even compare with the book, but those that have seen the movie can vouch that the interpretation is completely different.  Even the characters are changed as well as the main plot which becomes a love story

Writing style : Thumbs up!

Overall story and content  : Thumbs down :-(

Likability of the characters : Thumbs up!