Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7627 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates...
Looking at all the reviews below, opinion seem to be split between favouring and disliking this book. I'd seen the film a while ago, hadn't read any of these reviews and borrowed it as a bit of light holiday reading. After completing it, I have to plant myself firmly in the negative camp.

Without re-iterating the arguments below, I measure the value of a novel in it's ability to generate a page-turning plot, well-rounded characters that you actually care about and, most importantly, to give the reader a revelatory insight either into themselves or the world around them.

Unfortunately this book does none of these things, unless of course I'm mistaken and rural France is a religiously repressed society ruled by tyrannical priests who gorge themselves in sinful acts such as arson, adultery and...eating chocolate. I'm sure the writer is mistaken.

The book is told from the perspective of two characters - Vianne Rocher (single mum, free spirit, mystical, likes cooking) and Curé Reynaud (priest, and therefore morally ambiguous, The Black Man). At the beginning of every chapter the only way we know who is narrating is that Reynaud says 'pére' a lot as he speaks to his comatosed forbear.

The plot revolves around Vianne opening her chocolat shop, the effect this has on the villagers, and Reynaud's battle to try and get her, and the temptation she brings with her, out of the village. And that's it.

It's not all bad, however, as the saving grace of the book is Armande's (old lady, diabetic, mystical) relationship with her grandson Luc (young man, s-stammers a lot), although these scenes are few and far between.

The magical, mystical element of the book was also lost on me. It leaves the reader thinking at the end, as with the whole of the book, what's the point?

Apparently life is like a box of chocolates as you never know what you're going to get. Unfortunately with this book, they're all coffee flavoured.

Leaves a bad taste in the mouth - avoid.

Not bad
This is an easy read with some really lovely descriptive passages, but it failed to grab me entirely.

The plot centres on a mother and daughter who arrive in a small French village and open a chocolate shop opposite a church. The mother then tries to win over all the people who are suspicious of her intentions.

Not a bad book, but I didn't care enough about the characters for it to be really enchanting.

Unique read for Chocolate lovers!
Before reading The Lollipop Shoes in which Vianne Rocher returns, I decided to revisit Lasquenet during Lent and rediscover all those wonderful characters.
Vianne and her daughter Anouk, mysterious strangers arrive in the village and open a chocolate shop which immediately begins to have a strange but generally good effect on the inhabitants. However the bigoted village priest Father Reynaud thinks she is there to turn his flock against their catholic religion. 'Church not Chocolate' is the true message of Easter according to some of the villagers. However there is also an element amongst the residents that just love Chocolate as I do myself! Around this theme we are told the stories of various villagers, amongst my favourites are Guillaume Duplessis who lives for his dog `Charly' and Armande Voizin a spirited local matriarch who does not intend to let failing health spoil her life.

Something I rarely do is read a book more than once unless studying it, as my thoughts are that there are too many books I want to read and too little time to do so! Surprisingly though I enjoyed it just as much on this second reading. Joanne Harris writes very descriptively and you can almost taste the chocolates and imagine yourself in the French countryside she describes. The trouble is having now seen the film I do tend to picture scenes from it rather than forming my own pictures in my mind. This is why I always prefer to read the book first, if it is made into a film and use my own imagination!