Helpful Score: 9
I liked Chocolat and although I do like how Joanne Harris writes, I just could not finish this book! It was quite boring and not enough dialogue to keep it interesting. But perhaps some other reader would feel very differently about it!
Helpful Score: 5
Harris is superb in this book. It is much better than Chocolat!
Helpful Score: 5
Blackberry Wine is a classic of a beach book...a poetic pastiche of magical realism and travelogue-by-surrogate...In Harris's hands the gentle tug of the past is like a tsunami.
Helpful Score: 3
The magic in Lansquenet returns....
I liked this book as much if not more than Chocolat. Jay is a struggling writer living in London. Hi slast and first book, a best seller was written 10 years ago. Jay chucks it all, leaves for France and buys a farmhouse on the edge of the village made famous in Chocolat. As he gets to know the people in this village, and the mystery behind his reclusive neighbor his view of a life faded begins to change. And then there is Joe...always Joe the ghost a father he never had.
I liked this book as much if not more than Chocolat. Jay is a struggling writer living in London. Hi slast and first book, a best seller was written 10 years ago. Jay chucks it all, leaves for France and buys a farmhouse on the edge of the village made famous in Chocolat. As he gets to know the people in this village, and the mystery behind his reclusive neighbor his view of a life faded begins to change. And then there is Joe...always Joe the ghost a father he never had.
Helpful Score: 3
This wasn't Harris' best, but it sure was original! After reading the first few pages I had to keep referring to the back of the book to make sure I understood what was going on. Once I got into the swing of the book it was fun, but it was much different from what I expected. Although this book wasn't completely my cup of tea, I am really looking forward to reading the other books I have by Joanne Harris.
Helpful Score: 1
A bottle of home-brewed wine left to Jay Mackintosh provides both the key to an old mystery and a doorway into another world.
Helpful Score: 1
Entertaining book. It was a easy light read.
As a lad, Jay mackintosh spent a few golden summers in a small English town and got to know "Jackapple Joe" Cox. A lonely child, Jay found solace in Old Joe's simple wisdom and folk charm. Joe disappeared suddenly, and Jay never forgot. Years later, after publishing a widely successful novel, Jackapple Joe, Jay has not been able to write anything more and find life rather empty. On a whim, he leaves life in London and buys an old farmhouse in a remote French village. The journey to personal healing is a haunted by a local reclusive woman and child, stirrings from Jackapple Joe himself, and the ability to get back to who he was as a boy. In this story you encounter old friends from the novel, Chocolat, giving you the sense of your own homecoming. Delightful read.
Joanne Harris injects just enough magic in this novel of a man finding himself after throwing away his life on an impulse. After a best-selling novel, this writer wanders aimlessly for years looking for inspiration. he moves to France on an impulse and finds so much more than a new novel. A great read.
Pretty good until I got to the ending.
This definitely wasn't as magical for me as Chocolat, but I liked it.
A sweet book--in the same vein as "Chocolat"
From the bestselling author who seduced us with "Chocolat" ....
author of Chocolat
