This book is a continuation of Chocolat. I thought it was terrific -- although you really need to have read Chocolat first. Or maybe it could stand alone. It does refer to events in the earlier book a lot, but they do become clear eventually, as do the events that happened to the characters in the intervening four years. However, I think it deepened my appreciation of the book having read the first book previously. I liked the device of using three narrators -- it works well in this instance.

One of Harris's main subjects in both these books is the doubleness of enchantment. Charm can be used for cheering, healing and pleasing other people or it can be used to seduce, possess and destroy them; the good and evil lie not in the magic but in the human motivations behind its use. It's all a bit like Harry Potter for grown-ups, an observation I'm sure somebody must have made before and one that is intended as a lavish compliment.

But if you're not prepared to suspend your disbelief and read a tale of witchcraft for the sake of the story, the characters, the allegorical meanings and the literary gifts that Harris, like J.K. Rowling, lavishes on her creations, then this book will leave you cold. Either one is responsive to enchantment, beauty, glamour, charm and chocolate or one is not.

The original novel was much sharper, richer and more complex than the movie, charming and glorious as Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp may have been. But the continuation is even darker and yet more complicated: the equivalent of that nearly bitter and nearly black chocolate, almost pure cocoa, that you can buy only in specialty shops and should eat in tiny fragments.

From a review by Kerryn Goldsworthy in The Australian 16 June 2007

Offered as a bookring 12 November:

The participants are:
jubby (NSW)
Carole888 (WA)
scrapaholic (NT)
LadyIndigo (NSW)
crimson-tide (WA)
BellaMack (Tas)

Home with livrecache

RELEASE NOTES:

On the first leg of a bookring

Yes, it is official: I have now gone into Bookring meltdown!!!!

I have no less then 5 bookrings in my possession at the moment. It appears my name in the order of all the bookrings I've ever joined were all secretly arranged so that all the books would appear on my doorstep to read all at once.

Well, that may be a little over the top, but I think I will be struggling this month. At least the summer holidays kick in in a few weeks, and I am hoping to clear the decks then.

Thank you very much Livrecache for sharing your books with me.

I've always been strongly suspicious of women who are capable of doing a full day's work wearing three inch heels. And something getting close to loathing overcomes me when women claim that 'these shoes are just SO comfortable!'.

So, you can imagine my initial reaction to Zosie (spelling?). Argh!

I read 'Chocolat' last month, and really enjoyed it. From memory, that book had two narratives, told in the first person, while as this book, as Livrecache has already said had three. I didn't like this as much. I think it wasn't so much the third narrative that didn't work, but rather my reaction/attachment to Annie/Anouke. The narrative moving between the two adult women was more compelling in my humble opinion.

And, as I've still not seen the film, my reading of this book was not at all affected by the performances of Juliette Binoche or Johnny Depp (who I've since learnt plays 'Roux'!!!?! How does that work? He's called 'Red', but doesn't have red hair?).

In this story Vianne/Yanne is a mother of two, who doesn't have the confidence or vitality of Vianne of the last book, but rather the hopes, fears and dramas of most other single mothers.

I read this book in two sitting on the beach (and I've still the sun burn to prove it), and found it more (strangely?) emotional then the first book. I got teary as Yanne feared for the future of her children, shook my fist as Annie dealt with the school bullies, and cooed with pleasure every time Roux swaggered onto the page.

A charming read, and a great holiday book - although all the passages about the cold, snowy Parisian streets were lost on me.

The overall, crowning glory of the book though were Harris' delicious descriptions of all the edible delights. My little orange just didn't satisfy my appetite after reading about that exquisite Christmas Eve meal.

Thank you for sharing this book me Livrecache.

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to Carol888.

The book arrived safely today. Thank you for sending it, jubby and thank you livrecache for sharing it .... I look forward to starting it :)

Yes, this was dark by comparison to the first book but I enjoyed it! I kept reading it ... as I needed to get to the end. I found the 3 different points of view quite effective. I hated Zozie and it pained me to read her part of the tale. I am so glad that the author decided to bring the main characters back to life again as I never did like the way "Chocolat" had ended.

Arrived safely today.

I really enjoyed this book. I likes the way it was from three points of view. I didn't like Zosie but I guess you need a villain ....
Thanks for sharing livrecache.

Appears to be lost between Darwin and Orange.

Farewell with AustPost, dear book.

book has arrived safely in orange ;-)

now to reread chocolat ...or maybe i'll cheat a little and watch johnny depp (dvd) before i read this sequel - it has been so long since i read it the first time (chocolat that is) .. ok i'll do both read and watch and then read the lollipop shoes

thanks for sharing livrecache

;-)

Returned home safely today. Thanks to all who took part in this ring.

Whoops, I've just noticed that crimson-tide was to have it before it came home. So it's off to WA next.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

After a little rest with me, this book is on its last arc of the ring.

Arrived today after a very speedy trip cross country. Thanks livrecache.

As others have mentioned, this is a much darker book than "Chocolat". I didn't enjoy it quite as much, although that was not the reason. It was easy to read and I did enjoy it, just not as much. Maybe we shouldn't be into making comparisons, but it's difficult not to.

The idea of the three narrators did work for me, but overall the voices and characters weren't as beguiling as before. Yanne was trying to make herself and Annie "ordinary" and because of this her character had lost the vibrancy Vianne had exhibited previously. This had the effect of making the telling of the tale less interesting. Roux was almost a cipher of his previous self. The storyline itself was somewhat predictable and the writing could have been a lot tighter. It meandered . . . I don't think there is a literary equation anywhere that directly relates the number of narrators to the degree of meandering is there? The one character I thought was an absolute delight was little Rosette.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy "dark" and I enjoy witchcraft in stories. But I had enormous problems with Zozie as a character. Both in terms of her ‘character’ and her ‘as’ a character. I'm afraid I cannot understand and do not react well to people who are that devious, self-serving and malicious. OK, maybe that's my problem. :-) But it did affect things for me. I couldn't stand the woman. Now not *liking* a character doesn't necessarily mean one reacts negatively to the whole deal, and most of the time I don't either. I thought that the Judge in "The Inheritance of Loss" was an utterly despicable character, but that didn't prevent me from appreciating the book as exceptional. But Zozie was different. I felt that as a character she was overdone and not wholly convincing.

One thing the book has done is make me want to visit the cemetery in Montmartre.


Now . . . with livrecache's permission I have enticed BellaMack to accept a place back on the ring prior to sending it home. BellaMack however is not home herself and is currently up in sunny Brisbane. So I've said I'll hang onto the book until she arrives back.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

BellaMack is home again from her own travels, so 'The Lollipop Shoes' will be heading off to Tasmania on Monday 17th Nov. Will be posted in Balingup and hopefully not take too long to arrive.

Well I've come in to journal my thoughts on this book and discovered, with appropriate shame, that I did not journal when I received it. Apologies livrecache. Things have been fairly hectic for me these past few months so have only just finished the book. And I adored it. Every word on every page. I can't really add anything to what's already been written so will just say thanks livrecache for the bookring and thanks to crimson-tide who, it seems, knew exactly how much I would love reading it.

Arrived safely home from its travels today. Thanks to all who took part in this ring, and shared their thought about the book.