Vianne is a prequel to Chocolat. I can’t imagine anyone who has not heard of Chocolat, since it was a blockbuster of a film that allegedly did the book justice, and led millions to read it who wouldn’t have done so otherwise. So I thank the publishers and Netgalley all the more, since I haven’t read Chocolat, although I’ve been meaning to for years. Vianne came out on Thursday.
Vianne (Chocolat #0)
by Joanne Harris
Vianne is the long-awaited story of Vianne Rocher and begins six years before she opens her scandalous chocolaterie in the small French village of Lansquenet.
Just twenty-one years old, Sylviane arrives in Marseille to start a new life, and charms her way into a job as a waitress in a run-down bistrot. Here, under the guidance of eccentric Guy Lacarrière she discovers the joy of cooking, a secret love affair and, for the very first time, the true magic of chocolate.
Yet as she starts to dream of making a future for herself in the town, she finds herself at the centre of a growing conspiracy that will threaten everything she’s fought so hard for…
My Review
Joanne Harris wraps you up in the world of Vianne Rochas, with the warmth and smells and tastes of Marseille and other places in this long awaited prequel to Chocolat. I say long-awaited, but having not read the first I was merely fascinated by the ‘how did it start’ aspect of the story, since I’m mired in a prequel of my own at present.
What strikes me most is the descriptive style. Instead of sound and shape there is colour and smell. Vianne seems to navigate her world by smell. I soon found this book impossible to read without a morsel of chocolate melting in my mouth—which is exactly what chocolatier Guy encourages tasters to do. Let it melt. Experience the spices, the heat, the atmosphere of the exotic places where it grew, of the history it holds.
To balance things out, Vianne has fallen on her feet, working in the kitchen of a local lunchtime eaterie. More than a diner, less than a restaurant, a place where locals come for the plat du jour, and are allowed to criticise her efforts at producing the deceased wife’s genius cuisine. Soups, stews, pastries and breads of southern France…and the markets too. I’m now dying for a Marmande tomato for my pasta sauce.
I loved this book. It is warm and frosty at the same time, chilling is too strong. The frost gives it tension, the characters give it humanity in all its warped glory. It is a book worth taking time over, savouring it even though you are desperate for the next mouthful. If you are any sort of diet, furnish yourself with a large pot of healthy soul food, and lock the chocolates away. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
“Instead of sound and shape, there is color and smell.” I love that. Thank you for giving us a description of the specific senses involved. And the taste of a piece of chocolate melting on my tongue, which is the way I enjoy it best, is, I suspect, also the best way to describe reading this book. Having not read Chocolat either, I’m doubly encouraged to read Vianne, now. Thanks.
Hmm. I saw the movie years ago, but don’t remember much about it. I’m not sure I even knew it was a book? I do like to let chocolate melt on my tongue—and am disgusted when I get hold of typical American chocolate, which so often doesn’t melt. Yuck.
This sounds worth reading, though I feel almost impelled to find and read Chocolat first.