Vianne by Joanne Harris
Vianne is rightfully one of the most highly anticipated books of late summer. Anglo-French award-winning author Joanne Harris has presented her legions of fans with the gift of a prequel to her million-copy best-selling novel Chocolat that debuted in 1999.
While not entirely faithful to the book, the 2000 film adaptation brought together the magical combination of the lovely Juliette Binoche and the swoon-worthy Johnny Depp in his prime. A book series was launched which followed the adventures of the bewitching single mother, chocolatier Vianne Rocher, and her 6-year-old daughter Anouk.
Vianne emanates magic in her blend of tarot cards, runes and small spells that harmlessly charm, along with the most seductive, delicious chocolates anyone has ever tasted, which somehow inspire heart-warming, inspiring transformations to a small French village. Initially, her arrival during Lent profoundly disturbs the local priest, who is scandalized by the decadent chocolaterie located across from the church. In time, he is won over by her love of family, friends, community and general joie de vivre.
An Enchanting Series
Published in 2007, the second book, The Lollipop Shoes, with the alternative title The Girl with No Shadow, relocates Vianne, daughter Anouk and baby Rosette to Paris, where she opens a tiny chocolate shop under a pseudonym.
With book three, titled Peaches for Father Francis (2012), the wind changes directions again, heralding the years later return of Vianne and her daughters to the much-altered beautiful village of Lansquenet, desperately requiring her presence to restore harmony.
The Strawberry Thief (2019) is the 4th book in the Chocolat series, which finds the little family settled permanently in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, ready to tackle fresh disturbances.
Magical realism, enchantment and new beginnings will satisfy long-time readers as well as attract a new audience with this spellbinding origin story, which is as alluring and beautifully written as Chocolat.
This reviewer recommends finding a comfortable place with the telephone silenced and distractions minimized, armed with a box of the finest chocolates, a selection of pastries and perhaps a thermos of French hot drinking chocolate and a box of tissues at hand to enhance your hours of reading pleasure.
Beginnings of a New Life
Vianne begins 6 years before Chocolat in midsummer, 1993. The 21-year-old protagonist has fulfilled her promise by scattering her mother’s ashes in the New York City harbor on July 4th. The name on her passport is “Sylviane Rochas,” which she will alter to Vianne Rocher upon her arrival in Marseille aboard the cheapest flight she could find to this city on the Mediterranean Sea in southern France.
Her small carry-on bag contains all her worldly goods: papers, wallet, change of clothing, airline-gifted toiletries, a map book, her mother’s ring, and tarot cards inside a sandalwood box. With no family waiting or immediate employment prospects, the five hundred francs remaining will not last long.
Sylviane and her mother had lived as gypsies for her entire life, travellers without a fixed address, living anonymously on a cash basis in large cities where they were better able to hide under aliases to change their identities and disappear into the crowds.
Fearing a nameless “man in black” who was in constant pursuit, her mother never put down roots or remained long in any one place. Living in poverty by their wits, skipping out on hotel bills, wearing second-hand clothing, owning few possessions and assisted by precociously clever Vianne’s ability to source free food in markets.
Her mother’s whims were guided by frequent tarot card readings, heeding omens and moving swiftly, often as if blown on the powerful currents of the “turning wind”. Now alone and pregnant, Vianne is for the first time in control and ready to disavow her peripatetic wanderings to put down roots and raise her imminent child with greater stability.
Friends, Magic and Chocolate
After a simple meal in a tiny, hole-in-the-wall bistro, Vianne charms her way into a job as a waitress with lodging in a room above the café.
The grumpy, sad-faced owner, Louis Martin, continues to mourn for his beloved wife Margot, who died in childbirth two decades earlier. She left a legacy of handwritten recipes, which Louis grudgingly allows Vianne to attempt after observing him cooking.
Living out of a suitcase had left the young woman bereft of cooking and baking skills, but she discovers a knack for and a joy in creating palatable foods the regular customers savor. The recipe book mysteriously imparts visions and knowledge of Margot’s inner thoughts, including her passionate desire to have a child.
Vianne is personable, warm, friendly and able to put her knowledge of small finger fluttering charms to good use. In time, she befriends Guy Lacarrière and his partner Mahmed, a former street hustler, and later, Stéphane, a homeless man with a pampered rescue cat she met in Toulouse. Stéphane becomes a good friend and an able handyman/craftsman employed by the partners who intend to open a fine chocolate shop.
Originally from Toulouse, Guy is the scion of a prominent, wealthy family with a well-established law practice. Being a dutiful son, he studied law but drew the line at marrying a suitable young woman, moving back home and joining the firm.
He knows the family money he receives will stop if his father learns that not only is his son gay but that he has been using his allowance to learn all he can about the history and crafting of artisanal chocolate from beans to the most elegant of bonbons.
Guy and Mahmed are working feverishly to open Xocolatl, soon to be Marseille’s premier chocolatier. Vianne is their eager apprentice, mastering the basics and soon creating her own magically inspired filled chocolates designed to tempt and gently influence those in need.
She is haunted by her mother’s whispers in the wind, urging her to move on without forming attachments.
Another influential being comes into her life: Khamasheen, named for the dry desert winds in the Mediterranean Basin. Is she real or an apparition who appears in various disguises, seen only by Vianne, advising her to follow her heart and learn to trust?
A Beautiful Tale with Film Potential
Vianne is a beautifully told tale of a young woman learning to take charge of her own life and destiny. In learning to love and trust newfound friends, she is able to choose her family.
Her progressing pregnancy is bringing her hope, courage and a sense of belonging. Confidence in her cooking and chocolate unlocks secrets through the subtle addition of bittersweet chocolate spices to Margot’s cherished recipes, encouraging her own healing as well as those around her.
It is a novel of the heart that magically uplifts and brings joy. In setting this work 6 years in advance of its source, Chocolat, Joanne Harris has created an opportunity to expand the protagonist’s backstory to fill in the details of this as yet untold time period. She may choose to give a voice to Vianne’s future daughters.
This lovely work of fiction would be a welcome gift and may prompt readers to revisit the previous entries in the series. In the hands of the right director and cast, it would make an absolutely scrumptious movie.
About Joanne Harris:
©Frogspawn
Joanne Harris (OBE, FRSL) is the internationally renowned and award-winning author of over 20 novels, plus novellas, cookbooks, scripts, short stories, libretti, lyrics, articles and a self-help book for writers, Ten Things About Writing. In 2000, her 1999 novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Her hobbies are listed in Who’s Who as “mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion of the system.” She is active on social media, where she writes stories and gives writing tips as @joannechocolat; she posts writing seminars on YouTube; she performs in a live music and storytelling show with the #Storytime Band; and she works from a shed in her garden at her home in Yorkshire.
She also has a form of synaesthesia which enables her to smell colours. Red, she says, smells of chocolate.
