Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris was born to a French mother and grew up in a small Yorkshire village, I guess that is why most of her books are set in France and revolve around the small village mentality. By small village mentality, I mean the fact that everybody's business must be known, people must conform to a set of village rules and the individual is frowned upon, if you are not at Mass or the village fair you are an outsider and the village mob will not accept you. It is clear from Harris' writing that she grew up with cross-cultural influences and this gives all of her books a distinct flavour. It is of no surprise then that in Five Quarters Of The Orange, ...  Read the complete review

In “Five Quarters Of The Orange” Joanne Harris continues with the foodie theme which she used so effectively in her best selling novel “Chocolat” (which was subsequently made into a film starring Juliette Binoche.) However, this latest novel is not quite as whimsical as “Chocolat”, and the underlying theme is quite disturbing and even sinister. Framboise Dartigen is a woman “d’un certain age”, who has, in her twilight years, returned to the small village of Les Laveuses on the banks of the Loire, where she grew up during the war years with her elder brother Cassis and her sister Reine-Claude.She has come back ...  Read the complete review

This is the story of Framboise - no, not a bottle of raspberry liqueur (thank heavens), but rather the woman by that name from a farm on the river Loire in the French village of Les Laveuses. This is partially the story of Framboise's troubled childhood with her brother (named Casis), sister (Reine-Claude) and especially her unwell and widowed mother (who was, of course, an amazing cook) during the years of WWII and Nazi occupied France. It is also the story of her no less troubling old age - accounted from the time she returns to the village in her 'retirement', in order to open a creperie. She tries to avoid the past from painfully being dredged up by using a different ...  Read the complete review

"Five Quarters of the Orange" is the third novel in Joanne Harris's "food trilogy", following "Chocolat" and "Blackberry Wine." Its interesting that the three books are referred to as a trilogy as this book has no connection to the other two except for the fact that food plays a prevalent role in the plot. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable book, albeit much darker than the first two, and in my opinion is by far the best of the three. Framboise Dartigen tells us the story in first person; she is in her sixties and has recently moved back to her childhood home in the French village of Les Laveuses. Framboise has opened a ...  Read the complete review

First there was Chocolat, then Blackberry Wine, and now there are oranges. Joanne Harris has been credited with inventing a new literary genre - "gastromance" and I for one am hooked on this indulgent and sensuous feast of a novel. You only need to look at the names of the central characters to see Harris?s preoccupation with food: Framboise (Raspberry), Cassis (Blackcurrant), Reine-Claude (Greengage), Pistache (Pistachio), Noisette (Hazelnut), Piche (Peach) and Prune (Plum). The novel centres on Framboise, or 'Boise for short. 'Boise is a froggy faced, angular, and devious little torag who is her mother's favourite, probably ...  Read the complete review