Lynch the bigots or lynch the outsider? (Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris)

Member Name: KingHerrod

Product:	Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
Date:	20/03/02 (345 review reads)
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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, Harris once again writes about a small village community in Northern France, this time the fictional location of Les Leveuses.

Harris came from a line of great cooks, fantastic home recipes passed down through generations and once again food provides an escapist theme in Five Quarters Of The Orange, with sensuous home delights cooked up by the mother of the story's narrator, and latter by the narrator herself. Framboise Dartigen is the youngest offspring of Mirabelle; Mirabelle's husband has been killed off fighting in the Second World War and the plot line centres around the events that follow this tragic loss and their long lasting effect during and after occupied France of the 1940s.

Framboise has returned to Les Leveuses following her families shaming a generation earlier, she returns to the same farm, to the same families and the same closed minded mentality; except she returns in secret as Framboise Simon, having lost her own husband to a freak fishing accident. The villagers seem none the wiser, although she keeps herself to herself, concentrating on building up a thriving small café and fighting off advances for the secret recipes that Mirabelle left to Framboise, from her nephew's wife, Laure.

Much like another of Harris' books, Blackberry Wine, Fi
ve Quarters Of The Orange is written partly by way of the flashback, except this time the effect is much more solid and less jumpy. Framboise tells the story of what happened that fateful summer in wartime France when the Germans occupied the village and drove division into the very heart of the community. She tells the terrible secret that destroyed the family and that she is still all these years latter trying to keep hidden, for fear of the consequences, she feels that she must see out her remaining years in her childhood home, but that if the truth of her identity or the events of long past are revealed then her life will once again be destroyed.

Five Quarters Of The Orange, concentrates on several topics: the burden of a lone mother with three kids to look after; the strain on a community of occupation by enemy soldiers; the blackmail and corruption that war brings; the long time divisions that separate families, causing such bitter resentment; and the fact that whatever the secret maybe, it is never as bad as it seems to the harbourer and the release of the truth can provide a blissful release in the holder of the secret, secrets rot the person and leave them bitter and spiteful.

Harris is one of those authors that you can easily identify, whether it be by the art work on the covers of her novels - all pastels and with that secretly placed photograph of a member of her family - or by the very writing itself. One look at the cover and a perusal of the first few pages and you would know the author, even if there were no name on the cover. I would describe Harris' work as languid prose and this book is no different, descriptions of people, places and emotions are beautifully realised and the description of the food is enough to make you drool all over the book. Characters are wonderfully depicted, from the venomous niece in law, Laure, after secret family recipes for her own self glorification, to her ineffectual and weedy husband Yannic
k, the hen pecked male, with a spinal column as floppy as an Angora rabbit's ears (apologies to any Angora rabbit reading this review!)

What shines through in the writing and the storyline is Harris' intolerance of hypocrites and bigots:

""I don't know what makes him so holy anyhow. He was only coming to watch the Boches himself." Reinette shrugged."

""Jews," said my mother. "They've got a knack for making money. Charges the earth for a piece of silk, and never paid a penny for it herself." Her tone was unresentful, almost admiring. When I asked her what Jews did she shrugged dismissively, I guess she didn't really know."

Harris makes clear in her work that she feels that the world should respect, tolerate and judge less and I applaud this point of view.

Adding another interesting dimension to Five Quarters Of The Orange is the fact that Harris based the book on her own grand-father's recollections of what it was like to live in occupied Vichy France; there is a real sense that Framboise's story and the village mentality could be transported to any village within occupied France and this gives the book a wide appeal.

My only slight criticism is the book's slow beginning: this is not a book that grabs you from the opening chapter, indeed it takes 80-100 pages for the reader to be absorbed into the storyline, but once absorbed the previous 80 or so pages add to the depth of the read. However, once the story is in full flow, this is a book that totally consumes you and it races along to a startling revelation and the conclusion that nothing is more dangerous than corrupting and manipulating childhood innocence.

Five Quarters Of The Orange is currently out in paperback, priced £6.99 and published by Black Swan, although is available at the moment for half price on Amazon. I have the hardback version and at 432 pages lon
g, this is a very absorbing and gratifying read, I only wish that I had got round to reading it sooner.

Intelligent, witty, subtle and enchanting, with a few thought provoking paragraphs and themes, not as good as Chocolat, but better than Blackberry Wine, this is thoroughly recommended.

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