Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Chocolat by Johanne Harris

Although I read it in snatches, I savored it like a cup of Vianne's hot chocolate. Every page at just the right temperature, having not cooled since the last time I picked it up, warming my imagination from the inside out. Delicious, delightful and enticingly mysterious.

The story is written with a rich amount of description. "Very French" as my librarian would say. Enough so that I feel like the people are now a part of my reality. I liked that I could relate so well to being different, and being the stranger. I also liked how the flow was intense but mostly unwavering. Pleasing nonchalance from one voice and suitable irritation from the other.

I am reading the sequal now, The Girl with no Shadow. It is equally well written. Yet it is more suspenseful, and right from the beginning.

They made a movie of this story. I am watching it, too, for the first time. Very disappointing. Apart from the charactor names not a single detail went unmolested.

It was as if they took all the facts from the book and first threw half of them away. Then they took half again yet and turned them inside out. The two or three things they kept from the book seemed to be thrown into the production like exclamation points, totally missing the point of the original story and interrupting the flow of the monster they created.

I would give the movie an F- but for the eye candy of the two prinicipal characters and, at least one of them can act. I wish I had her hair...

3 comments:

earthmama said...

man, you should write book reviews more often mama...that was delicious.

corscorp said...

Have you read it? I know it took me awhile to get around to it. So many books, so little time.

*Jess* said...

Its on my list to read. I'll remember not to watch the movie!