Charlotte May's Reviews > Chocolat

This wasn’t really my cup of tea. Think I’ll stick to Joanne Harris’ thrillers in future.

It was ok. That pretty much sums up my feelings toward this book. There were parts I liked - mainly the side characters like Armande, and her grandson Luc. I liked Josephine and her storyline.

I didn’t particularly like either of the main characters and there was so much pettiness that is just wasn’t enjoyable and i found myself rushing just to finish.

Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk have just moved to a small town and opened up a chocolate shop on the first week of Lent in a strong Catholic community.

Naturally feathers are ruffled and a lot of the locals give Vianne a wide berth. However there are some that make it their business to give their opinion on Vianne and her way of living. Mainly the Priest and some of his more devout believers.

Vianne doesn’t go to church, as is her right, but this doesn’t sit well with the community. At the same time she is quite open about her disregard for the others beliefs.

I can see where both sides were coming from, and it made the whole thing uncomfortable. The priest is in the wrong, he sees Vianne as a threat to his congregation, he acts in a way he believes is right - but often frequently doubts his own path.
Vianne is also pretty disrespectful. She has every right to live her life as she chooses and not be spoken down to because of it, but surely so do the believers? Unless they are being cruel of course, then they need standing up to.

I don’t know, it wasn’t enjoyable and I read for enjoyment. I couldn’t relate to either side really - there were two major extremes shown. Plenty of good themes in here, but I would be lying if I said I’d recommend it.