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A review by apechild
The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris
3.0
Joanne Harris is a funny one for me. I get through her books quite quickly, but I find them underwhelming, with the same themes cropping up again and again. Chocolat, the first I read, is still my favourite (and has shelf space) as does Jigs and Reels but that's it. This is all right, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you need to know where to stop with a story. I've had this book waiting for over ten years and I think part of the wait is the title, The Lollipop Shoes, which is a bit twee. I think they published with another title in the States.
It could be 20 years since I read Chocolat so I'm a little hazy on the details, and I think a lot could be jumbled with my memory of the film. The film was set in the 50s? But this book, only 4 -5 years after Chocolate is in the here and now with mobile phones and the internet. Vianne is now in Paris, under a different name, with her daughter Annie (Annouck) and younger daughter Rosettee. Running a mediochre chocolate shop and playing at normal and boring. In strolls Zozie, a funky confident young woman who starts working at the shop, builds their confidencce, helps them with all their problems la la, but there's something afoot. Well, we know straight away what's afoot as this is narrated in the first person from 3 perspectives - Vianne, Annouck and Zozie. It's interesting but first person can mean a lot of navel gazing and tell not show. Zozie is an indentity theft and a witch raised on Mexican witchcraft. She's got her eye on new things to steal. It's really quite sad though, because she does do good deeds for Vianne and Annouck. It's all part of the plan of course, but it's sad to see how they blossom and get their confidence back, and you know the insipid reasons beneath. I think the story is quite a sad but true depiction of mothers and daughters - specifically mothers losing daughters. Annuck is in her early teens and off making friends, living her life and not confiding everything in her mother. Which hurts her mother. But which I guess is life. We all take our mothers for granted and disregard them to one degree or another. So perhaps that is one of the saddest, but strongest lines in the book, which has little to do with fraudster plots or whimsical hippy witchcraft and more to do with real life.
I did cave in and had to eat some chocolate during the reading of this book.
It could be 20 years since I read Chocolat so I'm a little hazy on the details, and I think a lot could be jumbled with my memory of the film. The film was set in the 50s? But this book, only 4 -5 years after Chocolate is in the here and now with mobile phones and the internet. Vianne is now in Paris, under a different name, with her daughter Annie (Annouck) and younger daughter Rosettee. Running a mediochre chocolate shop and playing at normal and boring. In strolls Zozie, a funky confident young woman who starts working at the shop, builds their confidencce, helps them with all their problems la la, but there's something afoot. Well, we know straight away what's afoot as this is narrated in the first person from 3 perspectives - Vianne, Annouck and Zozie. It's interesting but first person can mean a lot of navel gazing and tell not show. Zozie is an indentity theft and a witch raised on Mexican witchcraft. She's got her eye on new things to steal. It's really quite sad though, because she does do good deeds for Vianne and Annouck. It's all part of the plan of course, but it's sad to see how they blossom and get their confidence back, and you know the insipid reasons beneath. I think the story is quite a sad but true depiction of mothers and daughters - specifically mothers losing daughters. Annuck is in her early teens and off making friends, living her life and not confiding everything in her mother. Which hurts her mother. But which I guess is life. We all take our mothers for granted and disregard them to one degree or another. So perhaps that is one of the saddest, but strongest lines in the book, which has little to do with fraudster plots or whimsical hippy witchcraft and more to do with real life.
I did cave in and had to eat some chocolate during the reading of this book.