“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”
In Lansquenet, nothing much has changed for decades and decades. That is, until Vianne Rocher comes to settle and begin a chocolate shop and outrages the local priest to begin such a shop in temptation and sin – and at the beginning of Lent, too! But slowly and surely, the town gives in, despite the preaching and the threats of damnation, but evil still lurks in the corners. But sometimes the only way to cast out true evil, is to expose it to the light..
★★★★☆
I decided to finally pick up this book because I’d watched the movie so, so many times and wanted to see what the source material was like. I was surprised, slightly confused but pleased nonetheless, as the book is in essence very different.
Chocolat was so much more complex than I’d expected. Not necessarily in terms of plot, that is largely the same, but it’s definitely more emotionally complex than the movie. We get to live with these really complex and morally grey characters (like the priest). All of the characters are so three-dimensional, complex and human, it’s very impressive. I feel a lot of the book is about those complex emotions and how displaces loyalty and obsessions really can ruin people’s lives, and even end them. But it’s also about loss and letting go of that loss. It’s about the bad things people do, but also about the good things people are capable of. It’s about facing fears and seeing they’re more terrifying in your own mind than in reality. It’s really full of all of that and more.
This book is often marketed as a feel-good read, but honestly it’s actually quite dark. There’s darkness in Vianne’s past, there’s darkness in the village, darkness everywhere. It does not leave you cozy and buttery, like a feel-good novel is supposed to do. But actually I really enjoyed it because of that, this hint of rawness, so it was a pleasant surprise for me, just mentioning that it doesn’t exactly do what it says on the tin.
What I thought could be better is some of the writing. often things are told instead of shown in places where it would really feel more lively and airy if they were shown. Like parts of dialogue told instead of actually ‘spoken’. In fact, there is a lot told that should have been shown, but perhaps that’s just the style. The narrative switches between two characters, which is interesting and sometimes confusing, because there are no headers signaling the change. It gives a sense of connection between the characters but I’m not sure if it works here.
A lovely and interesting book and not at all what I expected.
Content warnings: domestic violence, violence in general, religion (negatively used), discrimination
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