Blackberry Wine

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but I had very high expectations
Review: As a big fan of Joanne Harris, I was excited to read Blackberry Wine. Maybe I just could not relate to Jay or to Joe the mysterious ghostly gardener. I finished this book in just a few hours and it did hold my attention. It did include beautiful scenary with great details of nature and the art of gardening. The character development was fairly flat. The great mystery of the of the silent neighbor Marise was disappointing. After Chocolate and Five Quarters of the Orange, I was expecting another 5-star novel. Instead I got a solid, interesting, and decent book. Definitely read her other novels first!

Rating:
Summary: Blackberry Wine
Review: Joanne Harris has created a wonderful story that isn't pretentious in the least, instead focusing on what she obviously considers the finer points in life - wine, food and the company of others. The story is fairly simple, but that is half the charm and happily the narrative flow stumbles only once, towards the end, but the mistake is rectified and I was left feeling satisfied by the turn of the last page.

Jay Mackintosh is a writer famous for his first book, Jackapple Joe. Since then he has had writer's block, producing by-the-numbers pulp sci-fi under a pen name to take care of his debts and to keep him in the lifestyle he enjoys. He is widely considered to be the writer who doesn't write, his girlfriend in particular contemptuous of his choices. He receives six bottles of wine from an old friend from his childhood, and here his adventures begin. For the first half of the book, each chapter jumps between his childhood and the challenges he coped with and the friendships he made, and the present day, where he becomes progressively unsatisfied with his joyless life. He eventually buys a property in a tiny little town in France that reminds him of 'the good old days'. He begins to write again, becomes friends with the residents and rediscovers the beauty of life.

And it works really well. Harris has a real gift with words, in particular when describing earthy scenes and food and drink. I felt like I should be drinking a bottle wine while reading, everything was just so rich and tangible. The childhood scenes are tinged with nostalgia and probably aren't as enjoyable as the present day events, which eventually take over the entire book anyway.

The only problem was when his girlfriend visits from London to take back her man. I found this section - mercifully brief but unfortunately it hampered the conclusion - as tacked on, in a way. I understood that it was necessary for Jay to truly learn his lessons, but I didn't like it at all. For a book that had pretty much coasted along with the characters enjoying each other and their surroundings, to suddenly have this conflict mar the pace of the novel, well, it didn't work. Thankfully this section is resolved fairly quickly and we can go back to the sedated pace of before. The ending is expected, but welcome, I could see it coming a mile away, and when it did, I was satisfied.

Overall, I would recommend this to someone who wants to take a relaxing wander through the vineyards of rural France. Nothing is hurried, no great life-truths are unveiled, but it never tries to do this so that can be forgiven. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A sparkling, delicious novel...
Review: Joanne Harris has done it again. After indulging myself in Chocolat, I was a little nervous about reading Blackberry Wine. So many times after a smashing debut, the sophomore effort doesn't match up. However, that wasn't the case with this one. Blackberry Wine is utterly intoxicating.

Thirty-seven-year-old writer, Jay Macintosh, is stuck in the past. During his childhood, Jay spent three magical summers in rural England with retired miner and eccentric gardener, Joe Cox, a man who would become a source of inspiration for Jay. Joe, with his talismans, good luck charms and rituals, taught Jay many things, mostly about luck, magic, gardening and winemaking, before disappearing without a trace one day and impacting Jay for the rest of his life. And several years later, after the overwhelmingly success of his only novel, Jackapple Joe, Jay has found himself struggling with writer's block. On a whim, Jay purchases a small cottage in a remote village in France where he hopes to recreate those magical summers and let his imagination and creativity flow. But there are all sorts of surprises in store for Jay -- for one, a mysterious woman with a secret past that influences Jay in more ways imaginable.

Blackberry Wine is a beautiful, lush piece of work. However, I couldn't fully appreciate it until I'd read the whole story -- it was too hard to decide if I liked it or not when all the pieces were unread. Now having reflected on the complete story (and after ravishing the last few chapters), I realize that Joanne Harris's touch is still magical. Blackberry Wine will seduce you little by little, and it is so worth it by novel's end.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy follow-up book to Chocolat
Review: Joanne Harris peoples her stories with characters who are more than a little fey, individuals who possess a touch of magic and who live in the realm of myth or fairy tale. In Blackberry Wine, the magical character is Joe Cox, the pivotal character of Jay, an author's, youth in a small English village. Joe had a magical cottage and garden and made wine from the fruits and berries on his squatter's land by a river, and was the main character in Jay's award-winning novel. Joe's sudden disappearance devastated Jay. When he suffers depression and writer's block, he buys, sight unseen, an 18th century chateau. Joe's bottles of wine, which he's been carting around with him for the past 2 decades, also move to the French chateau. As Jay begins drinking them, magic happens, and there's the over-riding question of, Where is Joe now, and could it be that he's that guy who...?
To say more would be to say too much.
Lovely book.

Rating:
Summary: Not Sweet to Me
Review: Many years ago, Jay Mackintosh wrote the prize-winning first novel"Jackapple Joe" but has been unable to achieve that success again. He writes sci-fi to make money, and is depressed at the thought that he might never again write something to equal his first book.

On an impulse, Jay leaves his girlfriend and London and purchases, sight-unseen, an old house in a rural French village where he thinks he can change his life and conquer his writer's block.

After reading "Chocolat", I had high expectations for Joanne Harris' next book. Perhaps that is why I was so disappointed by "Blackberry Wine".

As charming as her first book was, this one was just plain tedious with a lot of dark undercurrents that I did not like. It is a shame that the author did not just somehow stick to the stories of Jay, Joe Cox, and the village of Lansquenet and forget about the magical wine. I thought that if I read about those silly bottles clanking together and *speaking* to Jay one more time I would scream!

The book could have been so appealing to me had it been organized differently. I really loved reading about Joe's magic with the herbs and seeds that he saved for many years. I felt that the magic realism was very clumsy and almost seemed like it was tacked onto the book--and the love story was pretty awkward too.

As much as the magic realism worked for me in "Chocolat", it did not spin its same spell in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Sip Some Wine and Relax
Review: This is the second book I have read by Joanne Harris and although it is different from the first I still enjoyed the experience and highly recommend the journey.

The story is fairly predictable, a frustrated writer escapes to France and finds himself drawn to a beautiful but reclusive neighbor. Yes, typical romance.....but alas so much more! Harris writes so beautifully that she draws you into the surroundings and your heart leaves your body and enters a quaint French village while being entertained by all sorts of quirky characters.

I would recommend a good bottle of wine, some cheese and a long lazy afternoon to read this enchanting novel. But get ready to book a flight to France once its over. Harris is such a sensual writer that you will be unfulfilled until you experience all of the tastes, sounds, scents and pleasures of France along with her characters. I am convinced about both France and Harris.