Rating: 
Summary: Five Quarters of an Orange
Review: Five Quarters on an Orange written by Joanne Harris is about a family living in a small village in France during the German occupation in World War II. The father was killed and the mother is trying to raise three children and keep the family farm.The use of descriptive color and scents brings Mirabelle's kitchen to life. Ms.Harris uses the same technique to describe the river, the village, and the people. I find it hard to believe that the three children knew so little about the resistance movement in their own village since their father had been killed by the Germans. Having the story told by the nine year old, then having the same person retell the story some 50 years later brought a startling but sad reality to the story. It was sometimes confusing as to who was talking, the nine year old or the older woman but the fictional story kept me wanting to know the truth about the mothers illness and what happen that last night in the village.
Rating: 
Summary: A Best Book
Review: This is the best book I've read in years. I especially loved the weaving of the past and present stories. Harris' characters are imperfect, and her nonjudgmental approach allows them to be entirely human. The tale is a clever one, and I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: Bitter, but good
Review: First, the outstanding quality of Joanne Harris' writing is her use of mouth-watering culinary descriptions. Her plot here is much more involved than in Blackberry Wine, and much darker. I happen to like the darker in terms of reading (my favorite is C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen; check THAT out), but I do have to say the narrator was hard to sit next to for the length of the book. Witty and earnest and devious as a child; witty and earnest as a sixty-year-old, but much crankier, and though she retains her spirit, she has lost the deviousness which made her younger self a delight. Case in point: When a loud neighbor and competitor moves in, her strategies to combat him are downright ordinary, exactly what youth would expect of the rigid elderly. Her triumph is the sort of thing I can see my grandmother sitting in her living room telling to her elderly friends, while they nod in agreement. "And >I< told HIM..." Some of the reviews seem appalled that the younger Framboise went to such measures to torment her "poor" mother. Poor nothing! Framboise fought back in what was an intolerable environment. By the end of the novel one can see her mother does care about her children (though unable to show it) and has her own problems, but one is still hard-pressed not to root for Framboise and her siblings in the situation. I do have to agree with one reviewer and say kudos to Paul for sticking around the whole time, though I can't see why he does. Framboise is fortunate he does. All in all, a great character sketch of the lesser parts of being human. And the ending made me want to put down the book and go on in denial, making up my own ending and pretending it was the real one -- but that's good, it means it's powerful. Sad is more powerful than happy.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly Disappointing..........
Review: I enjoyed Chocolat and Blackberry Wine so much, I couldn't wait for the paperback of Five Quarters of the Orange to come out in June, so I went to the UK site and ordered it. I couldn't wait to receive it and get started. Sadly, I was disappointed. There really were no characters in this novel you really "cared" about. I found myself admiring 9 year old Framboise' grit, but just didn't "care" for her much. France itself seemed such a vital part of the novels, Chocolat and Blackberry Wine, yet this novel lacked the charm which appealed to me in those novels. I also bought Coastliners at the same time I ordered this one and I'm actually filled with more trepidation than excitement to begin reading it. I still enjoy Joanne Harris, and will continue to read her novels, but this was just not one I would recommend to my friends or choose to read again.
Rating:
Summary: Foul language was a barrier!
Review: I picked up this book because of the movie chocolat. I figured that any author that wrote that movie would do a fine job. I started the book and I was interested from page one. She had my attention and it was a pretty fast read. I read all 307 pages in 7 days and that is pretty quick for me. I was happy at first because the language was pretty clean and that is hard to find in a modern day book. However, it didn't take too long for some pretty nasty language to start popping up here and there. I was quickly turned off by this but I was already into the book and wanted to see how it would end. I found the story pretty interesting as she jumped back and forth between the time she was nine and the present day. However, she was not a nice child and her dark thoughts and evil way of thinking started to get to me. She continually alluded to something that happened and when she finally got around to telling us what it was, she skipped over quite a few unanswered questions for me. I was disappointed in the end as I felt she did not come back and tie up all of the lose ends. I was hoping to be able to recommend this book for a book club that I belong to but the language would not be suitable.
Rating:
Summary: Rich Excellence in Its Bitterness
Review: Years after WWII Framboise Simon buys the dilapidated family farmhouse from her brother, fixes it up, and later, opens a creperie. But we soon learn that Framboise is drawn to this house and this previously Nazi occupied French village perhaps to come to terms with her dark and secretive past. Knowing that her maiden name will perhaps provoke unrest in the little French village, she goes by her married name and is careful not to reveal knowledge of past village events. She builds a good business serving food from her deceased mother's combination recipe album/diary. Then her devious relatives decide they would like the album, too, and Framboise is forced to face the past-a past which started with one taboo and escalated into betrayal of neighbors and, ultimately, village tragedy. A past which Framboise can only clearly understand through her mother's album. The first couple paragraphs of "Five Quarters of the Orange" were intriguing and gripping. It then went into a lull and I actually wondered if I wanted to finish, as the main characters are very unsympathetic (but unfortunately realistic). Framboise's mother is dour and outwardly seems to care more for her orchard than her children. Framboise herself, suffering from the loss of her father and her mother's harsh demeanor, coldly devises a way to induce her mother's migranes so that her mother will retire to bed, leaving the children to do as they please. After about 60 pages however, a plot development got me hooked, and from then on the pages flew. "Five Quarters of the Orange" is artfully written much like a movie. It's not a script, but I can easily imagine it as a movie with little modification to the plotline or characters, thanks to Joanne Harris' vivid descriptions. Fans of the movie "Chocolat" might be a little surprised, as this novel is much darker. It does not hesitate to detail the ugly side of human nature and of life itself. It does, though, have the same style, complete with sensuous descriptions of food. Overall, it's painted in somber tones, but like a potent cup of coffee, just because it tastes bitter doesn't mean that we don't' like it.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't Work for Me
Review: So many people seem to love Joanne Harris' fanciful novels, but they simply don't work for me. For one thing, they are simply not representative of the French people or French life. I've lived in several places in France and I get absolutely no sense of France or the French from any of the Harris books I have ever read. When I heard that "Five Quarters of the Orange" was a darker and more complex book than Harris' previous, I decided to give her another chance. I can't say the book was all bad; it was somewhat entertaining, though not at all believable. First, I don't understand Harris' preoccupation with food. In a previous book, it was chocolates, and the French, as anyone who has lived among them knows, are not great lovers of chocolates. You need British characters for that. In "Five Quarters of the Orange," Harris goes to the extreme of naming her characters after food. There is the protagonist, Framboise (Raspberry), Cassis (Blackcurrent), Reine-Claude (Greengage), Pistache (Pistachio), Noisette (Hazelnut), Piche (Peach) and Prune (Plum). I found this both faciful and extremely annoying. No self-respecting Frenchman would give his or her child any of the names above. I think if Harris wants to be taken seriously, she should stop using "cute" gimmicks to get our attention and try to win it with good writing instead. When the protagonist of the book, Framboise Dartigen, inherits a book of her grandmother's recipes, she decides to return to her childhood village in the Loire Valley. After restoring the Dartigen farmhouse and establishing a creperie, Framboise becomes obsessed with her childhood memories of the war years. The flashback action is meant to be the heart of the book, but it didn't win mine. Framboise, her brother, Cassis and sister, Reine-Claude are all very unsympathetic characters who are thoroughly dislikeable. The German soldier with whom they become involved, Leibniz, possess more charm and attracts more sympathy, at least early on. Eventually, the events involving Framboise, her family and Leibniz go terribly wrong and the family is forced to flee. As a child, Framboise is spoiled and must have her own way, even to the point of inducing migraine headaches in her poor, long-suffering mother. As a sixty year old, one might have expected Framboise to mellow, but sadly, she hasn't. She's as grumpy and crusty as they come. (Perhaps it has something to do with her name; she must certainly have endured much ridicule over the years because of it.) Framboise is a crochety old lady who is estranged from one of her daughters (it could be the name thing again) and who spurns the genuine affection offered to her from a childhood admirer. (Paul, the childhood admirer, is to be congratulated for persevering despite such avid discouragement.) There are recipes sprinkled throughout this book and, while they really weren't a distraction, haven't we had enough books based on old family recipes? If I want a recipe, I'll turn to a cookbook rather than to a novel. "Five Quarters of the Orange" isn't a terrible book. It is somewhat entertaining even if wholly unbelievable. I do believe, though, that it will be the last Joanne Harris book I will read. There are just too many superlative books out there to waste one's time with one that's not.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Chocolat
Review: This novel is remarkable in a number of ways. It is concise and very readable within a few hours. But is also an epic covering almost sixty years in the life of Framboise. We see her as strong willed child and bitter old woman. On the way we have the usual Joanne Harris fare of sensuous descriptions of food, landscape and characters. Much of the book is set in wartime occupied France as three bored children become infatuated with the German Tomas Liebnitz who manipulates them and others in the small village of Les Laveuses. Suspicion, jealousy, intrigue, mystery - they are all here. This novel is darker than Chocolat and a must read. Harris' other acheivement is to come up with so many characters named after fruits - Framboise, Cassis, Pistache, Noisette, Prune, Peche ....
Rating:
Summary: memories and recipes..........
Review: Joanne Harris uses a tantalizing array of luscious food as a backdrop in this dark and compelling novel. Five Quarters of the Orange focuses on the German occupation of France as viewed through the eyes of children and the memories of one of these children,Framboise, now a 60 year old woman. The novel takes place in a small French village near the Loire river. While Framboise's widowed mother, Mirabele, nurtures her orchard, a young German soldier, Tomas, nurtures a friendship with Mirabelle's three children, Casis, Reine, and Framboise. Framboise, now in her 60's tells the story, looking back through her memories and through a "cookbook" her mother has left to her. However, it is not just a cookbook. It is also a diary and book of memories that Mirabelle had bound together in no particular order. Framboise pieces together the family history using her memories of her childhood and the information gleaned through Mirabelle's "cookbook". What emerges is a dark story of Mirabelle's inability ,through her own cloud of migraines and medication, to show any emotion but anger to her children. The children are used by the German soldier to gather information on their neighbors. To the children it is just a way to get chocolates, books, and other items that are difficult to come by in war time, among the most important of these is the friendship and love the children perceive they get from Tomas. They choose not to really see what they are doing as imperilling to their fellow villagers. They are lonely children who are desperate for adult attention and the results are tragic and take years to comprehend.
Rating:
Summary: A Little Mystery, and a Little Cuisine!
Review: Another lush, rich, and complex novel from Joanne Harris. In Five Quarters of the Orange, the reader follows Framboise Dartigen as she reconstructs her past. As she reads through her mother's scrapbook, she learns a great deal about who her mother was, and we learn more and more of who Framboise was in the past and how that determined who she is now. She has a terrible secret that she is certain she must keep to herself. The reader travels from present to past with Framboise, and slowly we learn of her growing up during World War II occupied France, the friendship with a Nazi officer, and then finally, the horrible secret that almost destroyed her village. Framboise's mother is troubled, unaffectionate, and unhappy. Her brother and sister are older than she, and are the ones to initially pull her in to the fringes of the resistance and the friendship with Tomas, the young Nazi officer. Gossip is traded for black market delicacies. As Framboise gets closer and closer to Tomas, a horrible accident endangers everyone in her family and in the village. This is a story of relationships, of secrets, and of pride. Only when Framboise comes to terms with her secret can she appreciate her life.
| 
