Five Quarters of the Orange
Book - 2001
The novels of Joanne Harris are a literary feast for the senses. Five Quarters of the Orange represents Harris's most complex and sophisticated work yet -- a novel in which darkness and fierce joy come together to create an unforgettable story.
When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous Mirabelle Dartigen -- the woman they still hold responsible for a terrible tragedy that, look place during the German occupation decades before. Althrough Framboise hopes for a new beginning. She quickly discovers that past and present are inextricably intertwined. Nowhere is this truth more apparent than in the scrap book of recipes site has inherited from her dead mother.
With this book, Framboise re-creates her mother's dishes, which she serves in her small creperie. And yet as she studies the scrapbook -- searching for clues to unlock the contradiction between her mother's sensuous love of food and often cruel demeanor -- she begins to recognize a deeper meaning behind Mirabelle's cryptic scribbles. Whithin the journal's tattered pages lies the key to what actually transpired the summer Framboise was nine years old.
Rich and dark. Fire Quarters of the Orange is a novel of mothers and daughters of the past and the present, of resisting, and succumbling, and an extraordinary work by a masterful writer.
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Add a CommentA good read-interesting view of France under occupation by the Germans.
I read this book two years ago and still find myself thinking about it.
From our 2015 #80DayRead Summer Reading Club traveler Erin: The story of a family enduring difficult times during the war in German occupied France.
Phenomenal writing and story telling that kept me on the edge from the beginning to the end. Full of surprises, fascinating characters and the creepy realism of the Nazi occupation of a very small French village from a child's point of view. I thought about it for two days after I finished it and started reading it again. I was even more impressed the second time.
I wanted to like this book, the woman sounded like a strong character. There was some good writing in some points and poor writing in others.
I had to push to get through it and in the end I didn't really enjoy it.
A woman who has hid her origins from everyone in her town her entire life now comes face to face with the reality that if she doesn't choose to tell the truth, it will be done far less pleasantly for her. Except that she herself is only starting to uncover what really happened all those many years ago. Wonderful characters, make you want to stand up and cheer everytime she thumbs her nose at her relatives.
Framboise Simon's mother left her journal to Framboise when she died. Framboise returns to her small village in the Loire as an older adult and buys back her family home, begins a new life hoping the community will not connect her with the past when she was a young girl and her village was under German occupation.
By the author of Chocolat, this novel is about two of my favorite subjects food and France. It is dark in tone, gripping and surprising. It qualifies as a great summer read.
Very different from the well known Chocolat, but very enjoyable. You can almost taste Joanne Harris's books!
Boise is a widow in a small French village who's been hiding a secret from her childhood when Nazis occupied the town. As in many of her other books, Joanne Harris has her collection of characters and and uses tastes and aromas to bring the story to life. The cooking and the fruit each have their own personalities and are are as much a part of the book as any of the people.
May 2005