A Wonderful Surprise

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	• Blackberry Wine : A Novel Joanne Harris BLACK SWAN, 2001 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 60 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It Stays With You

It has been over two months since I read this book and I think of it alot. It has such vivid passages that I feel as though if I stumbled upon Joe's house in the real world I would recognize it in an instant. I loved the scattered attachments to Chocolat. Joanne Harris is definitely an author that I will remember and keep reading.

An absolute gem.

The work of genius has been said to be 'that which can enchant a child yet move the most worldly of men to tears.' I probably don't need to say more than that to recommend this book.It is such a gem.I'm usually very picky about what I read and virtually NEVER finish reading most fictional works as they fail to engage my interest. This book had me enthralled from the moment I read the first page; I read it all in one morning and then more thoughtfully over the next couple of days. I have just finished reading it a third time.What is so enthralling about it you may ask.The book is written from the viewpoint of a vintage bottle of wine that just happens to be the same age as the main character, Jay. (Yes I'm sure you can now guess what happens right at the end.) The intense emotional saga of Jay throughout the book is neatly counterpointed by the 'character' of the bottle of wine (memories of long-remembered past summers, suppressed, changed and matured by years of 'confinement'.)The relationship between Jay and 'Jackapple Joe' will strike a chord with anyone who remembers a special childhood relationship with an old person - in particular the way the child takes everything for granted and regrets this years later when it is too late to remedy.In the book Jay is given a magical second chance with Joe (I won't spoil things for potential readers by saying how, or whether he is successful.) There are various other subtle and clever themes woven into this tale, which on a first reading appear perhaps disconnected from the more central ones. I appreciated the unity of the entire book by reading it again.Any review of an excellent work obviously does not do either the work itself or the author justice. I apologise for this. You will miss out if you do not taste 'Blackberry Wine'.

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A Wonderful Surprise

I purchased this book because I enjoyed Chocolat so much. At first the book was hard to get into, each chapter jumps from present day to 20 years into the past and than back again. The main character was hard for me to like at first. But after the first few chapters that drag, the main character moves from London to a small village in France and the story takes off from there. It was very enjoyable good-good story and like most stories, ended all too soon.

Savor this one!

Told in two time sequences with much humor and angst, Blackberry Wine is an adult coming-of-age story. Jay Macintosh, a one-hit wonder in the literary world, reduced to writing bad sci-fi, grows understandably disillusioned with his life. Now in his mid-thirties, Jay is haunted by the disappearance of the most influential person he has ever known, a coal miner turned horticulturalist named Joe. His time with Joe was the inspiration for Jay's one publishing success. Unhappy in life and armed with the final few bottles of Joe's homemade wine, he impulsively flees to the French countryside, seeking simplicity and elusive peace.

But is anything ever simple? The farmhouse he has purchased before leaving England was originally sold to another -- a young widow struggling for survival with her deaf daughter. Bad feelings exist between the widow, Marise, and the various villagers whom Jay meets. The village is torn between the need for economic advancement and progress and the wish to maintain its character. And the farmhouse -- well, could use some work. There are bright spots: Jay's writer's block evaporates and he begins a long-time-coming novel. Most amazing of all -- Joe (or is it really Joe?) returns to Jay, appearing and disappearing, offering his homespun wisdom and guidance.

Filled with surprises and pain, Blackberry Wine is a beautiful book from a talented writer. Joanne Harris is gifted, with a long and successful career ahead of her.

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Message in a Bottle

Having read Chocolat, I realized Harris is a kindred spirit...the sci-fi, the food, the memories, the spirituality. So I picked up Blackberry Wine in a blythe mood, and read it in less than two days. I really didn't want it to end: Jay, the hero, had a tumultuous coming of age in mystical setting with an old crank Joe as the teacher-wizard, with his incantations, his fantastical seeds, his potions (wines). The story flashes back and forth between these idyllic summers and Jay's deflated present of 1999, as a burned out writer who throve on the memory of those same summers. He cracks open Joe's old '75 wines and Joe is brought back, verily a genie from a bottle, as Jay's muse, and an adventure living in the village of Lansquenet ensues. The story stirred me on many levels, particularly the gilded, bittersweet summers as a young teen, that we all wish we could bottle and save like the Specials, to re-open and re-immerse ourselves in again. A great read.

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