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Rating:  -
Five Quarters of the Orange / 0-06-095802-2
I loved Chocolat, so when I saw Five Quarters at a local half-price store, I bought it without hesitation. Once home, however, I felt regret - how often have I been disappointed by a best-selling author whose triumph proved to be short-lived? I left Five Quarters on the shelf for a year and forgot about it.
This month, I steeled myself to read it or sell it, and so the first page turned... and I was immediately hooked. This novel, more so than Chocolat, shows the depth of Harris' talent. Firstly, because it shows that Chocolat was not a one-hit wonder, and secondly, because it differs so strongly from Chocolat - this is not merely more of the same.
Five Quarters is darker than Chocolat, there is no doubt, but in many ways just as sweet. Where Chocolat's scents and tastes were a hedonistic delight to the senses, Five Quarters uses scents and tastes to transport the reader back through the narrator's childhood recollections, as she reluctantly remembers the German occupation and her own innocent collaboration with them as they repressed her people and hurt her family and friends. Much of the lingering bitterness between mother and daughter that we saw in Chocolat is more closely explored here; Boise is no Vianne, putting the past aside as unimportant, but at the same time, she struggles to understand her mother in light of her own life and motherhood experiences. As Boise fights to keep the life she has carved for herself, and as she learns - late in life - to love and trust the man who has always loved and protected her, we are drawn irresistibly into Harris' sweet, enchanting prose.
It is easy to see the differences between Chocolat and Five Quarters. But it is easy to see the similarities, too. Here there is less magic, fewer easy resolutions, but greater pain brings greater growth and depth. And as we see the love within this novel - love that spans generations - we realize that it is really not so dark after all.
Rating:  -
This book was well written and brilliant but didn't make me feel wonderful as Joanne Harris books usually do. I got lost with some of the characters, expected the mother to commit suicide at any point because of her daughter's pranks, was a bit surprised by how it ended. It was rather dark and not so enjoyable on a feel good level.
Rating: -
...then you have to read Five Quarters of the Orange. A hauntingly beautiful tale of secrets and past regrets. Set primarily in a German occupied French village, this book strikes a perfect balance between past and present. Despite their flaws, or perhaps because of them, readers can easily relate to the characters. The story gradually builds to reveal the truth and how each of the characters played a role in the events that ensued. This is a story of how all of our actions can impact on events and is also a story of 'if only...'
This book was engaging, suspenseful and easy to read. I couldn't put it down and finished it in under a day. Before I finished it I thought about reviewing it on Amazon and was intending on giving it four stars. By the end of the book, I knew I had to give it five.
Rating: -
I really loved this book. The protagonist is Framboise, an old woman who is telling us the story of one monumental event in her life. As young girl growing up in the French countryside during World War II, Framboise had a poisoned relationship with her single mother, Mirabelle. Framboise's father has already been killed in the war, and the little family is struggling to establish a new dynamic amidst the swirl of events around them. Mirabelle is an accomplished cook with a bountiful farm, but she suffers from horrible migraines in addition to some psychological problems. Mirabelle always knows when one of her "spells" is coming, because she smells oranges, even though she strictly forbids them in the house.
Framboise and her two siblings (all, interestingly, named after foods - Framboise itself means raspberry) strike up a capitalistic relationship with a German soldier (part of the occupying force). The children provide a little information here and there about black market activities in exchange for items such as chocolate, magazines, and other products scarce in war-torn France. (Framboise always asks for an orange as part of her "payment." She uses its peel to trick her mother into thinking one of her spells is coming. This allows Framboise to not only inflict suffering on her mother, but also to gain a few hours of freedom as her mother holes up in her room, desperately trying to ward off the migraine.) The children don't really realize what they are doing. After all, the people they inform on are not killed or jailed. The soldier simply extorts them for his own goods.
And the soldier, named Tomas, ably fills the masculine void left by the children's father. In a world devoid of much affection (their mother is a brusque, busy woman not prone to displays of tenderness), the children love him. Before the end of the novel, though, the soldier turns up dead. And how he dies, and who pays the price for his death, are secrets of the novel I won't spoil here.
This book is much about mothers and daughters. Upon her death, Mirabelle leaves her "album" to Framboise - a book full of recipes, thoughts, notes, etc. By reading the album, Framboise comes to know her mother in a way that she never has before. The relationship between the two is certainly acrimonious; Framboise often refers to it as a war, trying to win this or that battle. But as the book progresses, even Framboise herself admits that she and her mother are very much alike.
Also, Harris is a master of description. She frequently writes about food - the foods that Mirabelle cooks, the foods that Framboise cooks as an adult, all the recipes in the "album" that Mirabelle leaves to Framboise upon her death. Your mouth will be watering. Have a Patricia Wells cookbook handy; you'll want to whip up some French country food.
Lastly, the novel is about secrets. It is, after all, the tale of Framboise finally telling a secret that she has carried with her for her entire life. This is where the title comes in - it's one of the secrets that Framboise has kept. Framboise tells no one, not even her siblings, of her use of the orange to trick her mother into thinking a migraine is coming. As a result, when her two siblings (and one friend) see her with one of the oranges she's procured, they ask her to share it. In order to reserve some of the peel for her secret purposes, Framboise turns her back to her siblings/friend while she "quarters" the orange. But in fact, she divides it into five pieces, hiding one of the slices in her pocket. This way, she saves one-fifth of the orange to use on her mother. The fifth quarter of the orange is the "something" that no one knows about. It is what is hidden. And for a novel filled with secrets, I think Harris chose the perfect title.
I heartily recommend this book.
Rating:  -
Despite beautiful and sensuous prose, this is not an easy read. It demands perseverence from the reader but in the end patience is rewarded: it delivers so much. Its structure is composed of two parallel tales, one set in the present and one comprised of 40-year-old memories of German-occupied France. Harris pulls no punches as she examines the actions and motivations of people living in times that often demanded troubling compromises ... and worse. Few are spared. The role of the good mother is turned on its head. A cold eye is cast on the myth of the noble Resistance. Provocative questions are raised about the innocence of childhood. But the stories inexorably move towards their united climax to show how wisdom and love require acknowledgment of the truth, which sometimes is slow in revealing itself. The ultimate message of "Five quarters of the Orange" is that wisdom and love have their own schedule and it's never too late for either.
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