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Fast and easy read
Sweet with a sharp sting
A 5 Star book if ever there was one!
Refuses to let go
A wonderful , informative read

Five Quarters of the Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060958022
Release Date: 2002-06-04

Amazon.com

In Five Quarters of the Orange, Joanne Harris returns to the small-town, postwar France of Chocolat. This time she follows the fortunes of Framboise Dartigan, named for a raspberry but with the disposition of, well, a lemon. The proprietor of a café in a rustic village, this crabby old lady recalls the days of her childhood, which coincided with the German occupation. Back then, she and her brother and sister traded on the black market with the Germans, developing a friendship with a charismatic young soldier named Tomas. This intrigue provided a distraction from their grim home life--their father was killed in the war and their mother was a secretive, troubled woman. Yet their relationship with Tomas led to a violent series of events that still torment the aging Framboise.

Harris has a challenging project here: to show the complicated, messy reality behind such seemingly simple terms as collaborator and Resistance. To the children, of course, these were mere abstractions: "We understood so little of it. Least of all the Resistance, that fabulous quasi-organization. Books and the television made it sound so focused in later years; but I remember none of that. Instead I remember a mad scramble in which rumor chased counter-rumor and drunkards in cafes spoke loudly against the new regime." The author's portrait of occupier and occupied living side by side is given texture by her trademark appreciation of all things French. Yes, some passages read like romantic, black-and-white postcards: "Reine's bicycle was smaller and more elegant, with high handlebars and a leather saddle. There was a bicycle basket across the handlebars in which she carried a flask of chicory coffee." But these simple pleasures, recorded with such adroitness, are precisely what give Framboise solace from the torment of her past. --Claire Dederer

Book Description

In her bestselling and critically acclaimed novel Chocolat, Joanne Harris told a lush story of the conflicts between pleasure and repression. Now she delivers her most complex and sophisticated work yet, an unforgettable tale of mothers and daughters, of the past and the present, of resisting and succumbing -- an extraordinary work of fiction lined with darkness and fierce joy.

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 woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year....

Customer Reviews:

Fast and easy read.......2007-06-20

This is a popular book--though it was more popular in Europe than the States. It begins with a mystery. As the mystery unfolds, it reveals character and culture. The main action of the book is told as back-story. A middle-aged woman returns to her native community in rural France. The story is wonderfully atmospheric. The atmosphere is created through an infusion of delightful food and wine and snippets of WWII era French culture. It is no doubt a popular book with the Martha Stewart crowd. But there is a more sinister story, the real story involves Nazis and a community lynching. The story itself is unique enough to keep the Better Homes and Gardens aspect from overwhelming the narrative.

I think the only thing that kept this from being a great book was the author's reliance on mystery. She holds back information. And though this technique did move me through the narrative, and the author did eventually deliver on her promises, I could not help but wonder if the strong mystery aspect was not in someway making up for something the book lacked. I hate to refer to that old American classic, Gatsby, but I will. Where Fitzgerald used the mystery only so long as it was necessary, letting the device fall away to reveal a narrative driven by characters and their actions, there is little beyond the mystery in Harris's novel. Once the mystery is solved, the novel ends.

Sweet with a sharp sting.......2007-04-29

After reading Chocolat (before the movie came out), I wanted to try another of Joanne Harris's novels. I picked up Five Quarters of the Orange at an airport and was impressed. The story is woven into a compact and powerful book that looks at life in Nazi occupied France. In the small village of Les Laveuses, you discover the small town life that stills continues even with Nazi occupation: farms, harvest, the change of people to the seasons, love, hate, gossip, etc.
Framboise Dartigen narrates this story, both from a child's perspective and as an elderly woman. The two stories slide back and forth and give a vivid and powerful feeling of what life was like on that small farm and in that small village. The interactions between the family are drawn richly and with precision. An incedence when Frambouse is younger drives the family from the town, and she only returns many years later and under another name. The story unfolds to reveal the secret but not to the very end of the book.
The story is dark and the amounts of cruelty between siblings, mother and daughter is drawn with a sharp, slicing knife. Harris' writing uncurls slowly, like the pealing orange on the cover, the sights, sounds, and smells from her wonderfully chosen words draws you in. I must admit that the book does slow a little in the middle but gets it upward momentum back again towards the end. Many who loved Chocolat may be turned off by the dark tone of this book, yet it is Harris' skill at words and character development that really lend you to appreciate the story that is being told. I would recommend this novel for both the beautiful and ugly imagery it conjures.

A 5 Star book if ever there was one!.......2007-04-15

An adroit, mesmerising novel. I could not put this down, so astonishing and gripping was this story and Harris's subtle, impactful writing. I wanted it to go on forever, couldn't wait to get to the conclusion; the sign of a great book.

Refuses to let go.......2007-01-13

A French widow recalls her girlhood in a village beside the Loire, as she tries to keep the secret that caused her family to be expelled from the town. Joanne Harris is a compelling storyteller; I think there are only a few, and possibly none, who are better. Her stories gently capture the reader and refuse to let go. Along the way, she seems always to incorporate descriptions of foods and cooking that make me want to spend more time with my own cookbooks! This novel grips and tugs and compels, and what more could you ask?

A wonderful , informative read.......2006-11-06

I did not know what to expect when I began to read this book other than what is written on the cover. As the story unwinds, I found myself fascinated by the unusual perspective of a World War II story, rich in detail and sensitivity for its characters. Even though I have read quite a number of books on this terrible war, I felt this book taught me things I had never considered before.

Five Quarters of the Orange: A Novel (P.S.)

Average customer rating:

Interesting chilldhood tale

Five Quarters of the Orange: A Novel (P.S.)
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0061214604
Release Date: 2007-01-02

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Interesting chilldhood tale .......2007-06-19

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris contained a mystery that kept me reading until I finished the book in just 3 nights. Harris wrote the book like the main character Framboise was just sitting around telling a childhood story to a friend over coffee. Reading the story, I felt comfortable as "Framboise's friend" and enjoyed her tale of adolescence. In the beginning of the story, Framboise casually tells us "I know, I know. You want me to get to the point... It has taken me fifty-five years to begin. At least let me do it in my own way." Harris' use of details and descriptions helped to paint of vivid picture in my mind of Framboise's childhood. I liked the way Harris described Framboise's older sister Reine-Claude in comparison to Framboise, "At twelve, my sister has already ripened. Soft and sweet as dark honey, with amber eyes and autumn hair... next to her I looked like a frog, my mother told me, an ugly skinny little frog with my wide sullen mouth and my big hands and big feet." The book describes the conflict of mother and daughter relationships. Harris shows that no matter how badly we don't want to end up like our parents, we can't help but to inherit some of their qualities. Framboise's mother tells her nine year old daughter "Hard as nails... I used to be like that...I always wanted to fight everybody too." When the older Framboise is stressing about her declining business while her daughter and granddaughter were departing from their summer visit, "I could see in her eyes that she felt I was unreasonable, but I could not find enough warmth in my heart to tell her what I felt... a sudden terror overwhelmed me. I was behaving like my mother... Stern and impassive, but secretly filled with fears and insecurities. I wanted to reach out to my daughter... but somehow I couldn't. We were always raised to keep things to ourselves. It isn't a habit that can be easily broken." Harris also details what it is was like to live in Nazi occupied France. We read about this time period in history books but it was eye-opening to see this from the perspective of the families who lived through this period of change and uncertainty. She writes about the German soldiers going to people's homes to take their food and prized possessions. Even when the families tried to hide their belongings, the German soldiers still found and took what they wanted. I also liked how Harris hinted at upcoming events at the ends of chapters to keep the reader interested in the story.

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Five Quarters of the Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Five Quarters of the Orange
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ASIN: 0385601697

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Five Quarters of the Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: WILLIAM MORROW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKSXD2

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Five Quarters of the Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OABBPE

Five Quarters of the Orange / Pyat' chetvertinok apel'sina

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Five Quarters of the Orange / Pyat' chetvertinok apel'sina
Dzhoan Kharris
Manufacturer: Morozova
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 5986950089

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Five Quarters Of The Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: Perennial / Harper-collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NUJ85U

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Five Quarters of the Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000HDWVZC

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Five Quarters of the Orange
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF7JMS

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Five Quarters of the Orange Prepack
Joanne Harris
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 006050112X

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