The Lollipop Shoes - Joanne Harris

You know that lovely, nostalgic feeling that you get when you hear a song that you associate with something in your past? Well, I get the same feeling with this book. In Summer this year, when I was having a difficult time applying for jobs, I went to the Yorkshire Dales for a few days to cheer up, and found this book in a cute little charity shop.


As I was buying it, a woman said to me "Oh that's a great book, even better than the first one". I took what she said with a pinch of salt - she seemed a bit crazy, but also I didn't want to believe that this exciting little find was following on from another book. I didn't realise until long after I finished it that it is actually the sequel to the book, and film, Chocolat. However, I understood the whole story, the book stood on its own and didn't seem like anything had been untold, or any prior knowledge assumed. Actually, Harris says that it isn't technically a sequel, but a continuation: "based on the fact that people change, that children grow up, and that happy-ever-after is a phrase that lazy people use when they just don’t know what happened next."

The book, which WILL make you want to go to Paris and eat chocolate, is beautifully written. Each sentence reads as if it has been individually thought through and contemplated for hours, it offers a brand new potential of the English language.  Structured equally with three different narrators, the story outlines the lives of Vianne Rocher and her daughters Annouk and Rossette, who live above a rented chocolaterie in Montmartre, Paris. Vianne attempts to fit into the community, as well as give the chocolate shop a re-vamp. All of this is assisted by an unexpected stranger, Zozie de l’Alba, who works her way into the lives Vianne and Annouk. Underneath this storyline, is an undertone of the abnormal, with subtle mentions of magic,"accidents", and of the winds changing. However, this side to the plot is rather ambiguous, with Vianne and Annouk living under pseudonymous,  what did they leave behind? What are they running from? Is Vianne a witch? 


The plot itself is very simple, almost juvenile. But the depth at which you get to know the individual characters and the extent to which you're seduced by Harris' writing makes this book far from juvenile. The curious stranger, Zozie, is malevolent and vindictive, yet due to the multiple narration, there are times where the reader can almost empathise with her. The book is centered around the chocolate shop, and how it flourishes alongside Vianne's independence. Vianne, who goes by the name Yanne Charbonneau, considers marriage to her landlord, Thierry, who is quite obviously the safe option. It becomes clear towards the end of the novel that there is someone from her past who she is reluctant to forget about, Roux.   


Annouk's storyline focuses on the growing resentment she has towards her mother, alongside a growing admiralty for Zozie.  Unfortunately, this is exactly what Zozie wants, as she worms her way into the family with ulterior motives that all come to a climax at Christmas. Harris says: "Chocolat was milk chocolate, then Lollipop Shoes is seventy percent. There’s still quite a lot of humour there, but it’s quite black humour". It's not just the humour that is black, the story itself is. But, coaxed by Harris' gentle way with words, nothing could be scary. This book will give you a craving for Paris, and for more of Harris' wonderful writing.