Customer Reviews

Blackberry Wine : A Novel

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Joanne Harris has done it again. After indulging myself in Chocolat, I was a little nervous about reading Blackberry Wine. So many times after a smashing debut, the sophomore effort doesn't match up. However, that wasn't the case with this one. Blackberry Wine is utterly intoxicating.

Thirty-seven-year-old writer, Jay Macintosh, is stuck in the past. During his childhood, Jay spent three magical summers in rural England with retired miner and eccentric gardener, Joe Cox, a man who would become a source of inspiration for Jay. Joe, with his talismans, good luck charms and rituals, taught Jay many things, mostly about luck, magic, gardening and winemaking, before disappearing without a trace one day and impacting Jay for the rest of his life. And several years later, after the overwhelmingly success of his only novel, Jackapple Joe, Jay has found himself struggling with writer's block. On a whim, Jay purchases a small cottage in a remote village in France where he hopes to recreate those magical summers and let his imagination and creativity flow. But there are all sorts of surprises in store for Jay -- for one, a mysterious woman with a secret past that influences Jay in more ways imaginable.

Blackberry Wine is a beautiful, lush piece of work. However, I couldn't fully appreciate it until I'd read the whole story -- it was too hard to decide if I liked it or not when all the pieces were unread. Now having reflected on the complete story (and after ravishing the last few chapters), I realize that Joanne Harris's touch is still magical. Blackberry Wine will seduce you little by little, and it is so worth it by novel's end.

Joanne Harris' latest book, Blackberry Wine, picks up on some of the themes of her earlier book, Chocolat. Magic and its application to modern life... the hurtfulness of prejudice, especially religious prejudice against those who don't follow the locally prescribed formula... and the folly of blindly accepting what is too often mistaken as progress and success... are central to both works.

In Blackberry Wine, Jay Mackintosh needs a little magic. An unproductive novelist living in a depressing English lifestyle earmarked by alcohol and an unfulfilling relationship, Jay is haunted by a childhood defined by bullies and detached parents but redeemed by the quirky Joe Cox, who planted vegetables and made magical wine. Now, on a whim, Jay sets out to rediscover Joe's magic in the French village of Lansquenet, a place which is quaint and remote but beginning to go to seed and also needs a little magic. Jay carries with him the last six bottles of Joe's Special wine. The house that Jay purchases sight unseen except for a blurry picture in a brochure, is in disrepair but reminds him of Joe, and in fact seems to be inhabited by Joe's ghost.

In the house over the next several months, Jay uncorks the Special wines one by one, releasing their magic and allowing himself and the house to absorb their mysterious qualities. He begins renovations on the place, taking care not to lose its essential charm. He meets and learns about the people in the village and their concerns for saving their economy and their way of life. His writer's block lifts and he can hardly believe he is able to produce page after page of a new novel about the village and its inhabitants. He is most intrigued by his reclusive and alluring neighbor Marise, respected by some as a hard worker who bothers no one, but denigrated by others for being unsociable and irreligious. But the more he learns about her, the less she fits the character he had presumed her to be in the fiction he has been creating. Although his novel is coming along swiftly, he does not know where it is going, nor where he himself is going. The village also is waffling through the same process, unclear about how to define its future. Should it embark on tourism and commercial development schemes or sit back and submit to its inevitable economic decline? Through a blending of magic and hard reality, Jay rediscovers what is important in planning his own future and that of the village of Lansquenet.

Joanne Harris peoples her stories with characters who are more than a little fey, individuals who possess a touch of magic and who live in the realm of myth or fairy tale. In Blackberry Wine, the magical character is Joe Cox, the pivotal character of Jay, an author's, youth in a small English village. Joe had a magical cottage and garden and made wine from the fruits and berries on his squatter's land by a river, and was the main character in Jay's award-winning novel. Joe's sudden disappearance devastated Jay. When he suffers depression and writer's block, he buys, sight unseen, an 18th century chateau. Joe's bottles of wine, which he's been carting around with him for the past 2 decades, also move to the French chateau. As Jay begins drinking them, magic happens, and there's the over-riding question of, Where is Joe now, and could it be that he's that guy who...?
To say more would be to say too much.
Lovely book.

This novel is not without flaws, and some of the other reviews have drawn attention to some of these. Having bought an old house recently myself, the flaw that was most annoying to me is how quickly and effortlessly Jay whips this huge old house with major structural problems into shape while also completing a novel, planting a garden, bringing an orchard and rose garden back to life, drawing major gossip out of each and every reticent villager, and finding true love.

However, when I bought the book I was looking for (as mentioned in the title) a pleasant and relaxing read, and I found it in Blackberry Wine. This book sent me looking for more of Joanne Harris, because even though it does end abruptly with loose ends untied, its language is beautiful, and it has an intoxicating and entrancing quality unique in my experience. I felt drawn into the drowsy village. It was also a book I *could* put down, which I considered a plus. I was not looking for a sleepless Maeve Binchy night!

If you're looking for a book that will knock another off your top-5 all-time favorites list, this probably isn't it. But if you're looking for an enjoyable book and lovely prose, this is a good bet.

Many years ago, Jay Mackintosh wrote the prize-winning first novel"Jackapple Joe" but has been unable to achieve that success again. He writes sci-fi to make money, and is depressed at the thought that he might never again write something to equal his first book.

On an impulse, Jay leaves his girlfriend and London and purchases, sight-unseen, an old house in a rural French village where he thinks he can change his life and conquer his writer's block.

After reading "Chocolat", I had high expectations for Joanne Harris' next book. Perhaps that is why I was so disappointed by "Blackberry Wine".

As charming as her first book was, this one was just plain tedious with a lot of dark undercurrents that I did not like. It is a shame that the author did not just somehow stick to the stories of Jay, Joe Cox, and the village of Lansquenet and forget about the magical wine. I thought that if I read about those silly bottles clanking together and *speaking* to Jay one more time I would scream!

The book could have been so appealing to me had it been organized differently. I really loved reading about Joe's magic with the herbs and seeds that he saved for many years. I felt that the magic realism was very clumsy and almost seemed like it was tacked onto the book--and the love story was pretty awkward too.

As much as the magic realism worked for me in "Chocolat", it did not spin its same spell in this book.

Jay Mackintosh is a frustrated writer. Living in London, he is constantly forced to go to literary parties, and to teach creative writing by his tiresome spin doctor girlfriend, Kerry, and all because of a prize winning novel that he wrote years ago. If left to himself, Jay is content to wallow in the past and to write pulp SF under the name of 'Jonathan Winesap' (a pseudonym derived from two species of American apple). But then Jay is inspired by a piece of junk mail...

This is Joanne Harris' follow-up novel to the fantastically successful Chocolat, soon to become an obligatory film starring Juliet Binoche. The theme of the pleasure of mastication is continued here, with homemade bottles of fruit wine replacing chocolate festivals. Not that the wine that Joseph Cox makes is all that sweet. But Jay still drinks Joseph's 'Specials', like he writes SF, not for the pleasure of the taste, but for the joy of its associated memories. For each sip takes Jay back twenty five years, to the summers of the mid-70s, reliving his first tumultuous meeting with retired miner Joseph Cox in a small place called Pog Hill. There is the where Jay will undergo his pubescent years, hiding toys, comics, and himself by the canal. There, separated from his divorcing mother and father, Jay and Joe form a bond which is almost stronger than that between father and son. Joseph Cox is an aged man who has travelled the world, but whose blood beats with the heart of a hippie, and who proves to be a magical companion to Jay, with his herbs and rare seeds, each with its own story to tell. Joe and Jay become master and apprentice in the mysterious art of 'layman's alchemy'. But maybe magic is not enough to save them both from their fates... Jay escapes his London life to live in an idyllic French countryside. But as he becomes embroiled in the machinations and mysteries of this new community, has he truly learnt the lessons of the past?

Blackberry Wine is a beautiful novel. Like a couple of other works recently, such as 'Emotionally Weird' and 'White Teeth', the 1970s are very much present, allowing Harris and others to show the development or stasis of their characters, maybe reflecting a bit of soul-searching brought on by the millennium. This novel will appeal to anyone who remembers where he or she was when Elvis died, and the hot English summer of '76. There is a danger in going back to the past in that you can misremember things. Certainly, it would have been impossible for Jay to buy a copy of The Eagle in 1975, since it folded in 1969 (one of the memories of my childhood was the revivification of The Eagle in the early 1980s). But never mind the details (Michele Roberts has also criticized Harris' use of the French inheritance laws), it's the magic that's strongest here. It does seem that, in this quite subversive novel, that Joanne Harris has subtly reverted to her SF past. The model of this novel seems to be that of The Hero's Journey, so beloved of Hollywood filmmakers like George Lucas, with her portrayal of the young boy and his mentor. Although Harris sensibly falls short of Joe exhorting Jay to "use the Force".

Harris employs the unusual device of having the novel narrated by a bottle of wine, Fleuric 1962 (the year of Jay's birth). To some people, this wine could seem to be deceptively sweet, drowned in a world of fantasy. But the more discerning palate can also revel in its astonishing bite. Joanne Harris has gone on the offensive here, spelling out the law, laying down boundaries, much as Jay and Joe try to, marking a line in the sand: thus far, and no further. Just as Jay struggles with his identity, so does Joanne, seemingly reacting against the success of her previous novel, reminding you of her varied past as a writer, defining herself against the definitions that the media has made of her - which is probably why the village of Lansquenet and its inhabitants make a reappearance here. But I don't think we'll get to see John Thaw play Joseph Cox quite yet. Drink this novel in. It will give you a feeling that is the equal and opposite reaction to that of a hangover - pure joy.

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.

"Blackberry Wine" akin to "Chocolat" both written by Joanne Harris- I think not. This book started out so well, a tale of Jay MacIntosh, a writer with writer's block, now living in London with a girlfriend and living the high life. He realizes his life is not what he wants, but does he want to get out of this rut? A trip to his basement looking for a bottle of wine,and he finds the bottles of wine from his childhood, buried beneath a rack. Memories of his childhood come flooding back, and
he brings one bottle upstairs.

Kerry, his girlfriend, breaks the moment by walking into the house and reminding him of a cocktail party they both needed to attend. He declines and starts to tell her about the wine, what it means to him, about his childhood, but Kerry cuts him off and goes upstairs to change. Jay starts drinking the wine and brings back his memories.

Pog Hill, Summer 1975- Jackapple Joe, a ragamuffin gardner, maker of wine, fruit orchard owner. He lived in a ramshackle house on a terrace a half mile from the train tracks. Joe knows everything, knows how to do everything,understands all things and becomes Jay's best friend during the summers he spends near Yorkshire,England with his grandparents. Joe disappeared suddenly during the third year that Jay went to stay with his grandparents, but he left Jay 3 bottles of his homemade wine. But better than that he left Joe the wisdom and magic of his childhood summers. Jay's first book was a rememberance of those summers and his Joe.

While looking at his mail the next day, Jay discovers a phamplet fo homes for sale in France and glances through it. He suddenly finds the chateau that Joe wanted to move to in the countryside of France. Jay calls the realtor and offers more money than the home is worth, and in one phone call buys the chateau. A split decision that changes his life. He leaves his girlfriend Kerry, moves to Lansquenet, France in the midst of wine-making country. Thus begins the story of Jay's life changing event-meeting his mysterious neighbor, Marise, completely re-doing his chateau, and most of all resolving his writer's block.

This is a story or more of an adult fairy tale, that starts off with an agreeble drama that turns into a mystery and a romance novel. Not my stuff, for sure, but an entertaining read.
Joanne Harris has a wonderful gift, and her narrative is done with charm and grace. Somehow, I wanted this book to become a story of a man who finds himself, not that of a man who finds his neighbor as a romantic interest. However, the book was entertaining and well written. enjoy. prisrob

For those of you who read "Chocolat" and want to find out what happens to some of the characters, you will learn in an offhand way. More importantly, this book stands on its own. The story of this middle-aged man leaving his dull life (and his ambitious girlfriend) and finding himself by coming to terms with his past in the French countryside is compelling. Harris infuses her books with magic--not in the way that J.K. Rowling does (whom I also love)--but in a way that you recognize that there might be more going on than just we we (the masses) perceive. While this is dismissed by both the narrator and the reader at first, evidence arrives. And the bittersweet ending (in relation to Joe) is lovely; the love story is less interesting.

In all honesty, I didnt think that this novel would come close to Chocolat(great book,great movie) but Joanne Harris has woven another superbly warm and entertaining novel that mixes nostalgia with dreams, magic with wine and a dreamy writer with a woman with a kaleidoscopic past. Every page is filled with life which is supplemented by her wonderful description of food and wine. Whereas Jay Mac had writer's block, Joanne Harris certainty didnt. For those with dreams of living in the idyllic surroundings of the French countryside, this bottle of wine is certainly worth uncorking. Feel the magic in the "Specials"