Customer Reviews

Coastliners

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is the fourth novel of Joanne Harris's that I have read. I started with "Chocolate", which I loved, and read them in order as they were published. I have become more disappointed with each successive book, and "Coastliners" was the worst.

This time, Harris did not use food as a theme, but rather used the imagery of the unpredictable nature of the sea and its effect on a fragile coast. I thought that with this change, and my own love of the sea, perhaps this book would be better than her last two, but it wasn't. Instead, I found a novel cluttered with characters who are wooden, cliched, and undeveloped --and too numerous to keep track of, as well as a rambling, formulaic, and ridiculous story.

These characters include Mado, the beautiful returning exile; Cappuchine, a tart with a heart of gold; Brismand, rich and evil; Flynn, the mysterious, enigmatic drifter; and GrosJean, Mado's reclusive father with a tragic past. By page 50, I had resorted to writing down the names of the characters and descriptions so I could keep all of them straight in my mind!

Mado Prasteau returns to her tiny Breton island home of LeDevin from Paris after the death of her mother. She has been gone for ten years and the two villages on this island are still feuding. La Houssiniere is prosperous due to its beach and businesses, including tourism. At the other end of the island, where Mado's father lives, the impoverished and dying village of Les Salantes has an eroding coast and a bunch of dilapidated fishermen's shacks. The populace apparently has given up and is totally apathetic.

This is the fourth time Harris has had an outsider appear in a backwater area ready to stir things up and/or improve conditions in the area. Personally, this plot device has gotten really old, as is her theme of "good versus evil". The heavy writing is bad enough, but the predictable and cloying romantic storyline is worse.

Something that I found incredibly annoying was the author's constant insertion of French words. It made the flow, what there was of it, even more awkward than it already was.

I really wish I could find something positive to say, and wonder why I am even giving this 2 stars. I kept hoping to find something redeeming that I could say in this review....well, it does have lovely cover art.

I am sure Joanne Harris fans will read the book no matter what I or any other reviewer says - she has a huge fan base and I understand the film rights have already been sold.

The most relevant comment I have seen about this book was : "Coastliners" feels like "Chocolat" without the chocolate ...which is just about nothing. I would have to agree.

You can almost feel the sand between your toes as you read COASTLINERS. And yet this new novel from Joanne Harris, award-winning author of CHOCOLAT, is far from a typical beach read. Set on a small French island, the story revolves around a handful of families that dictate every aspect of life there with the notable exception of the tides. And, as they soon discover, even that power may be within their reach.

COASTLINERS is a potpourri of mystery, romance, and suspense. Readers follow in the footsteps of Madeleine or "Mado," a young woman who returns to her island home to a silent father and a community that is quickly slipping into the sea. An artist whose subject matter has always been the island, Mado returns to Les Salants from Paris seeking a sense of home, of family, of belonging.

Once again exploring the inner-workings of community, of who fits in and why, Harris deftly imparts deep-rooted feelings of loss with those of revenge to the inhabitants of Les Salants, a town where historical feuds fester and faith in a Saint overrides a sense of independent action.

Though readers may stumble on similar sounding names of an ever-expanding cast of characters, the compelling plot --- complete with unexpected twists and turns --- makes the story well worth the read. The power of charm in its seediest of contexts, the destructive effects of misdirected love, and the manipulative power of human nature work to pull at and repair the tiny island community of Les Salants. At the story's end, characters emerge with a renewed sense of direction and readers feel as though they've taken a dip into the deep end of a French island pool. Harris treats readers to descriptions of Les Salants and its residents that seem almost tangible. You can see the glittery pieces of sand as they build on the beach and taste the salt from the sea.

Harris strikes gold in this new novel, which catapults readers into the disheveled lives of one family that exists on an island of its very own. Carrying the expectations of a deceased mother and the guilt of leaving her forlorn father on Les Salants, Mado struggles to strike a balance between independence and familial reconciliation. Readers of CHOCOLAT may recognize familiar themes of self-discovery and shedding veils of the past in COASTLINERS. Yet unlike the dark element to CHOCOLAT, COASTLINERS imparts a sense of possibility in its 344 pages and leaves readers with a desire to know more about the about the fate of the Salannaise.

--- Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw

Joanne Harris has a wonderful way of creating a novel that revolves around something magical where the main character, although faced with some implacable obstacle, doesn't lose faith and in the process of solving the story's main plot issue, reintroduces him/herself to the new person that has immerged from within. "Coastliners" is just such a story. Mado, has returned to the northern French island of Le Devin whose livelihood relies on the bounty of the island saint who controls the tides and the erosion of the island's beaches. Upset by the dissentigration of Les Salants, her hometown, she devises a way to bring the heart back into the village, by stealing the beach back from the rival village on the other side of the island. With the help of an Anglo drifter, she finds a way to unite the feuding families of her home and infuse them and herself with a faith in the future.

Harris' strong suit is her wonderfully fleshed-out characterizations of the island inhabitants. The Greek chorus of the two nuns, the oldest woman in the community, the old man with the wooden leg as well as Mado's father, Grosjean and the rival merchant Claude Brissmand are all worth their weight in sel de mer. Her weak point however, is her tendency to get a bit preachy still in Mado's voice towards the end of the novel when this character begins to think of herself as a part of the village and not just an instrument of change---the John Dunne quote of "no man is an island" rings a little shrilly here, the bell tolling allusion even used within the story to signal the villagers to connect in action.

If you are a fan of Harris' other novels, you will also recognize a pattern, the protagonist always has a wicked and prosperous adversary, the secondary players squabble like children until the narrator finds a way to use their diversity to create an infallable unit, the love interest has questionable motives and a penchant for bending the law to his advantage---in 'Coastliners' all this works wonderfully well as it did in "Chocolat" and "Five Quarters of the Orange". Also at the conclusion, the islanders face too much strife which detracts from the ebb and flow of the main story. The author's motivation to show too much cooperation during these misfortunes admirably shows the development towards that greater village good, but it goes on too long---one disaster scene would have played just as well. In addition, the focal point of many unknown secrets seems to be given a rather rushed denoument also towards the end of the story--whereas, hints of these hidden motivations, although suggested rather slighly, should have been advertisized a bit more blatantly with more of a sprinkling throughout the entire story.

In spite of these flaws at the novel's end, 'Coastliners' is still a marvelous story in which to get lost. Harris has a way with words, her descriptions take you to the coast where the surf rushes around your ankles and draws you in deep. Listen to the unabridged audio version; the reader does a great job of adding vibrance to each villager's voice.

I found myself skimming my way through 'Coastliners' with the exact same speed that I had devoured Holy Fools. The island in question, Le Devin, was of course, mentioned in Holy Fools, and it's not long before our heroine, Mado, has bumped into a couple of Carmelite nuns on her first visit home in ten years. The mother who took her away from Le Devin has passed away, and Mado's only immediate family is her father, GrosJean Prasteau, and her sister, Adrienne. Whilst Mado is not exactly loquacious, GrosJean is even more silent and barely says anything, even when he is around. Adrienne is also away, living in Tangiers, but Mado and she have never got on. Adrienne was the eldest child who was so beloved that she even got a present on Mado's birthday, not that she repays such spoiling in later years by attending, say, her own mother's funeral. Adrienne also married outside Les Salants, the little settlement on Le Devin where the Prasteaus have always lived. Her union with Marin Brismand, the nephew and heir of the richest man on Le Devin, is seen as a good match, despite the fact that the Brismands have always come from La Houssiniere, the other village on Le Devin, whose inhabitants sometimes take on those of Les Salants in war. However, Les Salants looks to be losing this war of attrition, as their land is subject to flooding from the sea, whilst La Houssiniere is protected by its sandbanks. It also helps that Claude Brismand is so wealthy, that he can afford to build a jetty and run a ferry to bring the tourists in. Despite the periodic invasions of day-trippers, both Les Salants and La Houssiniere are threatened by the loss of the young people, who go off to the mainland seeking a more exciting and stable life. Les Salants and its inhabitants have been literally decaying, as Mado discovers when she returns. Very few of the cottages in Les Salants are being maintained, due to the continual incursions from the sea, and it is evident that the little village is losing in its war of attrition. However, despite this, there are still a few young people around, such as the enigmatic Flynn, who has been helping Mado's father...

It's probably not a good omen that practically the first thing Mado does when she arrives is to surprise her father so much that he drops the beloved statue of St. Marine-de-la-mer into the sea (the villagers are carrying the statue as they are celebrating the saint's festival). Seeing that everything has so stagnated since she has left, Mado embarks on an attempt to save the village, although none of the inhabitants are much interested as they are too busy fighting each other from decades' old feuds. Mado thinks that she has found a way to protect the village from the perennial floods from the sea, but only Flynn aids her, and he reluctantly. However, he does throw himself into impersonating St. Marine-de-la-mer with a great deal of relish, in a scene that is reminiscent of Holy Fools, which I believe was written much earlier than this novel. There is also the possibility that she could go to Claude Brismand for help - after all, he did send her gifts whilst she was away on the mainland, and he has been trying to help the stubborn GrosJean. Yet something keeps Mado away from pursuing this route - most likely the traditional rivalry between the Salannais and the Houssins. Despite this hostility with their close neighbours, everyone seems to embrace and like the Englishman Flynn, who has made himself useful by his seeming ability to fix almost anything. As he and Mado work with the villagers to build an artificial reef to protect Les Salants, Mado feels herself drawing closer to him (perhaps helped by her abilities as an artist!), but notwithstanding his friendliness, he seems determined to push her away from building a more substantial relationship.

Despite her heroic efforts for Les Salants, Mado still feels like an outsider. Les Salants is after all, a fishing community, whose people wage a daily battle against the sea. There is also the spectre of her withdrawn father, who can only acknowledge his love for her accidentally. Then there is the visit from Adrienne, the favoured child to contend with, even more so since her two young children are boys, and it has always been evident that GrosJean would much rather have had a son for a second child than a girl, no matter how tomboyish Mado ever became. Yet life for Les Salants is looking up. Old feuds are buried as the village graveyard is recovered from the sea, and the inhabitants begin to think more of the 'deserters' on the mainland than the deceased, like GrosJean's brother. The Salannais are also being coming under attack from the more malicious elements of the Houssins, such is their success. The Salannais even dream of stealing the tourists from La Houssiniere.

'Coastliners' has been criticised in some quarters for being too dark, yet not even Chocolat was all that light and frothy. If Joanne Harris ever goes for Romance, then it tends to be of the Gothic variety, as Holy Fools proves. The theme of painting was also explored in the excellent Sleep Pale Sister, and Joanne Harris's first novel Evil Seed, and with the French setting, 'Coastliners' can be seen to fit very well into the Joanne Harris canon, despite the welcome respite from the gastronomic theme that got a little too risible in Five Quarters of the Orange. However, what really keeps you turning the pages here is the dense and intriguing plot, which generates quite a few surprises for our little Mado. She's no Vianne, but you really do feel for her by the end of this extraordinary novel. This book gave me some much-needed entertainment, and I can safely that I really enjoyed the voyage.

It's a maxim. Like the wrecked boats, jetsam, fisherman lost at sea, everything returns to the French island of La Devin eventually, including Harris's narrator, Madeleine ("Mado") Prasteau. Feeling the pull of the island after living in Paris for ten years, Mado returns to her childhood village of Les Salants, where seabirds yark angrily at one another in the salty, weed-scented air, and omens ride the waves like gulls. Upon her arrival, she encounters economic rivalry between the villages of Les Salants and La Houssiniere, family rivalry between her "undemonstrative" father, GrosJean and Brismand, and sibling rivalry with her older sister, Adrienne. For Mado, her return proves to be an experience that leaves her feeling "overwhelmed." "I was spinning," she says midway through the novel, "too fast for the center of me to hold. I felt that at any moment I might explode like a rocket, scrawling my name in stars across the dazzling sky" (p. 238). By the end of Harris's engaging and often poetic novel, Mado finds redemption.

In her novels, Joanne Harris evokes a sensual response from her reader, and COASTLINERS is no exception. Whereas CHOCOLAT (1999) was sweet and FIVE QUARTERS OF THE ORANGE (2001) was somewhat tart and bittersweet, COASTLINERS is salty with the satisfying flavor of wild garlic.

G. Merritt

COASTLINERS, by Joanne Harris.

Once again, Joanne Harris takes us to a small French community. This time, on Le Devin a small Breton Island. She introduces us to several inhabitants of this island, where life has remained constant for hundreds of years. Two memorable characters, are the Carmelite nuns, Soeur Therese and Soeur Extase. Their role in the story is a small one. Yet, as with so many of her characters, Joanne has the ability to make them memorable.


The central character, though, is Mado. She is a local girl. After a ten year absence and quite unprepared for the changes that have taken place (as well as the changes still taking place) she returns to this sea side village She quickly learns that Brismane, a local entrepreneur is buying up property all over the island. It is with a certain amount of trepidation that Mado realises that her own family home is one of these under threat.

For centuries this little island has been split into two factions. There is little love lost between the inhabitants of les Salants and on the other side of the island, la Houssiniere. It is this thread of the story that adds to the tension. In fact, COASTLINERS does have a slightly harder edge to it, than some of the previous Joanne Harris novels. And this, for me, added an extra element of enjoyment.

Mado is soon resolved to restore the dying community to which she has once again found herself becoming a part of. The theme of `everything eventually returns to Le Devin` is very relevant here. Before long she has become attracted to Flynn. He is a drifter who for some (at first) unknown reason has stayed on the island. She enlists his help to save her stricken community.

It is here, that the true element of the story begins to emerge. The tide has been diverted by a jetty built into the bay of Immortelles by the local people of la Houssiniere. Consequently all the fine sand has washed away from les Salants to be deposited onto the beach head of La Houssiniere. Because of this, La Houssiniere has now become an established and prospering sea side resort. While, on the other hand, La Salants is languishing. Until Mado hits on an ingenious plan, to alter this.

There are some lovely little sub plots to this seaside tale. One of them being the `miraculous` restoring of the statue of the local Sainte-Marine. Could the wily and attractive Flynn have had something to do with this? Or, as most of the inhabitants of Le Devine would like to imagine, is it really a miracle?

Apart from her crusade to save her part of the island, Mado also has to cope with Grossjean her emotionless and aged Father. How she would dearly love to claim his affection. However, with the arrival later on in the novel of her sister, Adriene, it would seem this is never going to happen.

So the story, like the sands of the island, undergoes several changes. Towards the end, it is left with certain threads of storyline needing to be completed. It is here, that I was happily and pleasingly surprised. Towards the ending of the story, Joanna provides one or two extra twists and turns. And as to the actual ending itself. I thought it was splendid. But to give anything else away, any clue or indication would be to spoil, a thoroughly entertaining and in places, exciting read. And that, I would not do!

Footnote. A thoughtful map of the island of Le Devin is provided in the front of the book.

Joanne Harris writes well in this story of family ties and the importance of place in the lives of her characters - her descriptions painting pictures which keep you reading. I enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading others she has written. If you don't enjoy descriptive writing, this book may not be for you, but I intend to use it in my bookgroup, as I think the themes should lead to good discussion. Some might find it a little slow - but I read it in a couple of sittings and enjoyed the slow ride.

Unlike some of Harris' other books (_Chocolat_, and _Five Quarters of the Orange_) this one was not as food-oriented. I loved that quality in her other books, but I was also happy with her fiction in _Coastliners_. Although this book differed from her others in plot, the setting remained the same: France. In this case, the small island of Le Devin, lying off the coast of mainland France. The island inhabitants and the island scenes themselves were so well-written and easy to imagine.

The story itself was very entertaining. The main character, Mado, returns to her island home after a ten year absense. She finds that some things have changed, but much remains the same; namely the feud/rivalry between the families on the island. Mado wants to help her family and friends to build up their side of the island, but she encounters hostility and many unforeseen obstacles in the process.

In _Coastliners_, Harris constructs a captivating story with interesting plot twists. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

This novel is somewhat reminiscent of Chocolat, although I think that story was far superior to this one. Chocolat had a magical, fairytale quality about it that Coastliners fails to pick up on. Like Chocolat, it is the story of an outsider coming into an insular small town and turning the world of its residents upside down. Unlike Chocolat, the main character (Madeline) is actually returning to the place where she grew up.

I skipped through many descriptions of the little island featured in this story. How much is there to say about an island that you can walk across in one hour? I also found the characters tiresome and irritatingly quirky--some of them were downright unlikeable. Madeline's father was a man who communicated with grunts and mutterings--why she came back to the island for this troglodyte I do not understand. The novel has a rather soap-operaish quality to it, with all sorts of family secrets being revealed. But I had such a hard time getting through it that when the secrets were revealed, I really didn't care.

It's rare that I don't finish a book. I realized after getting 1/3 of the way through it that I just couldn't get interested in the characters. Took it back to the library.
A friend of mine who also reads a lot had the same experience.
Harris' other books were much better.