Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

This story is told from the point of view of Framboise Simon nee Dartigen. It is being told in two parts: from the point of view of the 64 year old Framboise, and from the point of view of 9 year old Framboise. The different parts of the story are interleaved throughout the book so there are paragraphs from the old time and paragraphs from the current time. As we learn in the very beginning, this is a story of a secret that should have remained one even after 55 years, but instead is getting told now.

The story is of what exactly led to one of the minor tragedies during World War 2 in a small village in France. It is wartime and the village is in the occupied part of France when Framboise and her two siblings (Cassis and Rennie) are going about their lives. Their father was killed in the earlier fighting and their mother is doing everything she can to raise the children while also running the household. Unfortunately, the mother is prone to migraine headaches which completely disable her and those migraines are precipitated by Oranges. So, of course, she does not want anyone in the family to have anything to do with touching, eating, or bringing home anything like oranges.

Unfortunately, the mother does not believe that showing love to your children helps them grow, so she is always harsh towards all of them. This backfires with Framboise who takes on the task of fighting back. She does this by arranging to bring oranges into the house which sends the mother to bed, etc. The mother tries to deal with this by popping Morphine tablets which are extremely difficult to get in wartime France so she eventually resorts to dealing in the black market with various unsavory characters.

When we are told the story from modern times, we find Framboise coming back to the village after 50 years and setting up life as a widow. She keeps her married name and does not tell anyone of her previous life in the same village. Astonishingly, no one recognizes her (even though she tells us that she looks just like her mother) and no one questions her motivations in buying an old, burned out farmhouse, and setting up shop as a cook - just like her mother! In modern times, her recipes are much sought after and she gets invited to share them with newspapers and magazines - which she mostly refuses. Unfortunately for her, her nephew (Cassis's son) is married to a very ambitious and ruthless woman who tries to do anything to get at the old recipe book.

And that recipe book turns out to have much treasure in it! As it happens, the mother wrote about the various events that took place from her owe viewpoint and both embeds the text in amongst the recipe materials as well as writing it in a code language which makes it hard to decipher. Finally, the different entries of the diary are not arranged in any chronological order.

So, the story follows Framboise as she unravels the story from her own memories and her mother's writings leavened with the events of current time. We learn what led to the tragedy and see how the follies of youth interact with the secrets and events of wartime France to produce a tangled story. It slowly unravels as we read and we also find out more about Framboise and how her life has evolved over time.

The ending is sweet and endearing as all the threads come together into a coherent story. This is especially sweet as Framboise learns how to be less stern and opens up to her own daughter and there is a hint of a new family life to be with one of her oldest friends.

What an excellent choice for a book club discussion! The quirky, odd, strange characters will keep you talking (or thinking) for hours. Narrator Flamboise alludes to a mystery at the very beginning of the book which is slowing revealed like a fisherman letting out his line. Masterfully, it will keep you reading to the last page. Beyond the compelling story itself, Harris' writing style is very evocative of the places she describes and her language has a beautiful literary quality without being unwieldy or pretentious. Most excellent!

This is a very good book full of characters that are, to me, a bit unlikeable through most of the book. Somehow, though, by the end, I had come to understand and care about them.

This is a story of a widow in wartime France. She suffers from severe migraines (and probably morphine addiction). She has three children who are left to themselves a bit too much and they get too close to a German soldier, a black market dealer. They are just too young to understand the implications.

All of this is juxtaposed to many years later, when the youngest child has returned to the village and lives under another name. She has bought the old farm, and made a nice little restaurant there. No one must know that she is the daughter of her notorious mother.

Through most of the book, the story builds to telling us the awful event that drove her family from the village and made them so hated. At the same time, there is a subplot about her brother's son and his wife, who seem to be poised to let the secret out. What will happen?

That is the crux of the story. But what always makes Harris's books so fine is the beauty of her writing, the way she weaves a story with interesting characters and unexpected motivations.

I really enjoyed this book.

Joanne Harris takes us to the world of post WWII France and weaves a complex tale of a mother and daughter, surviving and thriving by running a popular cafe. As always, Ms. Harris brilliantly weaves scents and aromas of foods into her imagery, so that they pull the reader deeper into the tale at hand. In this case, the scent of an orange is emblematic of post traumatic stress and mental illness for the mother -- but for the daughter the orange brings environmental control and a taste of freedom. Through this universal struggle the mystery is gradually revealed in bits and flashbacks. This is a fantastic read.

I thought this novel was very well-written, but Harris could have done a better job with fleshing out the overall suspense of the story. She builds up an interest about the "incident" throughout most of it, but subtly mentions once what it is, then seems to trail off. The end is bit sketchy as well, and could use a few more chapters to properly wrap up all the loose ends. What she deems very important and a driving force in the beginning becomes nothing short of a fleeting memory by the end. The characters are extremely well-developed and three dimensional, which adds to the charm and ferocity of each.

This is a wonderful book! Taking place in France during WWII, it takes the unusual viewpoint of a young girl and her two siblings who see things from a vantage point we are not used to for this timeframe. The richness of the culture shines through, and there's a heavy, heavy sense of foreboding from very early on that stays with you right through - you know something BIG is going to happen, but there is no way to know what until it happens. You read on, not wanting it to come, knowing it will, and loving the atmosphere of the book the entire time. Very unexpected, totally absorbing, this is one that will stay with me for a long time.

The was a fabulous novel. JoAnne Harris is such a creative author. We read this for our book club. Everyone liked it. She always has such great story lines with creative twists that keep you talking. It was a great discussion. We read Gentlemen and Players the month before (it was very very good too) and just couldnt get enough of this author. A great read. You wont be disappointed.

I enjoyed this book but as I said in my title it was haunting. The children's actions (tho not cruelly intended) ruined many lives.

This book unwinds slowly, which is sometimes maddening,but mostly perfectly suited to the concept and tone. It takes patience to read. I was intrigued, but not hooked.

The author would have done better to give us a likeable main character - or any likeable character in the first half of the book. Paul's presence in the book increases in the second half, which helps. I didn't truly come around to liking - or even sympathizing - with Framboise until close to the end.

The prose is beautiful, haunting, and poetic. However, there are times when it causes confusion...Are we flashing back, or in the present? Did a rape occur or not?

As other reviewers have stated, the middle of the book is repetitious and stalls the pace. And the ending is a little anticlimactic, but satisfying.

I don't know anything about rural France during WWII, but I'm still wondering why they had a bathroom in the farmhouse when they didn't have running water!

I would recommend this book to patient readers who enjoy comples and historical novels.