Five Quarters of the Orange
by Joanne Harris
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List Price: ££7.99
Our Price: ££1.99
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Black Swan
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780552998833
ISBN: 0552998834
Label: Black Swan
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Publisher: Black Swan
Studio: Black Swan
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Too slow and unbelievable
Comment: I couldn't finish this book which is unusual for me, it was much too slow to get to the point and I only made it halfway. I found the 9 year old Boise's character too far fetched. No 9 year old could surely have the bravery, wit and cunning that Boise was meant to have. Nor the crush on the soldier. In my view, girls don't start having serious crushes like that until they are 11 or older. The plot with the orange peel was way too advanced for such a seemingly sweet girl to think up herself. A great disappointment as I was looking forward to reading this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Comment: Synopsis taken from Amazon:
Beyond the main street of Les Laveuses runs the Loire, smooth and brown as a sunning snake - but hiding a deadly undertow beneath its moving surface. This is where Framboise, a secretive widow named after a raspberry liqueur, plies her culinary trade at the creperie - and lets memory play strange games. Into this world comes the threat of revelation as Framboise's nephew - a profiteering Parisian - attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes she has inherited from her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers of Les Laveuses. As the spilt blood of a tragic wartime childhood flows again, exposure beckons for Framboise, the widow with an invented past. Joanne Harris has looked behind the drawn shutters of occupied France to illuminate the pain, delight and loss of a life changed for ever by the uncertainties and betrayals of war.
What a lovely book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it hard to put down. There is so much that can said about it. It is full of intriguing recipes, which might be worth trying out. Harris looks into many issues, including love, childhood, death, war, secrets, family and mental illness, yet none of it is so daunting it is a hard read. All are dealt with well and sensitively, and add depth to the book.
There is action all the way through the book, right up to the last page. The descriptions were so thorough I felt like I was there with Framboise. The narrative does jump around from childhood to middle age and back to childhood again, however this did not bother me at all, I felt it fitted right in with the story.
My favourite character has to be Paul, slow Paul who actually is quite a sly dog, I loved him and found myself growing very fond of him. As the book progressed on and we delve more into the recipe book I felt more and more sorry for the Mother, a misunderstood and ill lady. I think Harris wrote her wonderfully.
The only complaints I can think of were there were a lot of characters with similar names, and I forgot who was who, and there was also some writing in French and German that I didn't understand which wasn't translated. Apart from that, this is a superb book.
9/10
Customer Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Comment: Another engrossing read from Joanne Harris which although similar to `Chocolat `and `Blackberry Wine' it is a much darker story. Once again set in France this time a small village `Les Laveuses' near Angers on the banks of the Loire, during WWII and the present day.
The protagonist is Framboise Dartigen who has returned to the village after a long absence to live in the farmhouse of her childhood. Her mother Mirabelle Dartigen has since died and part of Framboise's inheritance was an album of memories and recipes. It is through studying this album that her memories of her childhood start to haunt her. Framboise has invented a new identity for herself, as she knows the villagers would look on her with contempt if they knew whose daughter she was. She uses her mother's recipes from the album in her restaurant which helps to make it the success it is. The consequent interference of her jealous and scheming nephew and his wife threaten to expose her true identity. However there is already one village friend from her childhood who guessed immediately who she really was and it with his help that she prevents this happening and unravels the mysteries that drove her family to leave the village during the Second World War. Putting the tragedies of the past behind her Framboise is finally able to look forward to a happy future, now she is no longer resisting the truths discovered in her mother's album.
As with all Joanne Harris's novels that I have read I highly recommend this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yummy
Comment: An absolute delight, really scrumptious to read, but beware do not read on an empty stomach you'll be yearning for the food that Framboise cooks up in this book. Set in a sleepy town on the Loire, Framboise or Boise as she is know narrates the tale of her younger days through her mother's cookbook that was left to her after she passed away. It is probably one of Joanne Harris' darkest novels, but her most beautiful in my opinion. She paints the french countryside with such vivid and beautiful descriptions that its easy to find yourself yearning for a small cottage in rustic France. Set against the back drop of World War 2 and present day, Boise is a rebellious youngster with a desire to catch the mythical pike 'Old Mother' that lives in the darkest parts of the Loire, something to occupy her whilst her older brother and sister attend school in a nearby town. The story takes place over a summer, where love is discovered, innocence is lost and heartbreak changes the lives of all involved. Stunning!
Customer Rating:
Summary: ok
Comment: this wasn't as good as I'd expected from the reviews. I couldn't warm to the characters and the main character Framboise was quite awful, without any redeeming qualities and rather frightening. Don't expect the warm sensuality of chocolat. Despite this I did want to get to the end so the story did have something to keep me interested.
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Editorial Reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Too slow and unbelievable
Comment: I couldn't finish this book which is unusual for me, it was much too slow to get to the point and I only made it halfway. I found the 9 year old Boise's character too far fetched. No 9 year old could surely have the bravery, wit and cunning that Boise was meant to have. Nor the crush on the soldier. In my view, girls don't start having serious crushes like that until they are 11 or older. The plot with the orange peel was way too advanced for such a seemingly sweet girl to think up herself. A great disappointment as I was looking forward to reading this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Comment: Synopsis taken from Amazon:
Beyond the main street of Les Laveuses runs the Loire, smooth and brown as a sunning snake - but hiding a deadly undertow beneath its moving surface. This is where Framboise, a secretive widow named after a raspberry liqueur, plies her culinary trade at the creperie - and lets memory play strange games. Into this world comes the threat of revelation as Framboise's nephew - a profiteering Parisian - attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes she has inherited from her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers of Les Laveuses. As the spilt blood of a tragic wartime childhood flows again, exposure beckons for Framboise, the widow with an invented past. Joanne Harris has looked behind the drawn shutters of occupied France to illuminate the pain, delight and loss of a life changed for ever by the uncertainties and betrayals of war.
What a lovely book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it hard to put down. There is so much that can said about it. It is full of intriguing recipes, which might be worth trying out. Harris looks into many issues, including love, childhood, death, war, secrets, family and mental illness, yet none of it is so daunting it is a hard read. All are dealt with well and sensitively, and add depth to the book.
There is action all the way through the book, right up to the last page. The descriptions were so thorough I felt like I was there with Framboise. The narrative does jump around from childhood to middle age and back to childhood again, however this did not bother me at all, I felt it fitted right in with the story.
My favourite character has to be Paul, slow Paul who actually is quite a sly dog, I loved him and found myself growing very fond of him. As the book progressed on and we delve more into the recipe book I felt more and more sorry for the Mother, a misunderstood and ill lady. I think Harris wrote her wonderfully.
The only complaints I can think of were there were a lot of characters with similar names, and I forgot who was who, and there was also some writing in French and German that I didn't understand which wasn't translated. Apart from that, this is a superb book.
9/10
Customer Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Comment: Another engrossing read from Joanne Harris which although similar to `Chocolat `and `Blackberry Wine' it is a much darker story. Once again set in France this time a small village `Les Laveuses' near Angers on the banks of the Loire, during WWII and the present day.
The protagonist is Framboise Dartigen who has returned to the village after a long absence to live in the farmhouse of her childhood. Her mother Mirabelle Dartigen has since died and part of Framboise's inheritance was an album of memories and recipes. It is through studying this album that her memories of her childhood start to haunt her. Framboise has invented a new identity for herself, as she knows the villagers would look on her with contempt if they knew whose daughter she was. She uses her mother's recipes from the album in her restaurant which helps to make it the success it is. The consequent interference of her jealous and scheming nephew and his wife threaten to expose her true identity. However there is already one village friend from her childhood who guessed immediately who she really was and it with his help that she prevents this happening and unravels the mysteries that drove her family to leave the village during the Second World War. Putting the tragedies of the past behind her Framboise is finally able to look forward to a happy future, now she is no longer resisting the truths discovered in her mother's album.
As with all Joanne Harris's novels that I have read I highly recommend this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yummy
Comment: An absolute delight, really scrumptious to read, but beware do not read on an empty stomach you'll be yearning for the food that Framboise cooks up in this book. Set in a sleepy town on the Loire, Framboise or Boise as she is know narrates the tale of her younger days through her mother's cookbook that was left to her after she passed away. It is probably one of Joanne Harris' darkest novels, but her most beautiful in my opinion. She paints the french countryside with such vivid and beautiful descriptions that its easy to find yourself yearning for a small cottage in rustic France. Set against the back drop of World War 2 and present day, Boise is a rebellious youngster with a desire to catch the mythical pike 'Old Mother' that lives in the darkest parts of the Loire, something to occupy her whilst her older brother and sister attend school in a nearby town. The story takes place over a summer, where love is discovered, innocence is lost and heartbreak changes the lives of all involved. Stunning!
Customer Rating:
Summary: ok
Comment: this wasn't as good as I'd expected from the reviews. I couldn't warm to the characters and the main character Framboise was quite awful, without any redeeming qualities and rather frightening. Don't expect the warm sensuality of chocolat. Despite this I did want to get to the end so the story did have something to keep me interested.
Joanne Harris' sensational novel Five Quarters of the Orange revolves around a recipe book, continuing the theme of culinary intrigue begun in Chocolat and Blackberry Wine. Framboise, the middle-aged narrator, begins her story in Les Laveuses, on the banks of the Loire: When my mother died she left the farm to my brother, Cassis, the fortune in the wine cellar to my sister, Reine-Claude, and to me, the youngest, her album and a two-litre jar containing a single black Perigord truffle. Framboise returns to the village where she grew up during wartime, and with the help of the recipes scribbled in her mother's album, opens up a small restaurant. However, she is desperate to keep her identity a secret even amongst the aged villagers with whom she played on the banks of the Loire in the years of German occupation during the Second World War. Framboise immerses herself once again in the peaceful rhythms of village life, pungently evoked by Harris's evocative prose. But slowly, reluctantly, Framboise begins to unravel the terrible wartime secret that drove her family away from the village. As she cuts between idyllic descriptions of the village and the increasingly dark memories of the war, Framboise admits: I know, I know. You want me to get to the point. But this is at least as important as the rest, the method of telling, and the time taken to tell. It has taken me fifty-five to begin, at least let me do it in my own way. This could be a description of Harris's prose itself, as it slowly and deliberately cuts between Framboise's fragile present and her happy childhood, destroyed by the tragic innocence of youth. Although Five Quarters of the Orange finds Harris on familiar ground to Chocolat, this is a much darker and compelling novel of childhood nostalgia and betrayal, and the need to confront the tragedies of the past before they destroy the possibilities of a happier future. --Jerry Brotton
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