| Author: |
Darlene Shatford |
| Dated: |
Tuesday, July 14 2009 @ 10:02 PM EDT |
| Viewed: |
392 times |
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I bought The Lollipop Shoes last summer from a small downtown bookstore in Duncan. A big fan of Joanne Harris’s work, I was immediately drawn to the cover, and upon looking closer, I read that this book is the long-awaited sequel to Harris’s bestseller Chocolat. I knew I had to buy it in order to find out where the wind had taken Vianne, Anouk, and, possibly, Roux.
But, I didn’t open The Lollipop Shoes until late-October while in the mountains of Central Mexico among the rich cultures of the Sierra Madre. My husband and I chose to visit two colonial cities, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, where we anonymously traversed cobbled-stoned streets amidst windy outdoor cafes, sun-filled plazas, and pastel-coloured cathedrals while observing the locals busily preparing for Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Oddly enough, Part One of The Lollipop Shoes, entitled “Death,” begins with the first chapter entitled “Wednesday, October 31st, Día de los Muertos.” However, the novel does not take place in Mexico, but in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, the last village of Paris, where cafes and crêperies and pink and pistachio houses, with geraniums in every window box, abound.
The first character readers are introduced to is not the famed chocolatier, Vianne Rocher, or her imaginative daughter, Anouk. Rather, we are introduced to, or, more aptly, accosted by, a proclaimed con artist, a shape-shifter named Zozie de l’Alba who is drawn to what she calls a perfect setting for her new identity, a place that is “consciously picturesque, a movie-set miniature of counterfeit charm” (17). Zozie is pulled by a quaint little shop, a chocolaterie, that has been “closed due to bereavement” (19). Upon closer inspection, Zozie notices a pile of letters sticking out of the postbox and cannot resist the urge to take them. She’s not sure why she has chosen this particular shop as her target, but, as she narrates, “there was a whisper of promise in the air, and besides, it was Hallowe’en, the Día de los Muertos, always a lucky day for me, a day of endings and beginnings, of ill winds and sly favours . . . and, of course, the dead” (20).
On this fateful day, Zozie briefly reflects on a time in her childhood when her mother took her to Mexico City. They visited the Aztec ruins and celebrated the Day of the Dead while they were there, but amidst all of the drama, Zozie’s favourite part of the celebration was the destruction of the piñata, a painted paper-mâché animal hung high from the ceiling filled with candy, coins, and small presents that were free for the taking once the figure was split open after the celebratory beating of it: “Death, and a gift – all in one” (21). Zozie views this new-found shop, now closed due to a funeral, this possibility for fraud, as her very own piñata.
Determined to reveal the contents of her newly-found treasure, Zozie befriends little Annie, the older daughter of Yanne Charbonneau who runs the chocolate shop, who is mesmerized by Zozie’s shoes: “Those fabulous, luminous high-heeled shoes in lipstick, candy-cane, lollipop red, gleaming like treasure on the bare cobbled street” (36). Pretending to be looking for a new job, Zozie quickly charms her way into the hearts of both Annie and Yanne. However, Zozie’s new friends are not whom they seem either.
And so begins The Lollipop Shoes, where Chocolat left off. Vianne Rocher, now Yanne Charbonneau, Anouk, now Annie, and the mute four year old Rosette have spent the last four years running from town to town, shop to shop, following the wind, but have finally found peace in Montmartre where they feel free to live out their new identities. But these new identities have come with a price. Determined to make her life “easier,” Yanne has given up her mother’s ways (the magic ways), making chocolate (she now orders stock just like everyone else), and the idea of “true love”, and is ready to settle down with her landlord Thierry, a man who is financially stable, but emotionally bereft. Her daughter Annie has noticed the changes and misses the mother she once knew and connected with. Thinking that the wind has finally stopped, Yanne mistakenly assumes her counterfeit identity will bring the longed-for peace she wishes for herself and her daughters. But, once again, as in Chocolat, Yanne encounters another powerful enemy, one who is determined to force her to make a familiar decision: flee, as she has done in the past, or stay and fight for herself and her family.
In typical Joanne Harris style, The Lollipop Shoes is wonderfully written and filled with intrigue, magic, and mystery. Like Chocolat, The Lollipop Shoes is a chronicle of events: the chapter titles are dated, beginning on October 31st and ending on December 25th. The narrative point of view alternates between Zozie, Annie, and Yanne, so readers are given varied perspectives on the scenes. Although the novel can certainly stand on its own, prospective readers may want to read Chocolat first, or at least see the surprisingly accurate and delightful cinematic rendition starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, in order to get the history of the dynamic set of characters and to get a taste of the essential magical ingredients so central to Harris’s works.
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