Five Quarters Of The Orange: from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat, a powerful drama about the dark repercussions of Nazi occupation in a rural French village

The story, for me, begins after 150 pages. It is a tedious read. As an author I gather it must be a tough task to be able to sustain suspense over 400+ pages and I think Agatha Christie and other suspense thrillers do it well. Of course this wasn't an ordinary suspense book, it was in-part historical fiction too. But still I found chapters filled with sub-plots when actually you wanted to get to the bottom of the story or have some questions answered.I liked the perspective of World War II from a nine-year-old, that's something we don't come across too often. The portal is simple yet it is complex. The mother-daugter relationship is also very well brought out. I found a certain fluidity in the portrayal of both the characters, which is characteristic of people in real life too. We evolve and that evolution was brought out beautifully. You simply couldn't judge Mirabelle Dartigen, with her job as a young widow running the farm and bringing up three kids all by herself while being sick. She realizes her faults in her own motherhood (Kids are not like trees, they don't become sweeter when they are pruned) and she loves her kids fiercely, so her character really redeems herself.But the same can't be said of her daughter. The nine-year-old Framboise Dartigen is almost evil, by her own cold admission, cruel. She triggers her already sick mother's olfactory hallucinations so she could sneak into the town or movies. Even as a sixty-five year old, she is too harsh on Paul, her childhood friend and companion. You don't see her softening much. But she understands her mother's perspective and predicaments better now more than ever, thanks to her own motherhood and the album left by Mirabelle Dartigen to her as her legacy.The character of Reinette, the pretty sister, is tragic. She was the beautiful one, and in a world which usually opens more doors to a pretty face, what happens to her and her end is quite tragic. I'd have liked to know how she felt about the assault and how she ended up in the old age house.I love the depictions of the French village of a simpler time and the recipes. Being a traveler and a baker I can appreciate it but it still didn't touch me the way I expected it to.The ending is too dramatic. The death of TL, him being her mother's lover and Paul being portrayed as a smart person, after all is just too formulaic writing.

As you read on, you are drawn into the narrator's strange childhood - where snaring an evasive fish becomes an obsession, in a warstruck country, where passing on secrets gets you treats, a house where Orange spells turmoil . To top it all a mother whom war and crippling headaches has hardened so much that she has encased all maternal love for it to asphyxiate there. Rarely it finds an escape either through her delicacies or in occasions where it goes misunderstood .And the consequences are far reaching.On the whole a good read... Not stunning, not flamboyant... Yet enough comfort for one lazy afternoon.

Book ReviewFive Quarters of the OrangeAuthor: Joanne HarrisThe only regret I have is why I haven't read Joanne Harris's books earlier. For me this is the second book I am reading of Ms Harris and I tell you I am already a fan. Ms Harris has a great regard for food and it is shown in an exquisite way in her books.In this book Harris's acute observation of the lush French countryside and her description of it are a delight. The plot being, Framboise, a secretive widow named after a raspberry liqueur, opens up her culinary trade at the village, and let's her memory play strange games. Her nephew attempts to take over the recipes that she had inherited from her mother, a woman who was remembered with contempt by the villagers. He comes forward with a threat of exposing her of who she really was. This takes back to the tragic childhood during the onset of the second world war and the adventures of the past with a slight notion of magic.Joanne Harris has splendidly written her award winning novel Chocolat and since then she had set the bar high. And one wouldn't be disappointed at all after reading this one. It's a feast of every little emotions one has. And yes the delicious food always gets a good mention in Harris's books.A three stars for Five Quarters of the Orange

The content inside the book is perfect as always . Harris's writing is so sublime it flows like a tiny log in a stream . However I can't give it five stars cause the book was bound fine but cut crooked . It's a shame really cause every book lover loves to own perfectly pretty books. But just like people , I've come to realise , what's on the inside matters more than what's on the outside of the book . And the insides of this book are a pretty tangerine .

Whenever I read harris i somehow unconsciously compare the intensity of the story with that of Chocolat. In that way the novel was okay. Slow to rise to the climax but it is harris nonetheless and in the end i really liked it..

Predictable story. Not gripping. Not a convincing storyline. I like Chocolat by the author though

Simple yet beautiful way of handling the two timelines, the similarities between the new and the old life, the obscure similarity shown between an old fish and Boise's mother and way of telling that you can either live or lie. One perishes the sweetness of the story even after days. A must read book.

Good book and great value

Having read - and enjoyed - all of Joanne Harris' books in the Chocolat series, I was ready to try something by her on a different theme. I'm not sure what Harris was trying to achieve with this offering, but I found it depressing, miserable and with a central character with whom it was impossible to sympathise or like. As a child she was verging on evil, full of spite and negativity, and as an adult it was clear that through the years she had gathered no redeeming equalities that made me care what happened to her. In fact, most of the book's characters appeared to be dysfunctional and I struggled to find any reason to wish for a happy ending for any of them. Overall, a tale of unremitting misery, the reading of which made me feel like a cold grey rainy day in November. The best part was actually managing to finish it.

I love reading war books and do enjoy a book that can be quite a hard read because of the subject matter but usually you warm to the characters and are rooting for them and that’s what makes the story readable. The main character of this book is such a vile unpleasant child and when she appears again as an adult she has not improved with age so you end up by not caring what happens to her. The other characters in the book are all very unpleasant in their own ways so again no interest whatsoever in them. There is not one character in the book I cared for so to me the book was definitely not one I would recommend. I’ve just finished reading American Dirt and although it too was a difficult subject and a hard read, you felt for the characters in it and were willing them on and that is the big difference to an enjoyable book.

I have read several books by Joanne Harris but somehow I missed Five Quarters of the Orange. Set in wartime France and in the 1990s in the small village of Les Laveuses it tells the story of Framboise Dartigen who has returned to her childhood home, unrecognised, as a 65-year-old widow with a new name. In the first person, Framboise describes the farm as it was when she lived there with widowed mother, Mirabelle, and her elder brother and sister, Cassis and Reine-Claude. Young ‘Boise was not a likeable child. There was animosity between her and her mother because they were too alike but Framboise yearned to return and take up the role of excellent cook using her mother’s album of recipes and farm husbandry.As the book begins to reveal a horrifying wartime event involving the family, we read extracts from the album where among the recipes Mirabelle has written personal journal comments. This hard woman gave little affectionate to her children but provided them with delicious meals which are described in sumptuous detail. Only the smell of oranges is an anathema to Mirabelle since it is a sign of approaching migraines.Avoiding their mother, the children live wild in the countryside, striking up a friendship with German soldier, Thomas Leibniz. Framboise, the youngest, is the most cunning but she is also an innocent. The children’s amoral actions lead them into a dangerous situation and Mirabelle is too involved in her own misery and bitterness to notice until it is too late.In the 1990s Framboise seems in control of her life, running a very successful creperie with a regular clientele, but the past threatens her contentment and only old friend Paul can help her.Joanne Harris writes rich, succulent prose, littered with food similes and names you can taste, which accentuate the contrast between the delights of life and the horrors which wartime brought to the French countryside.

I loved Chocolat, so was drawn to this tale. It is well executed, going from the present day and back into the past seamlessly. However, I found the characters very hard to like. 'Boise, the story teller, was just a child but seemed so much older. Her love interest seemed odd, but then she had a widowed mother who seemed incapable of showing her love at all.It was a case of "I have started this, therefore I will finish it" but I was relieved when it ended.

Very thought provoking. I read the book in two days and am still thinking about it a few days down the line.I don't usually do reviews but I think this author is well worth reading and reviewing. I have been thinking about the children in occupied France and how believable it is that some may have said things about others in all innocence with tragic consequences. In this case the children seem to do so deliberately for various different gains and this is also believable too. I am going to read more books by Joanne Harris .