Five Quarters of the Orange

From the back cover: Why we hid the truth for so long. 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, plies her culinary trade at the creperie - and lets her memory play strange games. As her nephew attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes Framoise has inherited form her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers, memories of a disturbed childhood during the German Occupation flood back, and expose a past full of betrayal, blackmail and lies.

I had a lot of high hopes for this novel. On the surface, at least, Joanne Harris's Five Quarters of the Orange had everything I felt like reading. I had a craving for small-town France, a dollop of nostalgia and preferably a sprinkling of World War II for good measure. It didn't instantly grab me, though: the characters are great and you really get a feel for this particular family's dynamic but I didn't instantly like any of them. Framboise describes her eccentric, hard-nosed and deeply troubled mother but it is clear early on that Framboise is just like her and that she is resentful of that fact. She's a cool character with a sharp edge and a determination that is admirable but not instantly charming.

This is a family drama that explores many different generations and relationships but what Harris reveals brilliantly is just how cruel children can be. Often it is forgiveable but it doesn't make the victim feel any less hurt. Framboise and her mother really test each other and it makes for a captivating relationship.

The characters and the plot definitely took time to grow on me but what remains constant, is the landscape. Set just outside Angers, you can practically smell the countryside and the fruit in the market.

For me, this was a book I liked as a whole; I didn't love every moment, every scene, every word but I did enjoy the end product, the full package, the overall feeling and felt well and truly involved by the time I put it down. I give it a 7/10