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  Wine-mine review - July 2001
Digging up great ideas for wine lovers...
This month we reviewed a book: Blackberry Wine
If this novel really was a bottle of wine, its review would go something like this: "Easy-drinking, with medium fruit but lacking in bite. Short to medium finish, a pleasant example of its type but nothing out of the ordinary. Enjoy now – ideal for summer quaffing."
The wine connection is cemented on the first page, as a bottle of 1962 Fleurie introduces the basic scenario: writer Jay Mackintosh, in full mid-life crisis, acts on a whim to buy a run-down French estate which reminds him of his childhood. In doing so he resurrects and ultimately tames the demons of his youth. The action is juxtaposed between Jay’s teenage Yorkshire summers and his current experiences in the village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes in the South-West of France. Linking the two time zones is the ethereal figure of Joe Cox, astral traveller, accomplished gardener and home-wine maker extraordinaire.
Half a dozen bottles of Joe’s brew have been rescued from the past. "Wine talks" is the novel’s opening phrase, and Jay discovers the truth of this maxim when he shares each bottle in turn with other key players in the narative. As the stockpile diminishes, he unearths more about himself and also about the other mysteries fermenting amongst his new neighbours.
There is an air of predictability about many of the scenarios in Blackberry Wine. Readers familiar with Joanne Harris’ Chocolat will recognise common elements in both novels: the effect of an incomer on the villagers of Lansquenet, exploration and resolution of longstanding feuds, mystical powers and charms, and above all an appreciation of the richness and wonder of food and drink in daily life. Interest lies in how these strands interweave and unravel rather than in their originality.
Blackberry Wine fits the bill for light summer reading, being sufficiently engaging, but not requiring excessive concentration. Best enjoyed somewhere peaceful, in sun or shade, within arm’s reach of suitable refreshments.
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| Title: |
Blackberry Wine |
| Author: |
Joanne Harris |
| Price: |
£6.99 |
| Type: |
Fiction |
| ISBN: |
0-552-99880-1 |
| Published: |
2000 |
| Rated: |
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