The wind has always dictated Vianne Rocher's every move, buffeting her from the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and baby Rosette, safe. But the weather vane soon turns, and Zozie de l'Alba blows into their lives. Charming and enigmatic, Zozie provides the brightness that Yanne's life needs—as her vivacity and bold lollipop shoes dazzle rebellious and impressionable preadolescent Anouk. But beneath their new friend's benevolent façade lies a ruthless treachery—for devious, seductive Zozie has plans that will shake their world to pieces.
Because of the position I hold, I am currently enduring the misfortune of teaching this book. Having taught Chocolat last semeseter, I was amused. My students did not love the book, but at least several thought it was fun and it's themes were just subtextual enough to create discussion while still being an accessible read.
This book is not. The Girl With No Shadow is utterly contrived and forced. The description lacks the whimsy of the previous book, but that in itself is not a problem. Joanne Harris attempts to go for a darker story, and instead just gets mired down in redundancy and backpeddling. The character development from the last book is all but gone. I guess when your major symbol for character motivation is the wind you can have the wind do as it chooses.
It just seems like an attempt to set up a movie follow-up to the (far more successful) film. That idea has been put forth not only by my colleagues, but my college freshman students. For example, Roux's character is much closer to Johnny Depp's portrayal than that of the novel. More problematically, we now have three narrators instead of two, but none has a truly distinct voice. The humor is incredibly weak. In short, I can't wait for this book to be over.
Joanne Harris's sequel to her sly, clever novel, Chocolat, finds Vianne and her two daughters living in Paris four years after the wind blew them out of the village of Lansquenet. Gone is the magic that enriched their lives and transformed the village, and that is fine by Vianne. Now calling herself Yanne, she only wants her family to be normal and safe, and on the surface, it seems to be. Anouk is now a pre-teen with an early adolescent's normal angst. Her younger sister, Rosette, appears intelligent enough even if she can't talk. And Yanne herself is soon to be engaged to her staid bourgeois landlord. Life couldn't be more ordinary, until the fateful wind blows into their lives a mysterious and exotic woman who seems to know all about "Yanne" and her family. Soon Vianne faces an adversary who threatens everything she holds dear and whose skills are as great as her own.
Although it's a sequel to Chocolat, The Girl With No Shadow is not Chocolat II. It is a darker, grittier story of mothers and daughters, love and loss. Although readers may expect the same Disneyesque charm of the first novel, this contemporary fairy-tale is more in the vein of the Brothers Grimm. My only quibble is I missed the zest of earlier Vianne during most of the story. The villain was a much more compelling creation. Nevertheless, fans who want to follow the characters from Chocolat will enjoy this book.
