FOCUS ON LITERATURE

Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris (born 3 July 1964, Barnsley, Yorkshire) is a popular British author. Born to a French mother and an English father in her grandparents’ sweet shop, her family life was filled with food and folklore. Her parents were both academics, teaching Modern Languages and Literature at a local grammar school. She began to write at a very early age, and was strongly influenced by Grimms’ Fairy Tales and the tales of Charles Perrault, as well as local folklore and Norse mythology. She was educated at Wakefield Girls High School, Barnsley Sixth Form College, and St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where she read Modern and Mediaeval Languages. After a single, disastrous year as an accountant she trained as a teacher at Sheffield University, and for fifteen years she taught modern languages, mostly at Leeds Grammar School, a boys’ independent school in Yorkshire. She also taught at Sheffield University, lecturing on aspects of French literature and film. During this period, she worked on a number of book projects, four of which (The Evil Seed, Sleep, Pale Sister and Chocolat) were published before she left teaching to become a full-time writer.

In 1999, her third novel, Chocolat reached No. 1 in the Sunday Times newspaper’s bestseller list. The book won the Creative Freedom Award in 1999 and was shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award. The movie rights were sold to David Brown and developed by Miramax Pictures. The success of the motion picture, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, brought Harris worldwide recognition, and in 2012 she became one of only four female members of the “Millionnaires’ Club,” the elite group of authors who have achieved a million sales of one book in the UK since records began. Since then, all Harris’ books have been UK bestsellers. She has written two more novels in the Chocolat series, continuing the adventures of Vianne Rocher; The Lollipop Shoes and Peaches for Monsieur le Curé, as well as two French cookbooks, two collections of short stories and a number of dark psychological thrillers, including Gentlemen and Players and Blueeyedboy.

When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, a young single mother, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet with her six-year-old daughter and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud, the parish priest, denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock

– especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. Vianne begins to gently change the lives of the villagers who visit her chocolaterie with a combination of sympathy, subversion and a little magic. This scandalizes Francis Reynaud, and his supporters. As tensions run high, the community is increasingly divided. And as Easter approaches, pitting the ritual of the Church against the indulgence of chocolate, Father Reynaud and Vianne Rocher face an inevitable showdown.

In the excerpt below Vianne’s daughter Anouk comes from school in a depressed mood.

We made close to three hundred francs today. For the first time, enough to break even. I told Anouk when she came

home from school, but she looked distracted, her bright face unusually still. Her eyes were heavy, dark as the cloud-line of an oncoming storm.

I asked her what was wrong.

‘It’s Jeannot.’ Her voice was toneless. ‘His mother says he can’t play with me any more.’

I remembered Jeannot as Wolf Suit in the Mardi Gras carnival, a lanky seven-year-old with shaggy hair and a suspicious expression. He and Anouk played together in the square last night, running and shouting arcane war cries, until the light failed. His mother is Joline Drou, one of the two primary teachers, a crony of Caroline Clairmont.

‘Oh?’ Neutrally. “What does she say?’

‘She says I’m a bad influence.’ She flicked a dark glance at me. ‘Because we don’t go to church. Because you opened on Sunday.’

You opened on Sunday.

I looked at her. I wanted to take her in my arms, but her rigid, hostile stance alarmed me. I made my voice very calm.

‘And what does Jeannot think?’ I asked gently.

‘He can’t do anything. She’s always there. Watching.’ Anouk’s voice rose shrilly and I guessed she was close to tears. ‘Why does this always have to happen?’ she demanded. ‘Why don’t I ever –’She broke off with an effort, her thin chest hitching.

‘You have other friends.’ It was true; there had been four or five of them last night, the square ringing with their catcalls and laughter.

‘Jeannot’s friends.’ I saw what she meant. Louis Clairmont. Lise Poitou. His friends. Without Jeannot the group would soon disperse. I felt a sudden pang for my daughter, surrounding herself with invisible friends to people the spaces around her. Selfish, to imagine that a mother could fill that space completely. Selfish and blind.

‘We could go to church, if that’s what you want.’ My voice was gentle. ‘But you know it wouldn’t change anything.’

Accusingly, ‘Why not? They don’t believe. They don’t care about God. They just go.’

I smiled then, not without some bitterness. Six years old, and she still manages to surprise me with the depth of her occasional perception.

‘That may be true,’ I said. ‘But do you want to be like that?’

A shrug, cynical and indifferent. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, as if in fear of a lecture. I searched for the words to explain. But all I could think of was the image of my mother’s stricken face as she rocked me and murmured, almost fiercely, What would I do without you? What would I do?

Oh, I taught her all of this long ago; the hypocrisy of the Church, the witch-hunts, the persecution of travellers and people of other faiths. She understands. But the knowledge does not transpose well to everyday life, to the reality of loneliness, to the loss of a friend.

‘It’s not fair.’ Her voice was still rebellious, the hostility subdued but not entirely.

Neither was the sack of the Holy Land, nor the burning of Joan of Arc, nor the Spanish Inquisition. But I knew better than to say so. Her features were pinched, intense; any sign of weakness and she would have turned on me.

‘You’ll find other friends.’ A weak and comfortless answer. Anouk looked at me with disdain.

‘But I wanted this one.’ Her tone was strangely adult, strangely weary as she turned away. Tears swelled her eyelids, but she made no move to come to me for comfort. With a sudden overwhelming clarity I saw her then, the child, the adolescent, the adult, the stranger she would one day become, and I almost cried out in loss and terror, as if our positions had somehow been reversed, she the adult, I the child.

Please! What would I do without you?

But I let her go without a word, aching to hold her but too aware of the wall of privacy slamming down between us. Children are born wild, I know. The best I can hope for is a little tenderness, a seeming docility. Beneath the surface the wildness remains, stark, savage and alien.

By Joanne Harris

ALLUSIONS

Mardi Gras – the day before Lent begins, or the music, dancing, parades, etc. that happen on this day in some countries.

The Holy Land – the parts of the Middle East where most of the events mentioned in the Bible happened. It is also known as Palestine.

Joan of Arc – the patron saint of France. Dressed as a man, as a young woman she led the French army which defeated the English at Orleans. Later she was imprisoned, and a court found her guilty of being a witch. She was burned at the stake but much later recognized as a saint.

The Inquisition – an official Roman Catholic organization which tried to fight and punish heretics during the Middle Ages, forcing conversions, torturing and killing non-believers. The most famous part of the organization was the Spanish Inquisition, led in the 15th century by Thomas de Torquemada.

VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR TASKS

1.Translate the following word combinations into Russian. Describe the situations in which they were used.

• to look distracted

• not without some bitterness

• suspicious expression

• to shift one’s weight from one foot to the other

• to flick a dark glance at smb

• to transpose to everyday life

• rigid stance

• rebellious voice

• to be close to tears

• pinched features

• to feel a pang for smb

• weary tone

• to people the spaces

• with an overwhelming clarity

2.Study the following:

1.to break even – to neither make a profit nor lose money, e.g. We’re hoping that we’ll at least break even, and perhaps make a small profit.

2.lanky – someone who is tall and thin, and moves awkwardly [= gangling], e.g. We were met by a tall, lanky youth called Harry.

3.arcane – secret and known or understood by only a few people, e.g. Written on the boxes is all manner of strange titles and arcane technical terms.

4.crony – one of a group of people who spend a lot of time with each other (used to show disapproval), e.g. The senator gave positions of power to many of his political cronies.

5.hostile – angry and deliberately unfriendly towards someone, e.g. He was hostile towards me when I arrived, and the situation did not improve over the next few days.

6.catcall – a loud whistle or shout expressing disapproval of a speech or performance, e.g. I heard jeers and catcalls from the audience.

7.to disperse – to go away in different directions, e.g. Once the ambulance had left, the crowd began to disperse.

8.accusing (adv accusingly) – an accusing look shows that someone thinks someone else has done something wrong, e.g.

Two pairs of accusing eyes focused on her.

9.perception – the way you think about something and your idea of what it is like, e.g. I was impressed by her perception and her grasp of the facts.

10.cynical – unwilling to believe that people have good, honest, or sincere reasons for doing something, e.g. I think movie stars just do charity work to get publicity – but maybe I’m too cynical.

11.stricken – very badly affected by trouble, illness, unhappiness etc, e.g. At last the pilot managed to land his stricken aircraft.

12.to rock – to move gently backwards and forwards or from side to side, or to make someone do this, e.g. Glenda sat beside the cradle, gently rocking it from side to side.

13.hypocrisy – when someone pretends to have certain beliefs or opinions that they do not really have (used to show disapproval), e.g. It would be sheer hypocrisy to pray for success, since I’ve never believed in God.

14.to sack a place/town – an army or renegades going through a place, destroying or stealing things and attacking people , e.g.

Yesterday I read a book about the sack of Rome in 1527.

15.disdain – a complete lack of respect shown for someone/thing because you think they are not important or good enough, e.g. His father noticed them, too, but regarded them with disdain.

16.docile (n docility) – quiet and easily controlled, e.g. Kangaroos are not as docile as they look.

17.alien – very different from what you are used to, foreign, hard to understand or accept [=strange], e.g. The environment of the city seemed to be alien.

3.Make up as many sentences as you can using the words from exercise 2.

4.Read the sentences below. Think what part of speech you need to form to fill the gaps. Add suffixes and prefixes to the words given in capitals.

2.Anouk used to surround herself with _______ VISIBLE friends to people the spaces around her.

3.There was some _________ in Vianne’s smile. BITTER

4.Vianne’s words were greeted with __________ HOSTILE from her daughter.

5.Vianne knew that she should not show Anouk

Keys: 1. unusually; 2. invisible; 3. bitterness; 4. hostility; 5. weakness; 6. comfortless; 7. privacy

Светлана Юнёва, Губернский профессиональный колледж

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