Blackberry Wine
Encyclopedia
Blackberry wine is a magical realism 2000
novel
in the 'food trilogy' written by Joanne Harris
set in the Chocolat
universe. Writer Jay Mackintosh reached his artistic zenith with 'Jackapple Joe', a novel he wrote 10 years ago, based on the time he spent as a boy with a crusty, enigmatic old man named Joseph Cox in the tiny English town of Kirby Monckton. But old Joe disappeared one fall without a trace. Now, with his life going nowhere, Jay impulsively purchases a small cottage in the remote village of Lansquenet and relocates to the sleepy French countryside in an attempt to recapture the magic that vanished 20 years ago. The separate storylines, that of teenage Jay and of his adult days, interwine with the numerous narrative perspectives and guide the reader to the secret that caused Jay's block all those years ago.
ever since. So he writes fantasy and sci-fi under a pen name to make a few bucks. Jackapple Joe was a heightened and nostalgic retelling of Jay's childhood summers spent with his grandparents at Kirby Monckton and Joseph Cox, Joes archetype, on Pog Hill Lane with whom he forged a unique but nurturing relationship. Blackberry Wine acquaints readers with him characters through Jay's flashbacks interspersed in the narrative of the present.
Aged 37, and feeling unfullfilled, Jay buys a house he's never seen in the small village of Lansquenet
-sous-Tannes. The estate, Joe's bottles of homemade liqueur called "The Specials" and the not-so-unreal memories of Joe inspire Jay to write again. He begins writing about Lansquenet and its inhabitants, quizzing Josephine in the café about an especially interesting villager, Marise d'Api, whose land borders his own. After weeks of inspired writing, rewarding hard labor in his gardens and getting beyond the surface pleasantries of the townspeople, Jay quickly comes to feel that the truth about the villagers and the life he is building for himself are more important than writing the great follow-up novel, that self-fulfillment and contentment in one's life are more alluring to him now than fame and notoriety once were and life is the true inspiration for art.
However, through his still ongoing contact with his agent, Nick, Kerry gains access to Jay's whereabouts and the first pages of his new book. Decided to 'redeem' him and recognizing the book's potential she sets things in motion for Lansquenet to become a filming plateau against the wishes of Jay, Josephine and the rest of their friends. Such an act and the tourists and business it would bring have the power to change Lansquenet's face and charm drastically. To put a stop to it, Jay burns the sole manuscript of his book before Kerry so that the world would lose interest in him, as a "writer who doesn't write".
He begins to plant the seeds Joe gave him and make a living out of that.
praised Blackberry Wine, declaring "there's no easy way to do justice to the curious mix of simplicity and complexity that is a Harris novel."
. Making wine - the 'Specials' - is one of Joe's hobbies, though he does not always make it from grapes, and here wine serves as a link between Joe and Jay as well as a key to Jay's untapped potential. As each bottle unlocks the secrets in the minds of Jay's neighbours, he begins to understand himself better and finally learn to let go.
, the question of whether true magic actually takes place is even harder to answer, as sometimes what would seem obvious is put aside as lack of food and sleep – like Joe's Astral travelling – and yet other obvious facts seem scientifically unsound. However, like the rest of Joanne Harris' book in the trilogy, magic is closely linked with food.
2000 in literature
The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
in the 'food trilogy' written by Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris
Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris is a British author.Biography=Born to a French mother and an English father in her grandparents' sweet shop, her family life was filled with food and folklore. Her great-grandmother had an odd reputation and enjoyed letting the gullible think she was a witch and healer...
set in the Chocolat
Chocolat
Chocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. It tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young mother, who arrives at a fictional insular French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk...
universe. Writer Jay Mackintosh reached his artistic zenith with 'Jackapple Joe', a novel he wrote 10 years ago, based on the time he spent as a boy with a crusty, enigmatic old man named Joseph Cox in the tiny English town of Kirby Monckton. But old Joe disappeared one fall without a trace. Now, with his life going nowhere, Jay impulsively purchases a small cottage in the remote village of Lansquenet and relocates to the sleepy French countryside in an attempt to recapture the magic that vanished 20 years ago. The separate storylines, that of teenage Jay and of his adult days, interwine with the numerous narrative perspectives and guide the reader to the secret that caused Jay's block all those years ago.
Plot summary
Jay is a writer in his late 30s, living in London with his much younger and much more successful chic girlfriend, Kerry. Once upon a time, Jay wrote an amazing book called Jackapple Joe, his hugely successful one-hit wonder, but he's been suffering from a blockWriter's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked"...
ever since. So he writes fantasy and sci-fi under a pen name to make a few bucks. Jackapple Joe was a heightened and nostalgic retelling of Jay's childhood summers spent with his grandparents at Kirby Monckton and Joseph Cox, Joes archetype, on Pog Hill Lane with whom he forged a unique but nurturing relationship. Blackberry Wine acquaints readers with him characters through Jay's flashbacks interspersed in the narrative of the present.
Aged 37, and feeling unfullfilled, Jay buys a house he's never seen in the small village of Lansquenet
Lansquenet
Lansquenet is a card game. Lansquenet also refers to 15th and 16th century German foot soldiers; the lansquenet drum is a type of field drum used by these soldiers.-Game play:The dealer or banker stakes a certain sum, and this must be met by the nearest to the dealer first, and so...
-sous-Tannes. The estate, Joe's bottles of homemade liqueur called "The Specials" and the not-so-unreal memories of Joe inspire Jay to write again. He begins writing about Lansquenet and its inhabitants, quizzing Josephine in the café about an especially interesting villager, Marise d'Api, whose land borders his own. After weeks of inspired writing, rewarding hard labor in his gardens and getting beyond the surface pleasantries of the townspeople, Jay quickly comes to feel that the truth about the villagers and the life he is building for himself are more important than writing the great follow-up novel, that self-fulfillment and contentment in one's life are more alluring to him now than fame and notoriety once were and life is the true inspiration for art.
However, through his still ongoing contact with his agent, Nick, Kerry gains access to Jay's whereabouts and the first pages of his new book. Decided to 'redeem' him and recognizing the book's potential she sets things in motion for Lansquenet to become a filming plateau against the wishes of Jay, Josephine and the rest of their friends. Such an act and the tourists and business it would bring have the power to change Lansquenet's face and charm drastically. To put a stop to it, Jay burns the sole manuscript of his book before Kerry so that the world would lose interest in him, as a "writer who doesn't write".
He begins to plant the seeds Joe gave him and make a living out of that.
Characters
- Jay Mackintosh is 37 year old writer living in London. He has been suffering from a writer's blockWriter's blockWriter's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked"...
after writing his one-time success Jackapple Joe, a novel based on his summers with Joseph Cox at Pog Hill. After Joe left, Jay stopped believing in magic and is thus unsatisfied with his life. This makes him affable and maleable in the hands of his girlfriend Kerry. - Joseph "Jackapple Joe" Cox plays the role of the food-maker/magician character, a characteristic role in all the books in the food trilogy. In this case he makes wine. The uncertainty of magical realism stands in the fact that for a retired coal miner he boasts of a great knowledge of places around the world he claims he visited. Later in the book he claims it was through Astral travellingAstral projectionAstral projection is an interpretation of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it...
. He is sympathetic and he is helping anyone to knock at his door - Marise d'Api is a recluse woman who has had her eye on Jay's chateauCastleA castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
for a long time, as her own property is bordering his. She is not happy to find that he has bought it and does not speak with him for a while. She has been a nurse and fell in love with Patrick, one of her patients who turned abusive and stalked her later on. She married Tony and moved to Lansquennet hoping to escape but Tony was schizophrenic and, back home, at his mother's counsel, refused to take his medicine. He killed Patrick and buried the body, telling the location only to his mother and killed himself. After this Marise hardened and fought to keep her daughter, Rosa, from her mother-in-law's grasp. She is very self-reliant - Mireille is Marise's mother in law and she hates her for believing that she has destroyed her son Tony's life, ultimately driving him to suicideSuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Another issue between them is that Marise will not let her see her granddaughter, Rosa, as she would like nothing better than to take full custody of her. Whether she believes it or not, Mireille would tell everyone that Rosa is being mistreated. - Josephine is the former wife of Paul-Marie Muscat. After the events in ChocolatChocolatChocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. It tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young mother, who arrives at a fictional insular French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk...
she becomes confident and enchanting. In this book she plays a minor, yet significant role. Josephine, as a bartender, has direct access to most of the village atmosphere and because of her own interest in Lansquenet's fate and impression regarding Jay she offers him and the reader a multifaceted reflection of himself. That sort of feedback is otherwise impossible in a big city because of the formality/impersonality it entails. - Kerry represents all the demands an active city life press upon Jay. She comes in direct comparison with Tony, being the significant other of the protagonist, and with her boyfriend too, because of her position. She herself blends well enough with the city and has learned to benefit from it too much to endanger her situation.
- Nick is Jay's agent in London. A relentless businessman, he is often of a mind with Kerry in terms of Jay's career.
- Gilly is a gypsy girl that Jay encounters in his last summer with Joe, in 1977. She is wild, brave and adventurous.
- Zeth is a bullyBullyBullying is a form of aggressive behavior manifested by the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when the behavior is habitual and involves an imbalance of power...
and the Jay's main antagonist from his teenage days. He carries an air rifle, though he is not very accurate with it.
Settings
- Pog Hill (Summers of 1975, 1976, 1977)
- LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(Spring 1999) - Lansquenet-sous-Tannes(1999) is a fictional village, that appears initially in ChocolatChocolatChocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. It tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young mother, who arrives at a fictional insular French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk...
.
Reception
F&SF reviewer Charles de LintCharles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....
praised Blackberry Wine, declaring "there's no easy way to do justice to the curious mix of simplicity and complexity that is a Harris novel."
Wine
Wine, in this case, is a point of view character, a sort of 3rd person narratorNarrator
A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
. Making wine - the 'Specials' - is one of Joe's hobbies, though he does not always make it from grapes, and here wine serves as a link between Joe and Jay as well as a key to Jay's untapped potential. As each bottle unlocks the secrets in the minds of Jay's neighbours, he begins to understand himself better and finally learn to let go.
Magic
Here, more than in ChocolatChocolat
Chocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. It tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young mother, who arrives at a fictional insular French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk...
, the question of whether true magic actually takes place is even harder to answer, as sometimes what would seem obvious is put aside as lack of food and sleep – like Joe's Astral travelling – and yet other obvious facts seem scientifically unsound. However, like the rest of Joanne Harris' book in the trilogy, magic is closely linked with food.