Another dose of Joanne Harris

Over past two days I read another two Joanne Harris books. Both of them I have been looking forward to reading for a very long time but never could get hold of the copy. Now after numerous wanderings through charity shops in my little town I have acquired these two books and have read them gladly.
What I love about Joanne Harris most is the fact that you can read five books of hers in a row and still not get bored. As whilst she has a distinctive style, she is not afraid of changing either her voice or her genre. This is why I enjoyed Coastliners so much. It is a novel with a tale after tale are weaved together to such an extent that the atmosphere of the tale is almost Gothic. You are never sure with Joanne if the good guys are really that good or the bad guys that bad, but the books are all the better for it. In this story the stock of characters is great, at first I struggled with the names of the characters and what they represented equally but as I got through the pages I grew accustomed to it all. As if I have been to that fictional island myself and shared the story. The ending is slightly disappointing for someone like me but it is me. Endings are individual and I am one of those who always wonder on what happened afterwards.
The Lollipop Shoes is a completely different story though. Those who loved Chocolat know that it is the unexpected sequel. Well maybe for some it was expected but not for many Chocolat lovers I know out there. It is not as simple though as it seems. Joanne chooses not to just to pick up where she left off but feed us with scraps throughout the book to keep us interested. The thing is, I always wonder so much why people love France so much, for me there is no love for that country or the city of Paris, but it could be due to the fact that I lived there and as any Parisian knows falling in love with Paris is so not-cool.
So deep down I know that this story about a cholaterie in Montmartre is not for me. I am not the kind of reader who chews on anything about France. For me France and the existence of the French is just a fact and I suppose worst of all I always have that assumption that it will always stay the same. No matter how many years later I will go back it will all remain as the day I left, not that I would ever want to go back there and pick up the life that was left behind. I can so relate to Vianne. The Lollipop Shoes is a book for a francophile, a Parisian wannabe, for every learning witch, for those who love chocolate, believe in love and believe that there are places that love you in return for loving them.
I am an anglophile, I knew from the beginning this book was not for me, but I enjoyed every page the more for it. Like eating tiny bits of dark chocolate as I am still not quite sure to this day if I like it. The same is with France, the French, Paris. I can take them in small doses and Joanne Harris measures them out perfectly.