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Food,
Magic and Westerns
The Novels of Joanne
Harris
The Agony Column for December
30, 2003
Commentary
by Serena Trowbridge
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Joanne
Harris and friend. |
The publicists-that-be have done all they can to find a niche for
Joanne Harris. She has been marketed as a foodie writer, a French
writer, a writer of magical realism, a writer of modern fairytales,
and no doubt many other permutations on these themes.
Reading her five novels to date, Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five
Quarters of the Orange, CoastLiners and Holy Fools (in that order)
it is true
that they have elements in common – a gentle naïveté which
is reminiscent of fairytales (although with their fair share of
cynicism in certain characters), and a tendency for the cynics to
be brought
into line with a certain touch of magic and mystery.
Appropriately, therefore, when I went to hear Joanne Harris speak
as part of the Birmingham
Book Festival, in an event hosted by Debbie
Taylor from Mslexia, the magazine for women who write (www.mslexia.co.uk),
Ms Harris commenced her talk by emphasising the importance of
fairytales. Ms Taylor asked about the importance of magic and
the occult in
her novels, and Ms Harris explained that she has always had a
love of “unexpurgated
fairytales”, the kind that make you want to get closer to
the fire on a dark night, where the unexplained elements of magic
and
mystery are a dark unnamed presence at the back of the story.
She has frequently gone to the Grimm tales for inspiration and
is fascinated
by folklore and use of the occult. She also admitted that although
frequently described as a writer of magic realism, she has never
been quite sure what it is. Asked if she believed in it, she said
that
her upbringing was by superstitious family well versed in folklore,
and that and living in a haunted house has brought her to an understanding,
if not quite a belief, in magic and the occult.
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Wilkie
Collins (left) and Charles Dickens (right), respected
practitioners of Gothic literature, inspirations to
us all and Joanne
Harris in particular.
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This inspired her
in what she refers to as her previous life as a writer, to endeavour
single-handedly to revamp the genre of gothic romance, which
resulted in the publication of two novels, The Evil Seed and Sleep
Pale
Sister. Her publishers are intending to reprint the latter (to
Harris’s
embarrassment) and I hope to review a copy if and when they
succeed. These have what her publishers described as a cult
following, which
she takes to mean two fans in Clapham who write a lot of letters!
She has always avidly devoured this kind of reading matter,
and felt that it was a pity that while it was once a highly
respected literary
genre, undertaken by the likes of Wilkie Collins, Dickens, Walpole
and Mary Shelley, even dabbled in by Jane Austen, it has fallen
from the literary genre in recent years to become a cult fiction
that is
not considered mainstream or of literary value. When her novels
appeared, however, she now suspects that her timing was bad
and that now is
perhaps a more suitable time for this kind of revival. Initially
these titles were also published with misleading covers, says
Ms Harris,
and consequently didn’t do well. It will be interesting
to see how many more people are interested now that she is a
household name.
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We'd
all like a fistful of dollars. |
Another important influence on her writing has been Westerns,
which might come as a surprise to her readers, but the shocking
news is
that she believes (with good reason) that the plot of Chocolat
is the same as that of A Fistful of Dollars. Simple plots work
best,
she added, especially combined with an element of fantasy, and
certainly the success of her novels lies partly in that they
are character-driven
rather than plot driven.
Her latest novel, Holy
Fools, was discussed in detail, and
she is clearly pleased with her work. She describes it as
the novel
of “the
dancing nuns”, and explained that it took her six years to write,
during which time her other four famous novels hit the bestseller
lists, but this book is more of a return to the gothic fantasy she
always wanted to write. Despite confessing that she dislikes research
(and admitting jealousy of Margaret Atwood’s alleged
eight researchers!) her knowledge of fifteenth century France
is impressive.
A large part
of her talk was filling in the background of the historical
details, which was fascinating. Holy Fools is the tale of
a young woman
who has taken refuge in a nunnery and finds herself in trouble
there
when a twelve-year-old abbess takes over and hysteria sweeps
the nuns.
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Joanne
Harris does dancing nuns in her latest novel.
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She also confessed
that she is working on a book set in a school in the north of
England, which is titled “The Man who Sold St Oswald’s”.
As she has been told she writes very visually, in her usual delightfully
contrary manner she has chosen to make the narrator of this novel
blind. Joanne’s reluctance to be pigeonholed was evident
in everything she said (and in the fact that she wore plain
black with
fantastic fluorescent green boots!)
She may have been labelled as a writer of novels that are
French, foodie, gothic etc, but she prefers to change her
style and
themes frequently as she is easily bored and likes to diversify,
although
her publishers were apparently hoping for another book about
food. To her, though, writing is not a proper job, nor about
making
money, but about having fun, playing with ideas and words
and doing what
one wants, and she loves that it keeps her taking risks.
Writing, she says, is like the red shoes; once you start
writing it’s
impossible to stop, and she frequently gets her inspiration
from the other books she reads, such as Hans Christian Anderson,
which
she
finds quite scary but full of material.
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The
literary equivalent of fine French Cuisine. |
Debbie Taylor asked
her if she finds that feel-good novels are not taken seriously in
a literary manner, and Joanne
agreed that this
is a problem, which a lot of good writers have faced. Having
fun with books, she says, is the literary equivalent of
junk food,
not recommended
by experts but usually enjoyable. (I like this metaphor,
it’s
one that could be extended almost indefinitely – easy to binge
on but you may feel slightly sick afterwards, etc). Having said this,
gritty realism is not what Joanne wants, for as she says, she can
see that on the streets of Huddersfield whenever she wants; escapism
is far more desirable in literature, and she is determined to prove
that literature should be fun. (Absolutely!) Harris feels that “Brit
Lit” has been taken over by men in polo necks in a pub -- probably
in Clapham again… who decide what should be seen as literary,
and firmly discount anything that might be seen as fun. Of course,
she adds, no one has ever enjoyed Dickens or Shakespeare…!
When asked what she reads, I was interested to find out that
she does a fair amount of reviewing herself, and is currently
strongly recommending
'The Man Who Ate the 747' and 'The Death and Life of Charlie
St Cloud', which was absolutely a feel good novel, (she said with
a twinkle in
her eye) and should be a huge success. She also loves Lemony
Snicket, which she says is very gothic. Her introduction
to this was from reading
it to her young daughter, who loves it, and Joanne is hooked
herself now, she said with an amusing lack of pretentiousness.
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No
food was harmed in the making of this movie.
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A member of the
audience asked her what she had thought of the film of Chocolat, as
fans of the book had said that
they
had
felt let
down by the film. Joanne, however, enjoyed it, and added
that she could
hardly complain, as she had been lucky enough to be involved
from the start. However she had had to fight the directors
a little,
she explained, as they had initially wanted it to be set
in the Deep South
in the 1890s, starring Whoopi Goldberg. This was then changed
to modern day New York, with Gwyneth Paltrow. Thankfully,
however, the final
choice was the person Joanne had wanted all along, Juliette
Binoche. The music and setting were just what she wanted
in the end and
she
was pleased with it – unlike Louis de Bèrnieres with
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, she added; every time
the film is mentioned near him he bristles and his ears
stick
out!
She still feels that writing is not a proper job, as her
mother told her – akin to being a lion tamer. As her
mother was convinced that being a writer would involve dying
alone
and syphilitic,
she
became a teacher, and kept writing in secret until the publication
of Chocolat, when the secret was out!
As a nice end to the evening, when I asked her to sign a book
for me, she asked my name and told me that she had once written
a story
about a girl called Serena and a bank manager who turned to
crime!
You can find out more about Joanne Harris’s work at www.joanneharris.com (US)
or www.joanne-harris.co.uk (UK – personal
homepage).
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