Good Grape Wine Company

In Blackberry Wine, Jay Mackintosh needs a little magic. An unproductive novelist living in a depressing English lifestyle earmarked by alcohol and an unfulfilling relationship, Jay is haunted by a childhood defined by bullies and detached parents but redeemed by the quirky Joe Cox, who planted vegetables and made magical wine. Now, on a whim, Jay sets out to rediscover Joe's magic in the French village of Lansquenet, a place which is quaint and remote but beginning to go to seed and also needs a little magic. Jay carries with him the last six bottles of Joe's Special wine. The house that Jay purchases sight unseen except for a blurry picture in a brochure, is in disrepair but reminds him of Joe, and in fact seems to be inhabited by Joe's ghost.

In the house over the next several months, Jay uncorks the Special wines one by one, releasing their magic and allowing himself and the house to absorb their mysterious qualities. He begins renovations on the place, taking care not to lose its essential charm. He meets and learns about the people in the village and their concerns for saving their economy and their way of life. His writer's block lifts and he can hardly believe he is able to produce page after page of a new novel about the village and its inhabitants. He is most intrigued by his reclusive and alluring neighbor Marise, respected by some as a hard worker who bothers no one, but denigrated by others for being unsociable and irreligious. But the more he learns about her, the less she fits the character he had presumed her to be in the fiction he has been creating. Although his novel is coming along swiftly, he does not know where it is going, nor where he himself is going. The village also is waffling through the same process, unclear about how to define its future. Should it embark on tourism and commercial development schemes or sit back and submit to its inevitable economic decline? Through a blending of magic and hard reality, Jay rediscovers what is important in planning his own future and that of the village of Lansquenet.


I adored this book--its magic stays with me   August 30, 2000
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

For those of you who read "Chocolat" and want to find out what happens to some of the characters, you will learn in an offhand way. More importantly, this book stands on its own. The story of this middle-aged man leaving his dull life (and his ambitious girlfriend) and finding himself by coming to terms with his past in the French countryside is compelling. Harris infuses her books with magic--not in the way that J.K. Rowling does (whom I also love)--but in a way that you recognize that there might be more going on than just we we (the masses) perceive. While this is dismissed by both the narrator and the reader at first, evidence arrives. And the bittersweet ending (in relation to Joe) is lovely; the love story is less interesting.


What a wonderful second novel by Joanne Harris!   August 1, 2000
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

Blackberry Wine is warm and sweet. Sweet like her Chocolat. This novel offers a chance to revisit Lansquenet and the dig into the mysteries the village holds. Having enjoyed Harris' Chocolat I was anxious to read her new novel and have only found that I am anxious to read more. This was fun. A romp through the garden. This book was as welcome a summer read as a good glass of wine!