Gnod is amazing. I love it. If you click on this image and have a look at the authors on the list, they consist of many that I have read. You can also explore maps of music and films. When you click on another name in the map, it takes you to another map. I would have adored this when I was a kid and ran out of books by my favourite author. The closer the names to one another, the more closely linked they are. This is a great recommendation for when you are looking for something like…..
My musing on Red Shoes has led me back to that classic resource Women who Run With the Wolves
“There is an old women’s teaching tale about the plight of the starved and feral woman. It is variously known by the names “The Devil’s Dancing Shoes,” “The Red-Hot Shoes of the Devil,” and “The Red Shoes.” Hans Christian Anderson wrote a story by the same name”(p215)
She speaks of a ‘loss of instinct’ and warns to ‘guard the treasures of our basic natures’. This theme was certainly present in ‘The Lollipop Shoes
The Kate Bush site GaffaWeb has a discussion about Red Shoes and compares the Magyar-Germanic version from ‘Women Who run With the Wolves’ to the Hans Christian Anderson version.
Chocolat
The sequel to ‘Chocolat’, a long time favourite of mine, ‘The Lollipop Shoes’, is every bit as delicious as the original. I felt I could smell the chocolate and taste the sumptuousness of the feast described. It is just a pleasure to read.
Fairy Tales
Woven into this story are fairy tales told to Vianne by her mother and the theme as I have previously mentioned of the ‘Red Shoes’ and the allure of glamour and brightness when life is glum. There are other fairy tales throughout this novel in various forms. I love the imagery and the retelling.
Celebrating Life and Love
This is a story about the value of love and the awakening of living to the fullness. It has all the magic of the first novel, culminating in the mouth watering feast that decides the fates of the central characters. The administering of sweetness to the random and forlorn characters that frequent the shop, highlights how lonely and loveless strangers can create a warm circle of friends.
Shadows
The villain in this novel is not the church but a dark magician who appears so like Vianne, yet intends evil. The bad witch who sees this loveless reality
“….by then we’ll all be sand, except for the One who has always been; the one that builds pyramids;raises temples; makes martyrs; composes sublime music; denies logic; praises the meek; receives souls into Paradise; dictates what to wear; smites the infidel; paints the Sistine Chapel; urges young men to die for the cause; blows up bandsmen by remote control;
promises much; delivers little; fears no one and never dies,
because fear of Death is so much greater than honour, or goodness, or faith, or love….”(p448)
frightens me more than the previous villain in Chocolat. The manipulative woman who entices and lures the teen to turn her power to satisfy lust and manipulate others is scary.
I wish I still had it to read and I’m going to check ebay for another Joanne Harris book as she is a writer that never fails to lure me into her story in an enticing way.