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Title: Coastliners : A Novel by Joanne Harris ISBN: 0-06-095801-4 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.54 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: My first Harris book
Comment: After hearing my online reading buddies rave about Joanne Harris' Blackberry Wine and her other books, I decided to give Harris a try. I picked up Coastliners as it sounded so good and I wasn't disappointed. I must admit though that it was hard for me to get into the first few pages as it was so despondent in attitude and so gritty. But I stuck with it and ended up loving it. The writing just carries you away and you'll end up turning the pages just to get at the layer of secrets that seem to befall Madeline, the main character, everywhere she turns.
Madeline, nicknamed Mado, returns home from Paris. She had left the island ten years previous with her mother and left her father behind. The youngest daughter of GrosJean, a boat builder, she returns home to be with her father. Though she wasn't exactly welcomed, she stuck it out. There, she made friends with Roget, a man of secrets, and together they tried to save the island from washing into the sea. The story begins with a festival and ends with a festival in honor of the island saint. And in that year, so many revelations were revealed and Mado discovers herself in the process. She tries to rebuild her relationship with her father and other islanders. Always headstrong and bullish, Mado soon discovers that life will continue in spite of adversity.
Despite the gloomy atmosphere in the beginning of the book, Harris writes of joy and love in the midst of life's darkest times. She writes of hope and reconcilations. She writes of sibling rivalry that strikes a chord in the reader's heart ~~ she also writes of doomed romances and the ever-present sea washing upon the shores. It is an intriguing book ~~ one that speaks of adversity and determination. It has kept me turning the pages till the ending ~~ and it is well worth my time to read this book. Now that I've read a Joanne Harris book, I plan to read the others.
4-7-03
Rating: 4
Summary: "Everything returns."
Comment: It's a maxim. Like the wrecked boats, jetsam, fisherman lost at sea, everything returns to the French island of La Devin eventually, including Harris's narrator, Madeleine ("Mado") Prasteau. Feeling the pull of the island after living in Paris for ten years, Mado returns to her childhood village of Les Salants, where seabirds yark angrily at one another in the salty, weed-scented air, and omens ride the waves like gulls. Upon her arrival, she encounters economic rivalry between the villages of Les Salants and La Houssiniere, family rivalry between her "undemonstrative" father, GrosJean and Brismand, and sibling rivalry with her older sister, Adrienne. For Mado, her return proves to be an experience that leaves her feeling "overwhelmed." "I was spinning," she says midway through the novel, "too fast for the center of me to hold. I felt that at any moment I might explode like a rocket, scrawling my name in stars across the dazzling sky" (p. 238). By the end of Harris's engaging and often poetic novel, Mado finds redemption.
In her novels, Joanne Harris evokes a sensual response from her reader, and COASTLINERS is no exception. Whereas CHOCOLAT (1999) was sweet and FIVE QUARTERS OF THE ORANGE (2001) was somewhat tart and bittersweet, COASTLINERS is salty with the satisfying flavor of wild garlic.
G. Merritt
Rating: 1
Summary: Pointless
Comment: Would you like to read a story about a sullen 20-something painter who returns to her hometown on a dreary island off the coast of France and goes around pestering the locals, a sad lot?
I didn't think you would. So why would you even consider buying Coastliners? It's one of the most boring and pointless novels I have ever read.
I'm not saying Joanne Harris can't write. She writes well, especially her dreamy descriptions of the natural world on this sleepy little island. But character development? Insight? Plot? Forget it. She has no concept.
Harris has nothing to say, either. Unless the slogan "everything returns" has some deep meaning that escapes me.
Does a racy little surprise at the end make up for all those deficiencies? I don't think so. Spare yourself.
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Title: Blackberry Wine : A Novel by Joanne Harris ISBN: 0380815923 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 24 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris ISBN: 0060958022 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 04 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Holy Fools : A Novel by Joanne Harris ISBN: 0060559128 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Chocolat by Joanne Harris ISBN: 014100018X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: My French Kitchen : A Book of 120 Treasured Recipes by Joanne Harris, Fran Warde ISBN: 0060563524 Publisher: Morrow Cookbooks Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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