Episode 362: Qui N'aime Pas Le Chocolat?

Just spent an hour typing out a reply to Bella's e-mail, which caught me completely out of the blue. Was going to put it off till Tuesday afternoon, but I decided not to procrastinate for once, and I'm supposed to be out of the house on Tuesday anyway. Finished reading Dexter In The Dark because I stayed up past 3 am, so I'm now re-reading Chocolat and falling in love with the confectionery descriptions all over again! I wasn't quite sure what to make of Jeff Lindsay's third novel, partly because the introduction of supernatural elements in the form of the god Moloch strained the plausibility of what has so far been a reasonably realistic novel series, not to mention that Lindsay's preference for what usually amounts to a deus ex machina to terminate the plot rang jarringly hollow this time. I do love the alliteration revolving around Dexter's name that's scattered throughout the novels though. Anyway, back to Chocolat. I'd forgotten how mouthwatering the passages describing sweets and chocolates were. They remind me of this other book, The Breadmaker's Carnival, by Andrew Lindsay. I'm also very intrigued by the chapters narrated by Father Francis Reynaud, since they seem to me a good example of creating a distinctive voice for a character, something that I've been trying my hand at in my prose work. Shall have to read the sequel, The Lollipop Shoes, before I fly back to the UK, since I'm not going to fly my Joanne Harris novels to Singapore, only to cart them back with me again to the UK!