"'Where's the magic... Where are the magic carpets
and Haitian voodoo and lone gunslingers and naked ladies tied to railway
lines? Where are the Indian trackers and the four-armed goddesses and the
pirates and the giant apes? Where are the fucking space aliens?'"
Jay Mackintosh is a frustrated writer. Living in
London, he is constantly forced to go to literary parties, and to teach
creative writing by his tiresome spin doctor girlfriend, Kerry, and all because
of a prize winning novel that he wrote years ago. If left to himself, Jay
is content to wallow in the past and to write pulp SF under the name of
'Jonathan Winesap' (a pseudonym derived from two species of American
apple). But then Jay is inspired by a piece of junk mail...
This is Joanne Harris' follow-up novel to the fantastically
successful Chocolat, soon to become an obligatory film starring Juliet
Binoche. The theme of the pleasure of mastication is continued here, with
homemade bottles of fruit wine replacing chocolate festivals. Not that
the wine that Joseph Cox makes is all that sweet. But Jay still drinks
Joseph's 'Specials', like he writes SF, not for the pleasure of the taste, but
for the joy of its associated memories. For each sip takes Jay back
twenty five years, to the summers of the mid-70s, reliving his first tumultuous
meeting with retired miner Joseph Cox in a small place called Pog Hill.
There is the where Jay will undergo his pubescent years, hiding toys, comics,
and himself by the canal. There, separated from his divorcing mother and
father, Jay and Joe form a bond which is almost stronger than that between
father and son. Joseph Cox is an aged man who has travelled the world,
but whose blood beats with the heart of a hippie, and who proves to be a
magical companion to Jay, with his herbs and rare seeds, each with its own
story to tell. Joe and Jay become master and apprentice in the mysterious
art of 'layman's alchemy'. But maybe magic is not enough to save them
both from their fates... Jay escapes his London life to live in an
idyllic French countryside. But as he becomes embroiled in the
machinations of this new community, has he truly learnt the lessons of the
past?
Blackberry Wine is a beautiful novel. Like a
couple of other novels recently, such as 'Emotionally Weird' and 'White Teeth',
the 1970s are very much present, allowing Harris and others to show the
development or stasis of their characters, maybe reflecting a bit of
soul-searching brought on by the millennium. This novel will appeal to
anyone who remembers where they were when Elvis died, and the hot summer of
'76. There is a danger in going back to the past in that you can
misremember things. Certainly, it would have been impossible for
Jay to buy a copy of The Eagle in 1975, since it folded in 1969. One
of the memories of my childhood was the revivification of The Eagle
in the early 1980s. But never mind the details (Michele Roberts has also
criticized Harris' ignorance of the French inheritance laws), it's the magic
that's strongest here. It does seem that, in this quite subversive novel,
that Joanne Harris has subtly reverted to her SF past. The model of this
novel seems to be that of The Hero's Journey, so beloved of Hollywood
film-makers like George Lucas, with her portrayal of the young boy and his
mentor. Although Harris sensibly falls short of Joe exhorting Jay to
"use the Force".
Harris employs the unusual device of having the
novel narrated by a bottle of wine, Fleuric 1962 (the year of Jay's
birth). To some people, this wine could seem to be deceptively sweet,
drowned in a world of fantasy. But the more discerning palate can also
revel in its astonishing bite. Joanne Harris has gone on the offensive
here, spelling out the law, laying down boundaries, much as Jay and Joe try to,
marking a line in the sand: thus far, and no further. Just as Jay
struggles with his identity, so does Joanne, reacting against the success of
her previous novel, reminding you of her varied past as an SF writer, defining
herself against the definitions that the media has made of her. I don't
think we'll get to see John Thaw play Joseph Cox quite yet. Drink this
novel in. It will give you a feeling that is the equal and opposite
reaction to that of a hangover - pure joy.
AuthorTrek
Rating: 9/10.
Jonathan Winesap -
Jay Mackintosh, the hero of Blackberry Wine, writes under this pseudonym,
derived from the names of American apples. Learn all about these fruits
here.
The G-SUS Gene -
is the title of a story that Jay has written in 'Blackberry Wine'.
However, the real author of this intriguing tale is none other than a certain
Joanne Harris...
The Eagle -
is the boys comic that Jay tries to read in 1975. Find out what it was
like here.
Faith and Hope go Shopping -
is a short story based in Meadowbank Home, mentioned in 'Blackberry
Wine'. Kevin Patrick Mahoney reviews
it.
