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Fiction Corner

Alison Hawke

Chocolate

I confess, I'm a chocoholic. When a film called Chocolat arrived in town a friend told me I had to watch it. It's based on a book of the same name by Joanne Harris. I loved the story and wanted to read the original version. The film version had made several changes, most notable was the change of "bad guy." In the film, it was the mayor, in the book it was the town priest. The film also added a few comic moments, and missed out a poignant thread about a man and his small dog.

Something I really liked about the novel was that it was told in the first person, alternately from Vianne Rocher, single mother and owner of the new chocolate shop La Celeste Praline, and Francis Reynaud, the town's Catholic priest. From Vianne we get the main story, how the town reacts to an outsider and the effect she has on people. From the priest we get confessions as he talks to the former priest, now incarcerated in hospital and unable to talk or move.

What struck me was how immediate the story seemed. I was in the little French town, I was making chocolates to sell, I was someone else. Even though Harris is restricted to snooping in only one mind, she still gets into others. Vianne Rocher can see things in people, she sees images in the steam of melted chocolate. It makes the clash between her and the priest more interesting. He sees her as a pagan enchantress, tempting his flock and corrupting the town. She sees him as the Black Man from her mother's tarot cards, death and disapproval incarnate, stalking her. He interprets her every act as defiance against him, the church and the town.

There are other ways to bring that immediacy to a story. Diaries and letters are time-honoured methods in fiction. I wonder if Joanne Harris ever went to confession the way she sends Francis Reynaud to pour out his heart to the older priest. I wonder if Helen Fielding (author of Bridget Jones' Diary) keeps a diary herself. I love the feeling of reading someone else's diary, partly because I know how personal my own is. I haven't read a book that uses letters, can anyone recommend a good one?

I've never tried writing in the first person. I visualise the scenes and characters from outside, dipping down into people's thoughts every so often. Is it possible to mix first and third person stories? You do it a little when you include the thoughts of a character in a third person story. Point of view can change a story completely, it is worth thinking about using a different point of view than usual. It may help your story.