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Holy Fools (Paperback)

by Joanne Harris (Author) "It begins with the player ..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 386 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0754093085
ISBN-13: 978-0754093084
Shipping Weight: 504 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

"Love not often, but forever" is an adage with dangerous implications for Juliette, a gypsy acrobat in 17th-century France who strives to balance her wild yearnings with her hard-won wisdom in this passionate novel from the author of Chocolat and Five Quarters of the Orange. Harris gave hints in the latter novel of a darker sensibility, and she fully indulges that inclination here, broodingly exploring the mechanics of mass hysteria and the clash between the desires of the flesh and spiritual cravings. Juliette's involving narration alternates with the amoral reflections of her rogue lover, Guy LeMerle, the Blackbird ("He lived on perpetual credit and never went to church"). LeMerle is the leader of Juliette's troupe, which is disbanded after a clash with a town's authorities; at the same time, LeMerle abandons the pregnant Juliette, who is persecuted as a witch. Five years later, Juliette, now called Soeur Auguste, and her daughter, Fleur, have found refuge at the Abbey of Sainte-Marie-de-la-mer on the Brittany coast. Then LeMerle arrives at the abbey disguised as Father Confessor to the newly appointed abbess, Isabelle, a preternaturally severe girl of 12 whose uncle happens to be LeMerle's nemesis, the bishop of vreux. Isabelle causes Fleur to be removed from the abbey, and while Juliette struggles to get her back, LeMerle manipulates the nuns into believing Satan has their convent in thrall, in a complicated plot to revenge himself on the bishop. This fictional cassoulet suggests Aldous Huxley's nonfiction work The Devils of Loudun, with "demonically" possessed nuns caught in a web of sexual repression and political and religious oppression during an era of upheaval in France. Harris adds spicy characterizations, tart dark humor and seductively pungent prose, and poses some provocative questions: can 65 nuns be so easily misled? why does Juliette find herself drawn to such a selfish man? The title supplies an answer with almost unholy glee.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Juliette, L'Ailee the Flying Harpy, Soeur Auguste: the central voice in this mesmerizing tale from the author of Chocolat (1999) and Five Quarters of the Orange (2001) has many names to match her many roles. They unfold slowly: she is in a seventeenth-century convent with her small daughter, hiding from a demon lover and her past as a dancer upon the rope. The convent, cut off by the tides twice a day from the mainland of France, is a hothouse of desire, ignorance, and woe, and into it comes a new abbess and her confessor. The abbess is barely more than a child, and the confessor is Juliette's lover, LeMerle the Blackbird, once again in brilliant disguise. The counterpoint between his evilly twisted manipulations of Juliette and her fellow sisters and Juliette's frantic working-out of just what he is doing and why--always colored by her desire for him--forms a seamless braid of first-person narratives. Harris' usual command of sense description does not fail her, ever, but the breathtaking denouement is marred by LeMerle's unremitting and soulless viciousness. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Holy Fools is a Holy Mess, Oct 9 2009

By	R. A. Kerr (Canmore, AB Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Holy Fools: A Novel (Paperback)

This was chosen by my book club otherwise I never would have finished it. Unsympathetic main characters, annoying plot holes, a shallow 21st century worldview instead of a semi-authentic 17th century worldview, an anti-climatic climax, blah blah blah. My list of grievances goes on. The premise is really intriguing, though, which makes the disappointment all the greater. Save yourself the bother and pick something else. People who like her writing say her books about food are much better.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The moral of the story, Dec 12 2006

By	Intrepid - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holy Fools: A Novel (Paperback)

The elaborate prose,intricate plot and vacillating first person structure keep the reader intrigued and entertained while the author sets up her body blow against organized religion. Plot and character development progress in lockstep and continue to the very end of this suspense ladened tale. In the end only the atheists emerge with any virtue while the 'believers' are exposed as dangerous fools at best and mendacious rogues at worst. Had Harris set this tale in the Islamic world there would surely be a fatwa directed at her by now.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Just okay, Jul 28 2005

By	C. Brown "English teacher" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Holy Fools: A Novel (Paperback)

I'm not sure what to make of this book. Although it's set in the 1600s, the language is modern (Harris discusses this choice at the end of the book but I'm still not satisfied) and the motivations and actions of the people are also very modern (I hope that makes sense). It wasn't just the 12 year old leader or the weird sexual behaviour of the nuns (which I think is just comic really) that threw me in the reading of this book. I just didn't GET IT really. Were we supposed to sympathize with the main character? She's not very sympathetic. Are we supposed to forgive LeMerle? He's not very forgiveable. Are we to believe that all nuns are sexually and/or emotionally deprived to the point where they make absolute asses of themselves when a man comes on the scene? Apparently so. Was this Harris' opportunity to take shots at Catholicism? Anyway, it wasn't ALL bad. I enjoy Harris' writing style (but this one was harder to follow as characters have multiple names and sometimes I didn't know whose thoughts I was reading) and I found the antics of the nuns quite amusing. Not great - just okay.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars a pageturner set in 1610 France...
Juliette is part of a travelling circus of sorts ~ a group of 'holy fools'. She finds herself involved with the leader, LeMerle. Read more

Published on Jun 7 2004 by mamareadssomuch

5.0 out of 5 stars Love and Hate off the Coast of Historical France -- Spoiler
As the clever and resourceful rope dancer L'Ailee of a traveling troupe of actors, Juliette begins her narrative with her own admission that the birth of her daughter, Fleur, five... Read more

Published on Jun 2 2004 by Diana F. Von Behren

4.0 out of 5 stars "You wanted me dead, so I decided to live."
I have a weakness for quality historical fiction and HOLY FOOLS certainly satisfied my cravings. Set on the remote rocky seashore near Brittany, France in 1605 this novel tells... Read more

Published on April 19 2004 by S. Calhoun

4.0 out of 5 stars Its better to believe in a false god than no god at all"
I'm in two minds about Holy Fools. Harris has written a lively, and provocatively imagined story of life, deception, turmoil, and revenge in the seventeenth century but the... Read more

Published on Mar 21 2004 by M. J Leonard