Holy Fools: A Novel

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.


From Bookmarks Magazine
With few exceptions, critics agree that Harris's new novel is just as sumptuous as Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, and Coastliners. Much more than a tale of revenge and redemption, Holy Fools delves into maternal bonds, love and betrayal, 17th-century politics, and the abusive power of the church. Harris varies her theatrical retelling of Juliette's story with flashbacks, journal entries, and even LeMerle's own voice, giving the novel depth but some unwelcome frenzy. LeMerle is especially captivating; after all, who isn't attracted to oozing charm? If the novel tries too hard to be both a historical and romance novel, so be it. Overall, Holy Fools is as dazzling and dramatic as the tightrope act itself. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.


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


Elle (Holy Fools won the Elle's Lettres Reader's Prize for March 2004)
"[A] fanciful soufflé of sex and intrigue in 17th-century France."


Entertainment Weekly
"An inventive meditation on morality and passion that surprises with a wholly uncompromising ending."


Juice
"Harris’s robust humor and whimsical fantasy suits this take of seventeenth-century France."


BookPage
"Rapturous ...A dark, seductive exploration of passion and repression that plumbs the depths of the human psyche."


Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Passionate ... Spicy characterizations, tart dark humor and seductively pungent prose."


Elle (Holy Fools won the “Elle’s Lettres” Reader’s Prize for March 2004)
"[A] fanciful soufflé of sex and intrigue in seventeenth-century France."


Richmond Times-Dispatch
"A uniquely vivid, emotionally rice, verbal feast for the imagination."


Orlando Sentinel
"Compelling . . . a layered, mesmerizing gothic thriller."


Detroit Free Press
"HOLY FOOLS is exciting and dramatic and romantic."


Denver Post
"Holy Fools is rich in style and nuance . . . an engaging, compelling read."


Book Description

With her internationally bestselling novels Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, and Coastliners, Joanne Harris has woven intoxicating spells that celebrate the sensuous while exposing the passion, secrets, and folly beneath the surface of rustic village life. In Holy Fools, her most ambitious and accomplished novel to date, she transports us back to a time of intrigue and turmoil, of deception and masquerade.

In the year 1605, a young widow, pregnant and alone, seeks sanctuary at the small Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer on the island of Noirs Moustiers off the Brittany coast. After the birth of her daughter, she takes up the veil, and a new name, Soeur Auguste. But the peace she has found in re-mote isolation is shattered five years later by the events that follow the death of her kind benefactress, the Reverend Mother.

When a new abbess -- the daughter of a corrupt noble family elevated by the murder of King Henri IV -- arrives at Sainte Marie-de-la-mer, she does not arrive alone. With her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, Père Colombin, a man Soeur Auguste knows all too well. For the newcomer is Guy LeMerle, a charlatan and seducer now masquerading as a priest, and the one man she fears more than any other.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With her internationally bestselling novels Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, and Coastliners, Joanne Harris has woven intoxicating spells that celebrate the sensuous while exposing the passion, secrets, and folly beneath the surface of rustic village life. In Holy Fools, her most ambitious and accomplished novel to date, she transports us back to a time of intrigue and turmoil, of deception and masquerade. In the year 1605, a young widow, pregnant and alone, seeks sanctuary at the small Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer on the island of Noirs Moustiers off the Brittany coast. After the birth of her daughter, she takes up the veil, and a new name, Soeur Auguste. But the peace she has found in remote isolation is shattered five years later by the events that follow the death of her kind benefactress, the Reverend Mother.

When a new abbess -- the daughter of a corrupt noble family elevated by the murder of King Henri IV -- arrives at Sainte Marie-de-la-mer, she does not arrive alone. With her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, Pere Colombin, a man Soeur Auguste knows all too well. For the newcomer is Guy LeMerle, a charlatan and seducer now masquerading as a priest, and the one man she fears more than any other. Soeur Auguste has a secret. Once she was l'Ailee, "The Winged One," star performer of a troupe led by LeMerle, before betrayal forced her to change her identity. But now the past has found her. Before long, thanks' to LeMerle, suspicion and debauchery are breeding like a plague within the convent's walls -- fueled by dark rumors of witchcraft, part of the false priest's brilliantly orchestrated scheme of revenge. To protect herself and ber beloved child, l'Ailee will have to perform one last act of dazzling daring more audacious than any she has previously attempted.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Harris tosses off even the most purple prose with such aplomb that readers may give in to the sheer silliness of it. — Andrew Santella

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. (Feb. 3) Forecast: Readers looking for another Chocolat will be disappointed, but those who appreciate Harris's storytelling skills and enjoy fiction with a gothic twist will love this. Eight-city author tour. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

It is 1610, and from her cell in the Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-Mer Soeur Auguste reminisces about her life with the players, troupes of masked and powdered young entertainers roaming the French countryside. She has sought refuge with her daughter among a community of nuns who share a life of seclusion and prayer. The solace of life in the abbey is suddenly shattered with the death of their elderly abbess and the arrival of a young replacement who aspires to greatness. Gone is their life of relaxed piety and comfort, replaced by the rigors of fasting, masses, and hard work. Rebellion is near when in walks Guy LeMerle, a flamboyant former player masquerading as priest. In a brief few months, he transforms the abbey into a play within itself, full of tragedy, revenge, suspicion, lust, and chaos. Soeur Auguste must restore the abbey to peace-by returning to her roots as a player. Harris (Chocolat; Five Quarters of the Orange) treats readers to a feast for the senses, an aromatic m lange of 17th-century France and its roiling Catholicism. A cleverly structured drama populated with timelessly colorful characters, this is sure to be a hit with the author's wide community of readers. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/03.]-Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews