As a boy, writer Jay Mackintosh spent three golden summers in the ramshakle home of Joseph "Jackapple Joe" Cox in the tiny English town of Kirby Mockton.  Jay found solace in old Joe's simple wisdom and folk charms, in his stories of far travel and wild adventure, and in his astonishing ability to make anything grow lush and luxurious.  And then there were Joe's "Specials," his homebrewed wines, each bottle containing the sparkle of something truly magical.  The magic was lost, though, when Joe disappeared without warning one fall.

Years later, Jay's life is stalled with regret and emnui.  His novel Jackapple Joe was his artistic zenith, but it had been published ten years earlier and he has not been able to write a serious work since.  When an unsolicited real estate brochure arrives in the afternoon mail, he impulsivley abandons every urban thing he knows.  sight unseen, he purchases a farmhouse in the remote French village of Lansquenet, in an attempt to recapture the magic that vanished twenty years ago.

Now Jay is packing up a few belongings-and the last remaining bottles og Joe's "Specials"-and relocating to the sleepy village rich in stories of its own is calling to him.  There, in the strange yet strangely familiar place-and in the dark, guarded secrets of a reclusive woman and her young child-Jay Mackintosh hopes to find himself again.  for he feels that somehow, as impossible as it seems, "Jackapple Joe" is waiting for him there.

A lovely and lyrical novel of myriad enchantments, Blackberry Wire is a rare treat for the mind, the heart and the senses from an extraordinary literary talent.

Customer Review: blackberry wine

excellent!--- if you liked 'chocolat' its more of the magic--in fact some of the characters and events from 'chocolat' are mentioned in 'blackberry wine'

Customer Review: I Prefer Tea....

I have mixed feelings about Blackberry Wine, unfortunately more negative than positive. For the first ten chapters I despised this book: I didn't care about the characters, couldn't care about the plot and wanted nothing more than to just get through the thing so I could move on to another story. Even though the chapters are short, fifty-seven pages is more than I want to wait for a story to get interesting.

Blackberry Wine describes the life of Jay, a one-hit-wonder in the literary arena who fell victim to the freshman curse and now lives as a writer of trashy sci-fi novels and part-time fantasy-conference attendee. One day he impulsively buys a farmhouse in France that brings back childhood memories and moves in, hoping to find what he thinks he's lost. Via astral projection, his friend/mentor Joe, visits the farmhouse to continue giving the advice he started in Jay's youth. Jay the adult reverts back to the child he was time and again in his bitterness at being abandoned by the old man's sudden parting, continuing the legacy. Blackberry Wine is written as a piece of commercial fiction, but has definite elements of fantasy that feel out of place. This inconsistent tone added to my discomfort.

One of the reasons I had trouble with this book is because of the way Jay is written. Personally, I thought he was schizophrenic, but I don't think that was the author's intention. He seems like an intelligent person, but has the insight of a fifteen-year-old boy coupled with a dog's manic need to defend his territory (or in this case, Jay's righteous indignation). Jay's lack of maturity and poor decision-making ability mark him as a victim, a martyr, so I had trouble caring about him.

This book jumps back and forth in time about every other chapter which I found distracting. The copious descriptions were a bit much and repetitive: how many times did I have to hear about the canal, or that something was yeasty- an odd word to be given such prominence? And don't get me started on the magically animated bottles of wine....

On the upside, once the story warmed up it was engaging. Jay's garden renovation and the relationship with his neighbor and her daughter were nice, the practical peculiarities of Joe added color and interest and the French townspeople formed a nice backdrop. All in all I thought Blackberry Wine was flawed, but it did have moments.

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