A Year in Provence

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait to move!
Review: A wonderful read that I continue to share with friends and family.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a read
Review: An account of one man's move to Provence and his first year there. The book deals with mundane issues - building a house, meeting neighbors, and eating - but it is well written and successfully interests the reader in the small details of his life.

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Summary: Remove author & wife. Insert self & spouse.
Review: An Englishman and his wife buy a farmhouse in the countryside of Provence. I presume they are wealthy and retired, because they haven't a care in the world about money and they don't have anywhere else to be. And they certainly don't have jobs. The book starts on New Year's Day and chronicles the author's first year in his new home in a rather detached narrative. The author's wife, his guests and anything not French are somewhat shallowly described and often aren't even given names. If they have kids, I don't recall them being mentioned. I certainly have no idea how old they are. I therefore had no trouble inserting myself and my husband in place of the author and his spouse in this picturesque fantasy.

The real characters are the locals, the workmen, the café owners, the neighbors, their quirky habits and the divine cuisine. Some of the anecdotes seem contrived or shifted in time to accommodate the structure of the book in chapters based on months, but I didn't care. I loved the descriptions of the food, the markets, the country roads, the truffle hunting...

I found the author's style of writing very charming, if somewhat impersonal, and the situations that would induce a working city woman like myself to explosive anger are injected with an innocuous sarcasm that just made me chuckle with laughter. Even though the author must deal with sporadic remodeling, a constant stream of uninvited English guests, the cleaning of the pool etc., Life is good. So don't worry. Eat, drink and be happy.

I read 2, 3 or 4 chapters at a time and I had no trouble putting it down. I even read another book after August and picked it up to read September after a particularly hectic day and I finished the book in that sitting. This was not a page-turner. But I enjoyed it anyway. I have never been to France and I read this book as a work of fiction. I didn't read it to get acquainted with Provence nor did I read it to assist with a decision to travel there, so I have no idea if it is accurate or not. I feel that I am no more familiar with the south of France now that I have read this book, so it didn't seem helpful in that regard. What I do know is that is was delightful and soothing, like a relaxing vacation or a good cup of tea.

Rating:
Summary: Accordion-a-flowing-a-humourous-delicacy
Review: Every chapter of this book presents a vignette that brims with unpredictable hilarity. It has the sheer charm to make you reluctantly nod yet more or less agree why the fame and fabled South of France is all at once riveting, alluring, loungy, laidback and the quintessential respite to pamper people from all over the world. Its unharried glamour all the more becomes real and felt once you start with even chapter one. It's like going through a travelogue where encounters will not stupify yet mystify you. And you will just really laugh! Then you slowly reckon why and how its denizens's lifestyles, annotations, conceptions and the French culture become simply irresistible to many while being puzzling to a few.

Like a laiback yet long string of circuitous coil, every event is connected and funny and serious at the same time. I read and follow the detailed records of Peter Mayle in what I can describe as his sojourn to Aix-En Provence and I am left charmed and delighted.

Particular house, street, get-together scenes in sun-drenched hillsides, gardens and stream banks just fill my imagination. My eyes cannot avert from these picturesque visions. Then they're perfectly admixtured with Mayle's records of the perplexing yet funny experiences the characters get into.

This book is a dear and a delicious feeder with or without the aperitif!

Rating:
Summary: FUN!
Review: Fun AND FUNNY! It was like going on vacation... with someone else's money! :-)

Rating:
Summary: FUN!
Review: Fun AND FUNNY! It was like going on vacation... with someone else's money! :-)

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!!
Review: I read this book after I had travelled to Paris and experienced a small part of French culture. After I read it I wish I would have gone to Provence.

Peter Mayle's memoir of relocating to Provence from England is laugh out loud funny. Like many of us Mr. Mayle fumbles about as he learns new things and manages to entertain his readers with his follies. So sit back with a glass of wine, cheese and a comfortable chair and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: An armchair escape!
Review: If you're looking for a nonfiction trip to France, this is a good read. I like A Year in Provence (and Toujour Provence, too). Interestingly, I think Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence and Toujour Provence Mayes' work got reworked into Italy via Frances Mayes' Under The Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany. Interestingly, though, I would recommend Under the Tuscan Sun over A Year in Provence.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely little read.....
Review: If you've ever lived overseas, or felt like "an outsider" in a different culture, this book is for you. It captures regional details that one can only experience by "living" in a new place, as opposed to just traveling. I learned more about realtionships between cultures than I just did about French living. A must read!

Rating:
Summary: Provencal Prose at its finest
Review: Ignore all the other reviews telling you that Peter Mayle is a "snob" who belittles the "peasants" living near his home. They obviously haven't gone to this little corner of the world and left the touristy areas like Nice and Cannes. Peter Mayle's Provence is exactly what I found when I recently visited. It is a luxurious, sunny and friendly place, filled with great food and kind people. Most of the "peasants" in Mayle's book are builders helping to reconstruct his newly purchased home. It's absurd to criticize him for describing these men because the book is essentially a running commentary on rebuilding his home over the first year.

Sure, some of his accounts of events and people are fictionalized somewhat, but they reek with the genuine charm that I experienced first hand in Provence. His portrayals of the locals are much more than mere amusement. They are an eloquent and entertaining tribute to their grace and character. Through his telling of the Provencal lifestyle, I was for the first time able to truly understand the meaning of a siesta. As an American, it seemed ridiculous to spend three hours of the busiest time of day eating and drinking Pastis. After reading this book and spending a couple weeks in the area, I find myself wishing everyone would slow down and join me for an extended lunch along Wall Street's East river.

The only point of criticism I would levy against him is a brief interlude demeaningly and bigotedly describing Little Richard's music as a "great SQUAWK from the jungle". That was the only moment of snobbery I detected and it faded quickly.

Pick up this little gem and read it once or twice. You'll want to go visit this little understood spot of earth and you may be surprised at how badly you too will want to stay.