A Year In Provence
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Product Description
A amusing–and regularly hilarious–month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations of moving into an ancient French farmhouse in Provence and adapting to a very different way of life.Amazon.com Review
Who hasn’t dreamed, on a mundane Monday or unkempt Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis? Leader Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity.
Beginning, appropriately enough, on New Year’s Day with a divine luncheon in a quaint restaurant, Mayle sets the scene and pits his British sensibilities against it. “We had talked about it during the long gray winters and the damp green summers,” he writes, “looked with an addict’s longing at photographs of village markets and vineyards, dreamed of being woken up by the sun slanting through the bedroom window.” He describes in loving detail the charming, 200-year-ancient farmhouse at the base of the Lubéron Mountains, its thick stone walls and well-tended vines, its wine cave and wells, its shade trees and swimming pool–its lack of central heating. Indeed, not 10 pages into the book, reality comes crashing into conflict with the idyll when the Mistral, that frigid wind that ravages the Rhône valley in winter, cracks the pipes, rips tiles from the roof, and tears a window from its hinges. And that’s just January.
In prose that skips along lightly, Mayle records the highlights of each month, from the aberration of snow in February and the algae-filled swimming pool of March through the tourist invasions and unpredictable renovations of the summer months to a silent Christmas alone. Throughout the book, he paints colorful portraits of his neighbors, the Provençaux grocers and butchers and farmers who amuse, confuse, and befuddle him at every turn. A Year in Provence is part memoir, part homeowner’s manual, part travelogue, and all charming fun. –L.A. Smith
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Provence is my favourite place on planet. Peter Mayle’s book is junk. Trash writing… I couldn’t get past the half-way mark.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
The appeal of this book is in the fact that Mayle has made a Shangri-La for his readers. But at what fee? He has fictitious a world that does not exist, just as Disney made a home spun fantasy on Main Street USA. This Provence did not and does not exist. I don’t argue the value of fantasy, but to sell it to the masses as an accurate representation of southern France does everyone an incredible disservice. This book is a fiction. Read it, like it, recommend it – I don’t care. But don’t judge a word of it.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I like Peter Mayle’s fiction a lot, but when you meet him as a character, you marvel why a fictional snob is fun but a real one isn’t. Maybe because his characters really have jobs and lives, while he’s a dilletante who spends his time eating and complaining. Some people dream of doing what he did. I don’t. He runs away from the real world, moves into a house most of us could never afford, and glorifies the life of the idle semi-rich.
Despite a excellent writing style, Mayle fails to make this book accessible to persons of us whose lives are not about leisure time and food. I marvel if this man ever for one second realizes just how condescending he is, or how out of touch his snotty way of life has gotten. I would much rather he stayed at home in London and got a real job.
Skip this book unless you really care about how well the French seemingly eat. And truthfully, I don’t really judge half of what he wrote about the peasantry.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
The fault may be mine. I reflect travel diary is just not my genre. I appreciate tales driven by plot and rich characters (the only rich character in this tale is the food!). I kept asking myself where the book was heading, but basically it was just heading to the next dining experience, home improvement project, or inconsiderate guest. If I hadn’t been reading the book for a book club meeting, I never would have bothered finishing it.
That being said, the writing does flow nicely. The book is well written, and some of the experiences are fun to read. If you delight in travelogues, you will probably delight in this book.
Warning: If this book were a movie, it would be rated PG-13 due to one strong expletive that blindsides you as you are reading along.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Rarely has a book received so much critical acclaim for so small reason. One year in the life of a dull snob, even worse, a food snob. Peter Mayle does nothing to help us know another culture. No truffles of wisdom here.
Read this book if you want twelve chapters of the eating habits of an elitist snob. My advice – if you get the chance to read this book, don’t.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5