Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 a rich year November 29, 2008
Robert H. Stine Jr. (Arlington, VA United States)
If a friend has told you of this book, he or she has probably said that you'd love it. Your friend is right; read this book. It's a well-written, amusing, humorous and affectionate description of a fascinating region and its people.
 A Year of Surprises November 4, 2008
Douglas P. Murphy (Charlottesville)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book provides a very intimate view of the author's experiences during his first year of living in Provence in the southeastern part of France. Most of the experiences represent the every day ones we all go through e.g. hiring someone to do work on our house, meeting neighbors through a party, etc. However, the people in Provence have a decidedly different perspective and character, and thus these ordinary experiences appear strange, fascinating and entertaining. This effect comes in part from Mr. Mayle's wit, writing style and emotional reactions to the events of his life. I particularly liked his description of the dress (leather), method of arrival (motorcycle) and behavior and attitudes of students coming into a certain town-absolutely precious. As with the French, food and drink in a Mayle book take an exalted status.
 A Year in Provence September 11, 2008
Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mayle's vision of Provence is mostly fantasy. It's true, the details of food and weather and habits are accurate, but it rings of 19th century English colonial patriarchy. The French "peasants" are portrayed like happy go lucky children living in a Romanticized garden of Eden uncorrupted by the real world of London and Paris. Mayle is the benevolent Patriarch in contrast to the towns cast of cartoonish personalities (it's no accident this book was adapted to a comedic TV series). If it was a novel at least there would be a plot, but instead it's a faux anthropological survey with Mayle studying the life and habits of local natives and imparting information for those back home who wish to follow his colonial ambitions (Mayle was in advertising). Its been said travel writing is stuck in the 19th century and this is a prime example of the genre with a modern voice. The book has been very popular - it really is very enjoyable at a certain level - but believing the fantasy and traveling there expecting a similar experience is being complicit in a form of modern day colonialism. Mayle apparently has since left Provence because the town changed - one can only imagine why.
With that said I enjoyed reading about Provence and plan to read Alphonse Daudet's `Lettres de mon moulin` or Letters From My Windmill published in 1869 - it is beloved in France and offers perhaps an authentic French perspective on the region just before modernization.
Part Travelogue; Part Love Letter July 13, 2008
Joan Reeves (TX USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm probably the last person in the world to read this charming book. My interest was stirred by the Russell Crowe film A GOOD YEAR which has been running on the premium channels for the last two months.
The movie is heartwarming, witty, and full of sweet charm. Naturally I had to seek out the author of the book from which the movie was adapted. In doing so, I bought all of the other books written by Peter Mayle an ex-patriot Englishman living the life we all want to live in Provence.
Thus I began the first of his books A YEAR IN PROVENCE, his twelve-month epistle of establishing a new home in the Provençale region of France.
The articulate Mr. Mayle, a refugee from the advertising business, is of course articulate. More importantly though, he has a fondness for his subject matter and a humorous delivery that will at times make you smile and at other times make you roar with laughter.
The book is part travelogue and part love letter to Provence that will make you wish with every fiber of your being that you could find a similar Provençal farm house with land growing grape vines and fruit trees and shuck this rat race for the tranquil life described by Mr. Mayle.
If you haven't read this book, get a copy from your favorite online or local bookstore. I must warn you about one thing though. Don't do as I did initially and read a chapter at bedtime. The descriptions of the food consumed by the Mayles and their French neighbors and friends will make your mouth water. You'll find yourself in the kitchen uncorking a bottle of pinot noir and rooting through the fridge for a block of cheese.
Absolutely Delightful & Entertaining June 29, 2008
Daffeyo Tubman (Ashburn, VA, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had not heard of this book until I was traveling last week, and a fellow traveler asked me in the Borders at the airport if I knew who had written "A Year in Provence". I did not know, but something in the title peaked my interest, so I googled it on my phone, found the author and read the excerpt on the publisher's site. I fell in love with the descriptions of Le Simiane's cuisine, and had to buy it (which I did as soon as I could find a local Borders).
I read it in 2 days - absolutely could not put it down, and I am certain there are some on the Metro in DC who felt as though I had lost my mind when I would suddenly burst into laughter at some highly entertaining little tidbit or description in the book.
Mayle has a dry wit (that British sangfroid perhaps?), that comes across clearly in his writing. I love his descriptions of how they (he and his wife) finally began to understand the "hand language" common in Provence and how "normalement" means anything from days to weeks! By the end of the book, I was already looking forward to starting "Toujours Provence".
Even though it is a travel diary of sorts, the book is absolutely a must read for anyone interested in the way the French peasants live...and of course the ultimate disdain they have for Les Parisiens (and all others as you will see through Massot's discussion of Germans, Swiss and Spanish campers).
Overall, this is an absolute delight - hats off to Mayle!!
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