Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Very nice book July 30, 2007
V. Nakra (MD, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'd been looking around for some light reading for a while. Hard thrillers, fantasy, nonfiction, business books..I'd had enough. Then I stumbled across Mayle's other book - A Good Year. Just what I was looking for. The characters were well drawn, and life in Provence really seemed like the ideal vacation.
Hotel Pastis is even better. Great characters, good flow, some excitement, but nothing too head-pounding. If you're looking for an escape, and wouldn't mind learning a little more about France, try this out. You'll probably be back for more.
 entertaining but irritating July 26, 2007
C. URen (Berkeley, CA USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book zipped by, and held my attention, but I think whether you like it will depend on how much you agree with Peter Mayle's personal opinions. I found a number of elements in the book irritating. The main character, Simon Shaw, is bored with his life, but it never once occurs to him to do anything for charity, although he's rich enough to own several sports cars that he never drives. In general, the characters are used to express the author's likes and dislikes. For example, Mayle thinks that people who worry about cancer are silly, so the cool characters all have "healthy, tanned faces" and some of them smoke, while the fussy and stupid characters hide from the sun, and wave the smoke away in horror. Some of what seems witty to Mayle didn't work for me at all. I don't see anything clever in putting a replica of Brussels' "Mannekin Pis" in a garden, or referring to a bit of sexual foreplay as "Breakfast of Champions".
The author's attitude toward his female characters struck me as odd, but that may be due to generational or national differences. Shaw calls his secretary by her first name, while she says, "Mr. Shaw." Shaw loves to watch women eat, and hates it when they spend a lot of money, but, paradoxically, the heroine of the book is constantly complimented for being slender and extremely well-dressed. (To be fair, Mayle does insert a few non-slender women who are also depicted as attractive, but it's obvious that the heroine is the queen bee.) Many of the female characters depend upon alimony for their living, and they talk as if living on men's money is the natural order of things. Perhaps Mayle knows a lot of women like this, but I found it depressing.
The story of the novel is curiously divided. Several Marcel-Pagnol-esque chapters describe a gang's preparations for a bank heist, and these seem unconnected with the ritzy world of Simon Shaw. I think Mayle should have written two separate books, rather than trying to mix these two styles together.
On the positive side, the book's personages are memorable, though not realistic, and the Provence setting is attractive. However, I don't think these pluses overcome the book's minuses.
 GOOD IDEA January 4, 2007
Mr. Rudy G. Wolf (coal city,il.)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
THIS IS ALSO A GOOD READ FOR PETER MAYLE FANS, AFTER READING IT, I WANT TO OPEN MY OWN HOTEL IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
A lovely read November 7, 2006
D. Metcalfe (Southern California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Charming and delicious! The characters aren't exactly realistic but they are well done and fun to know. The plot isn't exactly realistic either, it's fiction after all! I've never been to the south of France but this book made me fall in love with it.
I was a bit confused by the side plot of the bank robbery, but even that was enjoyable and funny, even funnier when it all came together towards the end.
Definitely a book I'd recommend!
 fairly OK book - could have been better October 15, 2006
Pinaki Ghosh (Elgin, TX USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
the protagonist Simon is a owner of an advertising company - the portion of the book where Mayle talks about the advertising world - then it is realistic and you will love it but the portion of the book which deals with kidnapping and other childish activity is quite immature
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