Customer Reviews

A Year in Provence

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

When I was a sophomore in college, I spent a semester in Aix-en-Provence, France. While I was there I discovered that many of my fellow classmates had read "A Year in Provence" and were captivated by Mayle's account. Once I returned to the US, my parents bought it for me and I devoured it quickly. I loved this book -- and since I spent some time in Provence, I could relate to the various characters and adventures that Mr. Mayle writes about. His talent is definitely in the writing -- you certainly feel as if you are in Provence with him, searching out truffles or lamenting over his stone dining room table. I read this book (as well as its sequel, "Toujours Provence") over and over again, whenever I want to reminisce about the four months I spent abroad, or just for a few quick laughs. It truly is like taking a vacation, and taking a peek into Peter Mayle's charming quaint Provencal life. I highly recommend this book to anyone . . . and I promise that you will want to visit the South of France immediately!

I generally abhor travelogues, but this defies the genre and isn't really a travelogue per-se anyway. It describes a destination rather than a journey. Mayle and his wife arrive in Provence with full expectations of living la dolce vita and end up embroiled in a series of catastrophes that require them to reshape their entire characters and perform some serious attitude-adjusting. The English, like their American cousins, are accustomed to time and labor operating at peak efficiency. When someone tells us a job will be done in two weeks, we expect it done in 10 days. When we listen to weather reports, we want to know how long a particular pattern will last. We don't want to be told, "Maybe two days, maybe two weeks, maybe two months." As Mayle reports, things are done a bit differently in Provence. Time operates in a different dimension. If time is even considered, it is contemplated in terms of seasons, rather than hours, days, or weeks.

Mayle's (and his wife's) adaptation to the Provencal lifestyle is sometimes painful, other times poignant and telling, but almost always extremely funny. He is a born raconteur, a master of the amusing anecdote, expert at rendering a farcical tableau.

The cast of characters of A Year in Provence are priceless. He describes them vividly and each lends color to the overall impression of les Provencals that we eventually come away with. Mayle pokes gentle fun at them and obviously has warm feelings towards them, even his fox-eating neighbor, Massot. Every inhabitant of the region has a strong opinion on a variety of subjects, and these opinions are often at odds with those of their neighbors. About the only thing everyone agrees on is the importance of food. Mayle's decsriptions of his gastronomical forays are rendered so vividly that I have started combing the supermarket here in Pinehurst for ingredients (pale imitations for the most part, sadly).

I was fortunate to find the unabridged tape of this book at my library. David Case did a great job at rendering the English disposition slowly succombing to the pace and timbre of Provencal life. Mayle is great company. I look forward to hearing more from him.

A French national, 4th generation "provençale" (from Provence), I couldn't help being both surprised and annoyed by the controversy around Peter Mayle's book. I loved his work and so did my whole family, still living in Provence. We found it refreshing to see our little world seen through a British eye, and got a real kick out of all the anecdotes. My (American) husband along with his parents read the book as well before discovering Provence and my family for the first time and enjoyed it tremendously.My advice to you, potential reader: do not pay attention to negative comments about this book. Read it and make your OWN opinion. You may love it or not.And if you end up touring in Provence, you're in for an unforgettable experience, especially if you avoid Summer months (Anyway the light in September is THE best), and if you get to know locals. This is better than any guide book. it is Provence from within... Enjoy!

I was born in and grew up in Provence. In this book, Peter Mayle does the seemingly impossible--he captures the essence of a place so perfectly the reader is almost transported. Far from being a travel book, A Year in Provence is a timeless classic, both beautifully written and hilariously funny. Mayle is a genius when it comes to Provence. His characters are lively and full of fun, the situations (e.g., German campers) real, and the tone of book so perfect it's a dream. Read it for enjoyment, read it to learn about Provence. Either way you will be entertained and you certainly can't go wrong.

This being my first entry into the world of travel memoirs, I'm not sure how A Year in Provence compares. However, my uninitiated opinion is that of a pleasant surprise. I thought this book was very well written; a nice and light story; and a tempting depiction of rural France and all its glorious food, festivals and residents.

A Year in Provence is written in monthly chapters and tracks the days in the life of the English author, Peter Mayle, and his wife who have purchased a home in a small village in Provence, France. Readers are witnesses to blustery Mistral winds, torrential summer downpours, the finer points of wine harvesting, installing central heat, business practices of Provencal businessmen, and the joys of goat racing through the town.

While there is no action of great depth or importance, I found this book to be a pleasure to read. At first thought, I wasn't too sure I liked it. There is no plot, no surprise, no twists in the storyline like my usual reading. However, if my mindset was set in low gear prior to the first page, I would've been prepared for the meandering, languid story that was to follow. Also, beware of the liberal tossing of french words and phrases that are never explained or defined -- a translation dictionary would be a trusty and helpful companion.

Now that the book is complete and back safely on my bookshelf, I have decided that A Year in Provence was indeed enjoyable. If one goes into the book with no ideas for a fast-paced, action-packed story and takes it for what it actually is -- a travel memoir -- the reader will undoubtedly have a wonderful reading experience. It just took me 207 pages to realize it.

What is there left to say about this fine,uproriously funny novel. I happened upon it when it first came out at my local library, thought it looked mildly amusing and took it home,expecting to be fairly entertained...but little more!

Since that fateful day I now have my own copy (hardbound, of course), have read this book, at last count, on five seperate occassions and have given away numerous copies to friends as gifts. Obviously, I am simply a HUGE fan of Mr. Mayle's novel. But it's difficult not to be!

Whether the book is accurate or not,and there's been some discussion of that, I 've found his "innocent's abroad" story funny and touching in many ways. It's a common dream that many of us have which is to run away to your own private paradise and simply live your life as you would wish. Only of course things are never that simple...especially with the Mayle's challenge of working with French beauracracy,builder's and the odd assortment of neighbor's and on-lookers. To say nothing of the occassional uninvited house guests!

There's simply something here for everyone! And of course, an odd moral to their touching story, which I won't explain here...I'll let you discover on your own. So pick up a favorite bottle of wine, some Edith Piaf and sit down with this wonderful novel. Once you're hooked you'll be able to enjoy the sequel as well..."Toujour's Provence"! Bonjoir!!

this book is hilarious, because it is actually an accurate account of life in France for an ex-pat. Having lived in France for 5-years there isn't a chapter I do not relate to in some way. And, with fond, fond memories. I read this book in the second year of my residency in this incredible country, and enjoyed it even more the second time around having left France 4 years ago. I had never thought of it as a travel book before, except it makes me yearn to return also.

Nothing would be easier than adding another 5-star review of A YEAR IN PROVENCE. It is a hard book not to like, but seldom have I finished a book with such ambivalent feelings. A classically casual armchair travel book, A YEAR IN PROVENCE goes down easy like a fine wine, requiring nothing of its readers except a brief swirl around the mind before swallowing. The story is light-hearted, the writing breezy and funny, the food delectable, the local citizenry picaresque, the scenery pastoral, the wine earthy, the weather alternately wonderful and dreadful. A year of domestic calamities come and go, resolved with the gravitas of a TV sitcom. All ends well in each episode, with everyone smiling and bellies full.

Peter Mayle's A YEAR IN PROVENCE is filled with amusing anecdotes and gentle humor. He evokes the Provence countryside effectively, particularly the effects of climate and season on local temperaments and pace of life. Yet throughout this book, I repeatedly felt a sense of carefully-disguised, or perhaps inadvertant, distance. Mayle reveals little of himself and even less of his wife, who remains oddly nameless, faceless, and personality-less for the duration of the book.

More disturbing are the locals, the Provencals. Each comes across as something of a caricature, a French version of Normal Rockwell's characters, or maybe a French version of the old comedy show Green Acres. There's Faustin, the tenant farmer, always expecting the worst, and Menicucci, the plumber extraordinaire, bigger than life and full of small philosophies, and Massot, the local crank and German-hater. And Christian the architect, Didier the mason, Ramon the plasterer, and Jean-Pierre the carpet layer. Mayle's world isn't populated by people with lives, just role players in the theater of the author's own life, bit parts to Mayle's Everyman, named according to their professions.

Even the secondary characters are presented this way. The men are all salts of the earth, the women all earth mothers. Every chef and baker is a dedicated but understated master, every craftsman an artist who would rather eat, every English visitor a clown or a boor, every Parisian an effete snob, every St. Tropez beachgoer an SPF-slicked fool. And above it all, mildly bemused, sits Peter Mayle, the only non-Provencal to have discovered the truth about life, olive oil, wine, goat cheese, wine, French bread, wine, mushrooms, truffles, and wine.

A YEAR IN PROVENCE is an upscale, clean-hands-and-shoes view of Provence for readers enthralled by Michelin ratings, truffles, finding the perfect wine for each occasion, or discovering the ultimate olive oil. This is not life in Provence, it's a year's vacation in a French country house with a pool in back and money to spend on whatever moves you.

I finished the book feeling as stuffed full of Provencal food and wine as a local at lunchtime, but I was far less sure I had learned what makes a Provencal tick. Seven lines from the end, Mayle writes: "It had been a self-absorbed year..." I couldn't have summarized the book any better myself.

Three stars for an entertaining but disappointingly superficial book.

Judging from the reviews, you will either love or hate this book. Peter Mayle is not a snob. He simply knows how to take his experience and turn it into an immensely readable slice of life story. To those who disliked it I ask, haven't you ever daydreamed about life as you wished it were? That's what this book is, a thoroughly enjoyable retreat from our daily troubles. I too cannot afford to live as Mr. Mayle does, but that didn't stop me from going to Provence via his often hysterical prose. This book made me laugh out loud. I have given it as a gift many times to people in need of an entertaining diversion. It hasn't failed yet. His encores and fiction are fun too, but none made me taste France the way this gem did.

For those of us who have dared to live the dream, there is Provence. But for those of us who need to let someone else do the heavy work, there is the insight and wit of Peter Mayle. After spending two months in Europe without an English book, I stumbled on this one by accident in a little shop in Avignon and read it cover to cover in four hours. Peter's tales of French life according to food, complaining, boules and his inability to complete the work on his home in a timely mannor left me laughing out loud for both the truth of it and his casual downhome ability to tell us about it. This is easily the best slice of life or fish out of water story that I've read since "'Round Ireland with a Fridge."