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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
An easy-to-read collection of snippets about life in Provence. It made me want to go to the south of France and eat a lot of 6-course meals. (Luckily, I have an opportunity to do exactly that, so off I go at the end of October!) Mayle is a good writer, though, and I look forward to reading A Year in Provence next.
More anecdotes strung together to make an entertaining case for one to move to Provence.
After rereading A Year in Provence, my next logical book to read was Toujours Provence, Peter Mayle's follow-up to the wildly successful A Year in Provence. To be honest, while I could remember reading the first book, I had no recollection of reading Toujours Provence and now I remember why.
::: When a Sequel Isn't a Sequel :::
A Year in Provence dealt with Mayle and his wife's move to Provence, near the Lubéron, their struggles with the language, their interesting neighbors, and the renovations they were making to their house while they explored their new neighborhood. That book progressed logically a month at a time; relationships developed over periods of months; and renovations progress or don't progress as the year goes by.
Toujours Provence takes the familiar neighbors, workmen, and narrative structure and tosses them all right out the window. No longer is there any sort of continuity to Mayle's writing, but rather a collection of short vignettes, some of which might tie into an earlier story or theme, but most that just seem like a glimpse into lives we were given a front-row seat to in A Year in Provence.
Chapters in Toujours Provence are given actual titles, a departure from the month titles of the previous book, and it's very telling. The titles feel like titles to magazine articles, which each short section might very well be. We get short stories without much follow-through, and as the book progresses, the readers is left to feel almost as if they are being pushed back from an interesting scene by a police barricade. A first glimpse of the Mayles' life as Madame Mayle adopts a new dog (bringing their total to three) toward the beginning of the book gives way to fewer and fewer mentions of Madame Mayle, fewer interactions with the fascinating neighbors like Massot and Faustin we met in A Year in Provence, and more and more of a feeling that Mayle is saying the "nos" to his readers that he isn't able to say to the guests who invite themselves for vacations at his house.
::: Is It Horrible? :::
Toujours Provence is in no means a horrible book, and if expectations after A Year in Provence weren't so high, it would probably be a very decent read: witty and interesting. But I don't find it odd at all that there were several reviews of the first book, which won awards, and no reviews of Toujours Provence, because it just isn't that memorable a book. I think that Mayle kept the reader at too far a distance with this book for it to be the must-read that its predecessor was, and that's a great loss.
This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Toujours_Provence_by_Peter_Mayle/content_163015265924
::: When a Sequel Isn't a Sequel :::
A Year in Provence dealt with Mayle and his wife's move to Provence, near the Lubéron, their struggles with the language, their interesting neighbors, and the renovations they were making to their house while they explored their new neighborhood. That book progressed logically a month at a time; relationships developed over periods of months; and renovations progress or don't progress as the year goes by.
Toujours Provence takes the familiar neighbors, workmen, and narrative structure and tosses them all right out the window. No longer is there any sort of continuity to Mayle's writing, but rather a collection of short vignettes, some of which might tie into an earlier story or theme, but most that just seem like a glimpse into lives we were given a front-row seat to in A Year in Provence.
Chapters in Toujours Provence are given actual titles, a departure from the month titles of the previous book, and it's very telling. The titles feel like titles to magazine articles, which each short section might very well be. We get short stories without much follow-through, and as the book progresses, the readers is left to feel almost as if they are being pushed back from an interesting scene by a police barricade. A first glimpse of the Mayles' life as Madame Mayle adopts a new dog (bringing their total to three) toward the beginning of the book gives way to fewer and fewer mentions of Madame Mayle, fewer interactions with the fascinating neighbors like Massot and Faustin we met in A Year in Provence, and more and more of a feeling that Mayle is saying the "nos" to his readers that he isn't able to say to the guests who invite themselves for vacations at his house.
::: Is It Horrible? :::
Toujours Provence is in no means a horrible book, and if expectations after A Year in Provence weren't so high, it would probably be a very decent read: witty and interesting. But I don't find it odd at all that there were several reviews of the first book, which won awards, and no reviews of Toujours Provence, because it just isn't that memorable a book. I think that Mayle kept the reader at too far a distance with this book for it to be the must-read that its predecessor was, and that's a great loss.
This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Toujours_Provence_by_Peter_Mayle/content_163015265924
funny
informative
medium-paced
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
The sequel to the much loved A Year in Provence, is just as amusing and heartwarming as the original. Prepare to be amazed by frogs croaking the Marseillaise, finding gold at the bottom of the garden and skulking truffles through customs. Each chapter is an amusing vignette that provides the reader with a window into life in Provence. Mayle’s writing is witty and, quite often, funny. I was laughing out loud so many times that my husband, who is more used to my sombre reads, was soon asking me whether I was feeling alright.
I'm sure that the Provence that Peter Mayle wrote about has changed a great deal since this book was published but the fundamental charm of this place has probably remained the same. Provence will continue to cast its spell and this little book, like its predecessor, will entice readers to go and discover it for themselves.
I'm sure that the Provence that Peter Mayle wrote about has changed a great deal since this book was published but the fundamental charm of this place has probably remained the same. Provence will continue to cast its spell and this little book, like its predecessor, will entice readers to go and discover it for themselves.
