Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Toujours Provence
Book Review: A Second Helping......Bon Appetit!
Summary: 4 Stars
If you've ventured through my reviews previous to this you know of my deep seated love and enthusiasm for Mr. Mayle's first novel " A Year In Provence". Being such a big fan I was more than slightly apprehensive when his second installment was released. I had prepared my self for a huge letdown! Fortunately, once again, I was wrong. Don't misunderstand me...while I enjoy this book immensely it simply doesn't match up to his first novel. The "flow" of the first novel isn't there and some pieces feel as though they've been plastered together. That being said...WHO CARES!
Mr. Mayle's talent in story-telling is still with us and some of his chapters, such as hunting the elusive tuffle, attending a Pavorotti concert and digging up gold Naopoleon's in his own yard make for a wonderful adventure which I greatly enjoyed.
Overall, the book has the same cozy, warm feeling that his first novel so vividly captured and I now have my own hardbound copy as well. But, than again, I'm biased! I tend to enjoy his novel's due to their naivete,innocence and of course his tendencies to expand upon French culture. What's not to like?
So, if you enjoyed his first you will undoubtably like this as well. And if not....well, you wish to stay away. Overall, I think Peter Mayle has done us, and his bank account,a very big favor by letting us enjoy he and his wife's misadventure's in Provence and here's hopeing they'll be many more!
Book Review: A Year in Provence
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Mayle is a great writer in his descriptions and the way he makes you a part of his life in Provence, specially if you don't understand the language or the habits of the «Natives»!
The best book I ever read!
Doris Veillette Hamel, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada
Book Review: A great escape to the south of France
Summary: 5 Stars
This book provides a vehicle to escape to the sunny south of France without leaving your house. The characters and setting are richly described, and you can almost smell the aroma of country provencal cooking (don't read the book on an empty stomach) Very humerous. A great escape!!Book Review: A solid sequel
Summary: 4 Stars
Having survived French bureaucracy, endless home improvement, goat races, hunters, Massot's dogs, summer visitors, and other hazards during A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle brings us more of the same in Toujours Provence.
This time Mayle takes a more illustrative approach. Beginning with a pharmaceuticals marketing brochure that depicts a snail whose "horns drooped" and whose "eye was lackluster," Mayle educates us about health concerns and approaches in Provence--including house calls. Anecdotes relate Mayle's love of picnicking Provence style (with chef, wait staff, and linens); his quest for singing toads, truffles, and napoléons (the coins); his pursuit of Pavarotti and pastis; and, of course, his passion for the region's fresh foods and fine vintages.
With a few exceptions, such as the history of pastis and the more sobering story of summer drought and forest fires, much of Toujours Provence will seem familiar territory to readers of the first book. For the most part, Mayle is in fine form, writing that Bennett, "looking like the reconnaissance scout from a Long Range Desert Group . . . had crossed enemy lines on the main N100 road, successfully invaded Ménerbes, and was now ready for the final push into the mountains." Some anecdotes, like "No Spitting in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape," end brilliantly, while others, such as "Napoléons at the Bottom of the Garden," fall a little flat.
Judith Clancy's delightful artwork is back, but what is missing from Toujours Provence are the quirky characters we came to love or at least wonder about. Most are mentioned or make a brief appearance, but mainly they are relegated to the background. Even Mayle's neighbor Massot (". . . it would be difficult to imagine a more untrustworthy old rogue this side of the bars of Marseille prison"), to whom half a chapter is devoted, is here more caricature than character. We know no more about him, or Faustin and Henriette or Monsieur Menicucci, than we did at the end of the first book. By now, Mayle's circle has expanded , but no one he meets, from the toad choir director to the flic, is nearly as interesting as his neighbors or his builders from the first book.
Like an adequate movie sequel, Toujours Provence carries on in the same vein as its predecessor, with a slightly different or reduced cast and a little less originality and wit. Perhaps more appropriately, I should say it's like a wine slightly past its peak--still worth drinking, but somehow not quite as enjoyable.
Book Review: Affectionate Portrait of Provence
Summary: 5 Stars
Slowly, I'm working my way through Peter Mayle's books though these books could more rightly be described as his love letters to Provence.
Toujours Provence begins where his first book A Year In Provence ended. Now a seasoned resident of this region of France, he broadens his view to give us an affectionate portrait of the French in all their regional peculiarities.
At once amusing and educational, this book gives the reader the sense of what it would be like to see France as a resident, not a tourist.
I know I've entertained daydreams of living in France of Italy, at least for a summer. Mayle's books make me want to act upon that fantasy.
This book is my perfect choice for bedtime reading. Not because it's boring and makes me sleepy. Not because it's easy to put down when sleep calls. Reading this book is a calm interlude in my busy life. Mayle has a droll humor and a flair for understatement of the incongruous situations that develop. I find myself smiling, and I can feel the stress melting away.
Toujours Provence, like its predecessor A Year In Provence, is the perfect armchair vacation.