Peter Mayle's work has been translated into twenty two languages. His books include A Year in Provence, Toujours Provence, Anything Considered and Chasing Cezanne, available from Penguin. He died in 2018.
Following the astonishing success of A Year in Provence ( LJ 4/1/90) and Toujours Provence ( LJ 5/1/91), Mayle is now probably the most hated man in Provence. Expatriates living in the region despise him because of the hordes of tourists his books have attracted, and the French loathe his patronizing attitude toward those wily and colorful Provencal peasants. This first novel will certainly not win Mayle any new friends. On holiday in the Luberon, burned-out advertising executive Simon Shaw meets the very attractive Nicole Bouvier, who soon convinces him to buy the local gendarmerie with its spectacular views and turn it into a hotel. But complications soon arise: a bank robbery in the neighboring town; an ex-wife demanding more alimony; a kidnapped heir to Texas millions. Mayle writes well, but his novel is all surface and no substance, with cardboard characters and a contrived plot. After a while, the charm wears thin. Still, libraries should expect demand. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/93.-- Wilda Williams, ``Library Journal''
As fans of A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence may have suspected, Mayle's skills as a writer translate well into fiction. His first novel is as adroit, funny and charming as his previous works, and again it is set in his favorite region of France. Newly divorced, disenchanted and bored with his job as a director of a prestigious British ad agency, Simon Shaw is delighted when beautiful Frenchwoman Nicole Bouvier suggests that he rescue from bankruptcy a half-finished hotel in the drolly named town of Brassiere-les-Deux-Eglises. Taking a huge risk, Simon resigns from his agency and becomes patron of the new establishment in the picturesque Luberon region. In counterpoint, Mayle crosscuts to the escapades of a lovable band of criminals who are conspiring to break into the vault of a bank in the neighboring village of Isle-sur-Sorges. As the threads of the plot begin to converge, Mayle displays his satiric eye for social foibles by skewering advertising execs in England and the U.S.; he is equally adept at evoking typical Provencal villagers. Wickedly sharp and sympathetic at the same time, his characterizations are accurate down to nuances of class differences, voice, accent and vocabulary. The novel is as smooth as a sip of pastis, and one hopes that Mayle will find his segue into fiction equally addictive. 100,000 first printing. (Oct.)
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