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Title: Anything Considered : A Novel by Peter Mayle ISBN: 0-679-76268-X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (26 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Peter Mayle.....always considered!
Comment: Being a fan of Peter Mayle's Provence series I was slightly apprehensive about his diving into the work of fiction but at the same time looking forward to his offerings. And, since after reading "Hotel Pastis" I was certain that he was still the author that I had come to enjoy so very much. With the addition of "Anything Considered" his literary skills, at least for me, remain intact! Thank goodness!
This book simply catches all of the magic of his previous offerings. A mystery, love story and comedy I can think of fewer books that I enjoyed so much that I picked up a copy in hardbound to keep and read again...and again. Set, once again, in the French country-side plus Monaco our protagonist Bennett, an English expatriate,lives out his meager existence until placing an ad in the Intl. Herald Tribune where he's offered the chance to live the "high-life" by providing services to Julian Poe, who delves into the illegal truffle trade. What ensues is truly high-comdey with a sprinkling of romance and French travelogue thrown in for good measure.
Overall, the characters are well-thought out and brought fully to life...plus, who could not enjoy a novel where the author is simply having such a wonderful time as Mr. Mayle obviously is! Highly recommended this is...and is there any chance of having this made into a film or BBC series?
A generous,delicious serving of Mr. Mayle!
Rating: 5
Summary: Adventure in paradise
Comment: This is a frothy, fun, food-filled adventure suspense story set in the author's deliciously described Provence along the Mediterranean littoral. An end-of-his-wits ex-pat Britisher accepts an innocuously luxurious job helping to dodge a rich crook's taxes and then his life turns potentially ugly. Mayle never realizes the ugliness; despite the ominous events no one is actually damaged, for the tone and intent is an appetizing entertainment rather than engrossing suspense. The villains are sinister and smooth, the locals are crotchety, while the victims are an engaging couple in love and on the run...and as larcenous at heart as any of the crooks and cops. Peter Mayle has an urbane light touch, almost tongue-in-cheek, but precisely expressed in crystal-clear prose and well-turned with finely crafted sentences. The pb is pleasant to hold, with a flexible letherette feel and generous typography, a true trade pb rather than a pulp novel, although ultimately no more satisfying than a meal of meringue.
Rating: 3
Summary: Better at non-fiction, but interesting just the same
Comment: Having thoroughly enjoyed Peter Mayle's best-selling non-fictional (mostly) account of life in Rural France (A Life in Provence), I long meant to give his fiction a try. I'm not a real dog-lover, so A Dog's Life didn't intrigue me, and the jacket copy for Hotel Pastis didn't lend it to immediate reading, either. But the cover for Anything Considered, showing a cast of characters straight out of a CLUE game, and the premise--an Englishman in France, desperate for a job, places an advert in the international paper saying that he was looking for employment and "anything considered"--sounded so close to a Wodehousian experience, that I could not resist it. Even the title was similar to Wodehouse.
Unfortunately, while comic and filled with mistaken identities and misunderstood intentions, Mayle's touch with the material is quite different. I enjoyed the novel, but there's something missing to it, as if Mayle had all the ingredients at his fingertips, but didn't turn the temperature on the oven up high enough. There's no faulting his craftsmanship--the words flow smoothly enough, and nothing is so jarring as to ruin the plot--but the art seems forced, rather than organic.
Bennett is the Englishman who is desperate for anything, who finds himself hired by a fellow who simply wants him to live in the style to which Bennett has become accustomed, with the slight deviation of returning a different name than his own when asked. He goes to Monaco, using this man's credit cards, living in this man's apartment, basically enjoying the life of Riley. But there's trouble lurking, something to do with the truffle market and the Mafia. It's all grand fun, but Mayle never quite convinces the reader that his world is an innocuous one, and so the reader keeps expecting the worst to happen, rather than just another close shave.
Rereading the above, it sounds like I hated the novel, which I did not. In fact, I bought Hotel Pastis based on my impression of this book. I just had expected more from Mayle, and was letdown by my expectations, not by his actual book.
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Title: Chasing Cezanne : A Novel by Peter Mayle ISBN: 067978120X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Hotel Pastis : A Novel of Provence by Peter Mayle ISBN: 0679751114 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Acquired Tastes by Peter Mayle ISBN: 0553371835 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew by Peter Mayle ISBN: 0375705619 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: A Dog's Life by Peter Mayle ISBN: 0679762671 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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