A Good Year (Mayle, Peter)

Descending upon the tiny village of Saint Pons for the summer are: Max Skinner, our hero who has been tossed out of his financial job in London, but immediately inherits a house with vineyard, Le Griffon, in Provence; Christie, a Californian cousin with a possible claim to the beautiful property; and Charlie, brother-in-law and money lender to Max. They join the locals: Monsieur Rousseau, caretaker to the vineyard; Fanny, a temptingly beautiful restaurant owner; Nathalie Auzet, the fashionable local notary; and Madame Passepartout, the matronly housekeeper and village gossip.

The storyline bounces from meal to meal, as nothing happens unless accompanied by sausages, paté, tarte aux pommes, pastis, marc and plenty of red wine. Meals at the village café, at the restaurant, at Le Griffon, and most magnificently at the Rousseau home are described in succulent detail. Evidently, someone is getting wealthy from mysteriously grown grapevines at the far, dusty edge of the property, and therein lies the plot. An ex-advertising executive, Mayle pokes good fun at the culture of wine marketing.

Further coloring the screenplay are the budding romances and the ultimate question of will Max make Le Griffon his home and livelihood. Hardly suspenseful, but what summer vacation is?

Max Skinner has had enough of the rat race in London and quits his job in the financial world. Conveniently enough, his uncle has passed away and left him a small vineyard in the south of France. Max heads south to check it out, and finds a small chateau with a small vinyard that makes terrible wine. Or does it? A second heir suddenly arrives, and the plot thickens when it is discovered that a second wine is made from a small patch at the vineyard. The story is hardly a thriller, it simply meanders along lazily, much the same as the days and the lives that Mayle describes.

I have no complaints about this book. I enjoyed it, and didnt take long to finish. This certainly isnt a dissertation on lifes meaning, and everything in the book falls together just a little too conveniently, but Mayles manner of writing about Provence conveys just the right tone; the kind of laid-back life in paradise that makes the region such a popular destination. Its not a thrill-a-minute, but it is a good, relaxing read.