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| A Good Year | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Mayle
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $13.94 (100%)
New (30) Used (62) Collectible (1) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 38135
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0375705627
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780375705625
ASIN: 0375705627
Publication Date: June 14, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: good condition
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| Customer Reviews:
 Cultural Feast November 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book certainly follows the pattern of A Year In Provence with an up-close and in-depth look at the rural culture of a town in Provence. The book, however, starts off in London where the life of the hero, Max, has just fallen apart. His friend, Charlie, helps him travel to the warmer, more exotic environs of southern Provence where the weather is temperate and the people somewhat strange and mysterious. He takes up residence in the house of his uncle which sits on a vineyard that produces a wine of horrific qualities. The story takes off from there into a tangled but fascinating whirlwind of romance, crime, boutique wineries, local culinary customs and some rather unique, local personalities. Mayle peppers the story with witticisms that add extra life to the story...a good read.
 Not the same story as the movie March 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Like another reviewer here, I had seen the movie first and bought the book because I wanted the fuller, more developed story line. What I found was a completely different story. Other than the same character names, location, and the fact that Max's Uncle had died leaving him the house, the story is completely different. One reviewer here loved the line "Excuse my lips, etc." - guess what - he did not read the book, he saw the movie - this line is not in the book. Please do not expect the same story in the book as the movie.
That being said, I did find the book enjoyable. It is a good read - not quite up to Peter Mayle's previous efforts but fun. Without spoiling it for you, the ending left me a little disappointed. Like so many novels today, the author does not have an ending - they just stop without resolution of the plot lines. If you like Peter Mayle's other books, you will also like this one. If you have never read any of his books, Hotel Pastis is far superior - a beginning, a strong plot line, and a good ending. A Good Year only comes close to this superior novel.
Fun, but lightweight and fluffy... February 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've never read anything by Peter Mayle, but a friend gave me A Good Year, knowing that I like to read books about other countries. I found A Good Year to be fun, but lightweight and fluffy.
Max Skinner is a Londoner who is struggling with a job in finance. After working on a project for six months (that he expects to reap big financial rewards), his supervisor steals his work and then fires him. Skinner goes home that day to find a letter from a French lawyer. An uncle who lived in Provence recently died and has left his chateau and vineyard to Skinner. With a 10,000 loan from his best friend, Skinner travels to the small town of Saint-Pons, hoping that maybe he'll be able to start a new life in France. He spent his summers visiting his uncle, so he's familiar with the area and the language. He also hopes to learn something about winemaking.
Mayle has an obvious love of France and his books are filled with the beauty of France, the small towns, the customs, the people, the food, and especially, the wine. But not everything is idyllic with Skinner and his new home. The chateau's wine tastes like vinegar and there seems to be some hanky-panky going on with his caretaker and the vines. There is also a question of whether the chateau truly belongs to him. It is just enough to keep Provence from being paradise.
Mayle piqued my interest enough to want to read A Year in Provence. Not only was it a best seller, but the television series based on the book was very popular. Mayle's recurring theme of foreigners living in France has obviously been successful for him. Now if only he would help us out with a little French vocabulary...
 A Good Year February 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought the book because I had seen the movie. Although I enjoyed the movie a lot, I found the book to be even better - much better. this is a good and easy read!
Janet Foret Lococo
A good time with this book February 3, 2008
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
Have you ever been to Provence? Non? Do you know the French? Non? If you haven't and you don't, then this short time with Max Skinner might not be as much fun as it was for me. Not only have I been to Provence, but I stayed in Montpelier for a month and made many outshoot trips to nearby locales, including Arles and Avignon and small villages like Saint-Pons, the setting for "A Good Year." I lunched and wined and dined as Max Skinner does in Peter Mayle's novel. I also know the English, as different from the French as can be. Knowing the English also helps in the pleasure of reading this novel. But if you haven't and you don't, this is still a great read because you will get to know Provence and its people and the ways of the English.
My introduction explains, I think, why I love this novel. No, this is not literature that sits on shelves with Faulkner and Austen. But it is a great, enjoyable few hours transported to a wonderfully sunny, pleasant place among people with a joie-de-vie outlook.
Max Skinner lives in England and works as an investment banker and is at odds with his boss. He wakes up one day, thinking, This will be a great day. He expects to close on a big deal. Instead, his boss asks for details of the deal, then fires Max and claims the deal. But his "great day" is yet to come. He receives notification that he has inherited his uncle's small chateau and vineyards in Provence.
Thus begins Max's year as a future winemaker. Mayle is excellent in making his characters flesh out as real people, in creating visual images of the chateau and surrounds. He has the ability to put the reader right into the story, savoring the smells of wonderful food and wines.
The real story is this pleasant, daily life in Provence. The seemingly main plot is the secret concerning a special section of vineyard and how most of the characters' lives intersect concerning this one section. The number of coincidences coming together seem impossibly large, but the reader knows this is a book of fiction and that the author has ordered such events in such a way. If the reader has immersed in this world of the French, then the coincidences will merge into the flavor of a good wine. Take it at that.
Does Mayle purport to writing great literature? Or, does he give the reader a delightful and pleasant story for a few hours? Prepare a cheese and sausage plate, open a bottle of good red wine and enjoy those with this book. It will be a good few hours.
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