Status
Checked out
Due 25 Apr 2023
Genres
Description
Bennett is an English expatriate living in France with a champagne taste and a beer bankroll. Happy-go-lucky and a bit roguish, he places an ad in the International Herald Tribune offering his services -- any services. He pursues a response from a wealthy Englishman named Julian Poe who has developed a means of producing truffles and is close to cornering the immensely lucrative truffle market. Bennett signs on and finds himself in Monaco, where he is able to live in a style to which he has always wished to become accustomed (including eating to his heart's content -- a Mayle trademark ). Soon the Sicilian and Corsican Mafiosi intrude and Bennett is joined by the beautiful and experienced (in all ways) Anna. Ham-fisted goons, gendarmes working at cross purposes, French village busybodies, and an order of monks dedicated to the god Bacchus all play a role in the surprising, and more than a little satisfying, denouement.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member justine
More Provence-based fiction from Peter Mayle this time a truffle caper.
LibraryThing member RABooktalker
Set in France (of course, since it’s written by Peter Mayle) this light read is fun and enjoyable with just the right mix of thrills and romance. When things begin to look bleak for expatriate Bennett, he places an ad in The International Herald Tribune which states “anything considered except
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marriage.” It just gets better from there… Show Less
LibraryThing member nina7
I read this book and it is really histerical. It also entails the life of a person who is oblivious on what to do with thier life so would result in doing anything except getting married. Action and adventure is accompanied along with the story.
LibraryThing member lucybrown
Effervescent fun. Here in NC we have summer storms and rain, so it was nice to embark on a caper in with a book set in the sunny south of France with Luciano Bennett. Bennett, an Englishman with a taste for the good life and a dwindling bank account, finds what seems to be the dream job that will
As usual, Mayle's descriptions of people, landscapes, clothing, furnishings, food, wine and, of course, pretty girls is perfect. The humor is crisp, the mood buoyant, despite dicey moments. Some might find Bennett's ogling of the ladies, and the ensuing descriptions a tad sexist or even louche; however, Mayle balances this out by ensuring that Bennett gets his comeuppance and saddles him with girls who are more mind and mettle than make-up.
Can't say to much more than that without giving too much away.
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more than tide him over until his ship comes in (his yacht for hire has gone missing with his business partner at the helm). However before he can say truffles and foie gras, he is embroiled in the escapade of a lifetime, one with all the amenities- mobster, both Italian & Corsican, a murderous Karate expert, a variety of policeman, a collection of questionable monks, a Yorkie on an 18th century plate (you'll just have to read it) and a very pretty girl. As usual, Mayle's descriptions of people, landscapes, clothing, furnishings, food, wine and, of course, pretty girls is perfect. The humor is crisp, the mood buoyant, despite dicey moments. Some might find Bennett's ogling of the ladies, and the ensuing descriptions a tad sexist or even louche; however, Mayle balances this out by ensuring that Bennett gets his comeuppance and saddles him with girls who are more mind and mettle than make-up.
Can't say to much more than that without giving too much away.
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LibraryThing member engelcox
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
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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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 P.G. 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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