Mayle’s ‘Good Year’ predictable, enjoyable
If you thought Peter Mayle had mined Provence for all it’s worth, think again. His latest offering is loosely rooted (you’ll pardon the pun) in viticulture, and delivered not in the first-person narrative that launched his literary career (“A Year in Provence”), but as a novel.
That said, “A Good Year,” like Mayle’s previous four novels, is to serious fiction what Asti Spumante is to Champagne — predictable, obvious, plebeian, but bubbly, light and good-natured nonetheless.
On the very day Max Skinner quits his finance job, after learning his supervisor is taking over an account that was on the brink of yielding him a huge bonus, he returns to his London flat to find a solicitor’s letter informing him he’s sole heir to his recently deceased Uncle Henry’s furnished chateau — complete with 20 hectares (50 acres) of vineyards — in the south of France.
Happy coincidences continue. Charlie Willis, Max’s ex-brother-in-law and closest friend, invites him to dinner to celebrate Charlie’s promotion to partner in his real estate firm. Max brings along the letter, figuring to tap Charlie’s professional expertise on selling the property to pay off his debts. But Charlie knows a little something about winemaking (he’s enrolled in a wine-tasting course), and he urges Max to go visit the place.
No money, says Max. Here’s a 10,000-pound loan, says Charlie, and Max is off to Provence whistling “La Marseillaise.”
Max is delighted to discover the weather, landscape and food haven’t changed from his memories of boyhood summers spent with his uncle. And if the house is a bit frayed from neglect, it has potential.
Which is more than can be said of the wine. One sip from the stock laid in the basement convinces Max the land is producing the vineyard equivalent of Janitor in a Drum.
Meanwhile, Christie, the daughter his uncle never knew he’d fathered, shows up from California to meet the dad she’s only just learned about. Too late for that, of course, but her arrival confirms that Max is not the sole heir.
In fact, Christie has little interest in the place, though she does share Max’s curiosity about a smaller plot of apparently well-cared-for vines growing apart from the main vineyard. Roussel, the caretaker, is furtively dismissive when they start asking questions, and the gorgeous young lawyer handling the estate promises she’ll find an oenology expert to assess the vines. But it’s clear Roussel and the solicitor harbor some critical information about the vineyard.
While “A Good Year” is neither a complicated mystery nor above-average romance, Mayle amply demonstrates that even “vin ordinaire” can have its good years. His descriptions of food and country ambience in the shadow of the Luberon mountains live up to his reputation, and his snappy dialogue and trademark wit (bordering on farce when Charlie arrives for a visit) suggest an engaging movie could be made from this book.
Make that will be made. Hollywood’s Ridley Scott had agreed to direct the romantic comedy well before the book reached the shelves.
Snagging Hugh Grant to play Max would ensure a box-office hit.