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Product Description
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Our hero, glamorous art photographer Andre Kelly, is on assignment for glamorous DQ Magazine--run by the glamorous Camilla Porter--in Cape Ferrat on the (you guessed it) glamorous Côte d'Azur. Snooping around an ancestral pile for some snaps, by chance he spies Old Claude, the ancient retainer of the immensely wealthy Denoyer family, packing the family Cezanne into a plumbing van. Puzzled, Andre investigates, and the game is afoot. Peter Mayle's latest effort, Chasing Cezanne, is a whodunit that shows good manners and impeccable taste. It takes its characters--graduates of all the best schools, of course--to some of the world's most posh locales. The plot device is high rent, too: a purloined painting worth a cool $30 million. To call this book lightweight seems unfair and boorish besides. There's lots of travel, lots of opulence, lots of opportunities for Mayle to describe Paris and Provence, and all the yummies you'll find in both places. Who can worry about a mystery when the food's so delectable?
--This text refers to the
Unknown Binding
edition.
From Library Journal
Photographer Andre Kelly is on assignment in the South of France when he decides to spend his free day in Cap Ferrat visiting some former clients, the Denoyers. As he arrives, he witnesses Claude, the Denoyers' hired man, loading a precious Cezanne into the back of a beat-up plumber's van. Deciding that something is amiss, Andre photographs the event and thus becomes involved in a wild escapade to track down the painting. When he explains the situation to Lucy, his agent and soon-to-be love interest, they decide that they need some expert help and call in Cyrus, a wealthy art dealer, who smells a scam. Add in a scoundrelly art dealer and his daffy lover, an art forger, and a former French Legionnaire, and the trail to the lost Cezanne becomes a comedy of errors. Along the way, there are vibrant descriptions of Paris, Provence, Cap Ferrat, and of course mouth-watering French meals and wine. Part travelog and part art mystery caper, this new tale from Mayle, the author who put Provence on the map, is a thoroughly enjoyable romp through the international art world. Recommended for all fiction collections.
-?Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.
-?Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun novel, despite the weak ending,
By
This review is from: Chasing Cezanne: A Novel (Paperback)
Andre, a magazine photographer finds himself embroiled in an adventure that includes a forged Cézanne, an immaculately attired magazine editor, her ruthless boyfriend, a beautiful woman, a dashing art dealer, Paris and lots of good meals. The prose is warm and friendly, enveloping the reader instantly, the plot is well twisted, and the characters appealing. The book races from one funny and enjoyable event to the next. Sadly, instead of legging it past the finish line with a spectacular ending, Mayle shuffles and falls at the ending. It's almost as if he ran out of time and just ended the book. It doesn't match the pace and feel of the rest of the novel. But, regardless of the watery ending, the book is solid, meaty and well worth reading.
2.0 out of 5 stars
"Chasing A Plot" is More Like It,
By
This review is from: Chasing Cezanne: A Novel (Paperback)
As a fan of Peter Mayle, I can't tell you how let down I was by this extremely slight, jetsetting-but-going-nowhere novel. I enjoyed the lighthearted A Year in Provence and Hotel Pastis, so I wasn't expected War and Peace by a long shot. But this (perhaps mercifully) short novel does nothing to evoke the landscape, whet the reader's appetite for fine food and gracious living, or even hint at character development. Too many stock characters (the dashing photographer, the take-no-prisoners editor, the perfectly pressed art dealer, the starry-eyed first-time-in-Paris ingenue). And the quick pacing leads to a disappointing denouement, which is -- sacre bleu! -- even more lackluster than the author's description of the colorful art which is purportedly being "chased." The extra star is only for my fondness of Mayle's other books: Otherwise, I'd only give it one. Two dreary thumbs down.
4.0 out of 5 stars
As hard-boiled as a souffle de jour...,
By thecastlebookroom "thecastlebookroom" (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Chasing Cezanne: A Novel (Paperback)
An enjoyable book, despite its limitations. Its a raconteur's culinary romp only thinly disguised as a mystery, too busy having fun restaurant-hopping and people-watching to make much effort at anything deeper. The characters are likeable, if somewhat two-dimensional, the story line is plausible, the satire palpable. The book pokes fun at the effette artistic pretenses and materialistic snobbery of the rich and famous, while drooling over the culinary escapades their incomes allow. What it lacks in plot-layering and tension-building, it makes up for in the upbeat tempo of the bon vivant lifestyle. I could have done without the salacious innuendos and the veiled chauvenism, but it was mild enough, and in the end I just gave in to the gaiete de coeur.
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