Title: A pale comparison to its predecessors
Product review: I enjoyed Mr. Mayle's previous books on Provence. He has a wonderfully witty sense of humor, and his portrayal of human foibles is accurate and at the same time warm-hearted. However, not much of these qualities appeared in this book. He has flashes of the brilliance that appeared in the previous books, but those flashes are few and far between. Instead we get a lot of rambling thoughts and story-telling based on speculation rather than actual incidents, resulting in a watered-down version of the previous books. It appears to me that Mr. Mayle is counting his previous successes to carry him through this one. It may work this time, but I'll be a little more cautions before I jump at the next book he puts out.
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