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Loading... Chasing Cézanne (1997)by Peter Mayle
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) SandyAMcPherson | Jun 21, 2017 |  Our hero, Andre Kelly, is a photographer and he happens to witness a Cézanne being packed into the back of a plumber’s truck. Camera at the ready, he has pictures to prove what he has seen and immediately becomes involved in an international art scam. I don’t know who can create the look, the smell and the flavour of France like Mayle. His description of the place is wonderful. “He arrived in Saint-Paul in time to see, emerging from the café, the village police force, a corpulent gendarme with the reputation of giving the fastest parking tickets in France. The gendarme paused in the café doorway, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he surveyed the little place, an eye out for the first offender of the day. He looked on as Andre backed into one of the very few permitted parking places... “You have one hour. After that”—he tapped his watch—“contravention.” He adjusted his sunglasses and moved off, alert for any hint of wrongdoing, pleased with this first small triumph of the morning. How he looked forward to July and August! They were his favorite months, when he could stand grim-faced at the entrance to the village, turning away a continuous procession of cars. On a good day, he could infuriate several hundred motorists. It was one of the perks of the job.” Mayle’s description is perfection. (  ) mysterymax | Sep 11, 2016 | This is a fun romp of a crime caper, featuring the rich and famous, a couple of big-time art thieves, a curious (but legitimate) art dealer, and an art forger who is ready to make a change. Of course, there’s also a lovely young lady to brighten the landscape. And who could argue against the delights and magic of Paris and Provence, the exuberance of young love, and the many wonderful meals? The whole thing is ridiculous, but charming, in the way some of the Cary Grant movies of the 1940s and 1950s were. A light and breezy, nice and easy summer beach read. (  ) BookConcierge | Aug 22, 2016 | ) dbsovereign | Jan 26, 2016 | I wouldn't classify this book as a thriller. It's mostly Andre travelling around wondering about this painting. there is a little bit of action thrown in hapazardly at the end of the book. The book also just randomly decides to end. I didn't care at all about Andre, his friends or the blasted painting. (  ) RachelNF | Jan 15, 2016 | no reviews | add a review
Hanky-panky on the international art scene is the source of the hilarity and fizz in Peter Mayle's new novel. He flies us back to the south of France (a region some readers of his irresistible best-sellers believe him to have invented), on a wild chase through galleries, homes of prominent collectors, and wickedly delectable restaurants. There are stopovers in the Bahamas and England, and in New York, where that glossiest of magazines, Decorating Quarterly, reflects the cutting-edge trendiness of its editor, Camilla Jameson Porter. (Camilla has recently broken new ground in the world of power lunches by booking two tables on the same day, and shuttling between them, at the city's trendiest restaurant.) It is Camilla who has sent our hero, Andre Kelly, to Cap Ferrat to take glamorous photo-graphs of the houses and treasures of the rich, famous, and fatuous. He happens to have his camera at the ready when he spots a Cézanne being loaded onto a plumber's truck near the home of an absent collector. Odd, thinks Andre. And in no time he's on the trail of a state-of-the-art art scam, chasing Cézanne. It's a joy to follow him and the crowds intent on speeding or foiling his quest--including a beautiful agent; a super-savvy art dealer attracted to the finer things in life, especially if they promise the payoff of a lifetime; an awesome Dutch forger; some outstandingly greedy New York sophisticates; and, invisible in the background, the parade of remarkable chefs whose mouthwatering culinary masterpieces periodically soothe the hero and tantalize the reader of Chasing Cézanne. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.32)
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