The Istoriaphile’s Corner

Some books are like a vacation.   Open the covers, look at the first paragraph and you’re on your way to some exotic location, away from the everyday grind. You can go hunting with Hemingway, rafting with Twain or sailing with Thor Heyerdahl.  Those vacations are wonderful, but come along with me to the South of France.  You won’t have to pack a bag or learn the language but you must bring along your sense of humor.   It’s required when you check in to The Hotel Pastis by Peter Mayle Peter Mayle made enough wealth and fame in advertising to retire early to a farmhouse in France.  Then he became internationally rich and famous writing about his retired life.   The Hotel Pastis is a novel but there’s enough about advertising and the South of France there to suggest it’s a thinly disguised memoir with just enough fiction in it to keep people from suing.   Truth or libel, the book is a treat. The hero, Simon Shaw, is a man in need of an interest.  His work life doesn’t fascinate him any more: the ad agency he helped build is so successful that all he does is butter up clients, cash the…