I actually found this book left on a train that I was travelling on and having heard of if not actually read “Round Ireland with a Fridge” I picked up fully expecting to find him pushing a piano up and down the mountains between France and Spain. What I got was something very different.

When a skiing trip goes wrong and spurred on by the knowledge that one of his friends already owns a house in the country, Hawks impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Soon enough, he has to set about moving himself and his piano to the continent.

The problem is that the idea behind the book is pretty mundane, something any one of us could probably do, finances and desire permitting. This meant that I couldn't entirely trust what I was being told, that he hadn't felt the need to add his own comic twist and exaggerate. Whilst I enjoyed parts of this book, his attempts to move the piano to France in a van immediately springs to mind, at the same time it felt forced or more accurately part of a stand up routine. I found it refreshing that he tried to integrate himself into the native community with all its cultural mix-ups rather than simply mix with fellow ex-pats.

I enjoyed Hawks writing and I read large parts of it with a smile on my face but ultimately I only found this an OK read. ( )

I was a couple of pages in when I began to suspect that "A piano in the Pyrenees" was the result of that unfortunate situation whereby someone gets a commission to write about something they plan to do, and the situation turns out to be not very interesting.

"A piano in the Pyrnees" is a prime example of someone famous enough to gain a book contract for what on paper sounds like it would make an amusing book. Sadly, Hawks is unable to produce a good final product for us. A lot of the problem is that what happens isn't particularly interesting (man buys house in a small village in a foreign country, moves there and meets the locals). Hawks tries hard to extract some laughs from events, with some success, but the going gets tedious as Hawks attempts to claim yet again that a not-very interesting moment has led to the locals thinking him strange. ( )

Ein wirklich amüsantes Buch, in dem man immer ein Quäntchen Wahrheit über die Franzosen findet. Ich musste beim Lesen wirklich häufig schmunzeln. Ein lesenswertes Buch, wenn man mit etwas überspitzten Klischees der verschiedenen Nationalitäten umgehen kann. Ein Lesegenuss - Spaß garantiert!
Einziger Wermutstropfen: Das erste Buch von Tony Hawks (Mit dem Kühlschrank durch Irland) sorgte bei mir für noch wesentlich mehr gute Laune! ( )

Let me just point out that this Tony Hawks is NOT the skateboarder. ;-)

I've enjoyed each of Hawks' books, and this one was no exception. More amusing than laugh out loud funny, the book paints a funny picture of French life and his own lunge into middle age. I'd say there is more of a "point" to this book than the others, and that allows him to reveal a different side of himself and his writing ability. There are some sage observations about life amidst all the humor. ( )

Brilliant book. Loved it. ( )