DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706190562

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

``CHASING'' IN PURSUIT OF GOOD ESCAPISM

CHASING CEZANNE

PETER MAYLE

Alfred A. Knopf. 295 pp. $23.

Andre Kelly is instantly likable, a free-lance photographer with an appointment at a ritzy New York office building who finds himself at the mercy of an ornamental but unaccommodating receptionist.

Who hasn't wanted to say exactly what he says to her? ``Were you always this unpleasant, or did you have to take classes?''

Kelly is the main character in Peter Mayle's humorous novel, Chasing Cezanne, which takes readers back to his beloved French countryside. Mayle, who divides his time between Long Island, N.Y., and the south of France, is the author of the best sellers A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence and the novels Hotel Pastis, A Dog's Life and Anything Considered.

Kelly has the kind of deep, green eyes that get him in trouble - or would, if he were ever in town long enough between assignments.

Almost immediately, Kelly's New York appointment sends him jetting to France for DQ magazine, formerly Decorating Quarterly - now reborn as a glossy publication filled with fawning articles and ruled by the credo of ``Never, ever, a nasty word about anyone.''

He takes his orders from Camilla Jameson Porter, DQ magazine's editor and originator of the true power lunch - booking two tables at a trendy New York restaurant and then shuttling between the two lunch dates to reap twice the business benefits in the same time span.

He liked working for Camilla, but found her requests rather unusual - all those closeups of paintings that never ended up getting published with the piece.

It didn't make sense, or did it?

When Kelly happened to be in the right place at the right time to see Paul Cezanne's ``Woman With Melons'' being loaded into a plumber's truck outside the home of a vacationing art collector, with the handyman overseeing nearby, he sensed something amiss. That's when he started ``chasing Cezanne.''

``Acting on photographer's instinct as much as considered thought, Andre took several shots of Claude (the handyman) on the doorstep before his body was hidden from view by a small van that pulled around from the side of the house and stopped in front of him. . . Was the painting being sent away for cleaning? Reframing? If so, why was it leaving the house in the back of a plumber's van?'' writes Mayle.

What ensues is a fast-paced tale of intrigue and mystery that spans two continents and a tropical island or two. It's a glimpse into the international art world through a parade of eccentric characters, including a talented Dutch forger, a respected art dealer and a few people motivated purely by greed. One of the more unsavory characters Kelly encounters, Rudolph Holtz, warrants the caution: If you shake hands with the man, count your fingers afterward.

Early on, it is clear that Holtz and Camilla are drawn to one another. And their alliance forms the basis for much of the book.

``Beneath the banalities of polite conversation ran an undercurrent, the first signs of a meeting of minds and ambitions. Dinners had followed, the verbal fencing had given way to something approaching honesty, and by the time Camilla had taken to sharing Holtz's four-poster bed, surrounded by the splendors of Holtz's Park Avenue apartment, it was clear to both of them that they were made for each other, soul mates in greed,'' Mayle writes.

Kelly forms a liaison of his own when he elevates his friend and co-worker, Lucy, to girlfriend status and brings her in on the adventure. If only her character were more fully developed. She is fun-loving, but flat and simplistic.

Their first stop: Paris in springtime. Here, the streets are alive with illusion. There's that pesky hired assassin, the well-read one with Soldier of Fortune magazine spread out before him. He's admiring the latest Glock advertisement despite the fact that he doesn't speak English.

Chasing Cezanne has perfect pacing. But the climax of the book turns into a melange of bungled accidents and botched bombings that become slapstick - too silly to be believable.

Nevertheless, Chasing Cezanne is an easy place to spend time. It's a light-hearted read about friendship and greed, about wealth and happiness. Good escapism, a worthy vacation pick. MEMO: June Arney is a staff writer.

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