Watchers by the Pool: Nine Lives in Provence

Although Reinhold seems a sincere sort, it is nevertheless tempting to describe her recollections of her house full of cats as a scoop of Cleveland Amory, a handful of Peter Mayle, a pinch of Peter Gethers's The Cat Who Went to Paris and a soupcon of Richard Goodman's French Dirt . Reinhold's past is vague: An English woman of undefined medical training, she left her home in Hampshire, England to ``make a new start'' in Provence for reasons most likely tied to an early ``we'' that subsequently becomes an ``I.'' She takes along her two English cats but soon her stone farmhouse (the Mas des Chats ) includes one dog, 10 full-time cats and several part-time animals. The situation is brought about, it seems, because the average sunny Provencal has a decidedly laissez-faire attitude towards both the breeding and feeding of pets. A lively, distinctive lot, the cats dominate Reinhold, her house and her book--even providing most of the dialogue, which may be a bit much for all but the most fanatical cat fancier. Reinhold's eye and serviceable prose do justice to the light and landscape of southern France, and if she skimps on descriptions of Provencal cuisine (feline foodstuffs, however, are elucidated), there is also mercifully little about her quaint stone farmhouse. (Sept.)