The Right Attitude to Rain, Alexander McCall Smith

I have found that I really prefer to listen to Alexander McCall Smith's books rather than read them. I listened to all of the 44 Scotland Street series, though I am still patiently waiting for The Importance of Being Seven to come out as an audio book. I started the Sunday Philosophy Club (featuring Isabel Dalhousie) series a few years ago, but only read the first two. So, when I saw number 3, The Right Attitude to Rain, at the library last week, I snapped it up...and enjoyed it very much but spent much of it a bit perplexed.

I always thought of the Sunday Philosophy Club series as a mystery series--I certainly read the first two as if they were mysteries, but in the third, I kept on waiting for something mysterious to happen, and it never really did. I checked and confirmed that the book is definitely pitched as "An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries)". Be that as it may, this is just not a mystery as 99% of the world view the genre. After that, I relaxed and just enjoyed the story, which in this book focuses on Isabel's acknowledgement of her love for Jamie, her niece's ex-boyfriend and a handsome, sweet, young man 14 years her junior.

As with the Scotland Street series, I enjoyed the slice of life aspect of the story with frequent strolls around Edinburgh, plus a weekend trip to a posh country manor, numerous visits to coffee shops, and a wide range of conversations that don't necessarily go anywhere but are enjoyable nonetheless.

I also found Isabel's meandering philosophical musings to be interesting regardless of whether they were personal (e.g., the ethics of having an affair with one's niece's ex-boyfriend) or theoretical (e.g., the ethics of a lifeboat, aka is it okay to kill and eat one's companions in order to live).

In the end, there was a bit of a mystery that remained unresolved as the book ended. This involved the Americans in the book, a Dallas oilman and his young fiancee. Was she a golddigger, or was he an opportunist? Were either of them capable of the level of violence that Isabel attributed to them at various points in the book. How much of her assumptions about their guilt or innocence were wrapped up in her own conflicted feelings about couples whose ages were fairly far apart. This is not an Ian Rankin kind of mystery, but more the kind I would personally find myself involved in. This is not hanging-on-every-word kind of tension, but more comfortable-old-shoes puzzling.

Much as I enjoyed the book, I do have to make a comment on the reader, Davina Porter. I have heard her praised by other bloggers, and I thought she handled the Scottish characters beautifully. A real pleasure to listen to her Isabel, Jamie, Cat, Eddie, etc. However, her American accent was absolutely grating. Do we really sound that harsh and guttural? All of the Americans in the book were from Dallas, but Porter didn't even attempt a Texas drawl. Instead, she did a very flat, rough middle-American accent for all of the Americans that I found difficult to listen to.

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I finished disc one of the first season of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, starring Jill Scott as the luminous Precious Ramotswe. and I am simply blown away by how good it is and how faithful it is to the books, so far anyway. Recently I have been let down hugely (by the egregious adaptation of The Woman in White that I tried watching and gave up on in disgust) and mildly (with Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), so this HBO series has restored my faith in adaptations.

It's been a long time since I read the first novels in the series, but it was such a treat to remember the various plot threads as they unfolded, and the characters, from Mma Ramotswe herself to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni to Mma Makutsi (madame secretary, that is) and the other colorful friends in Gabarone, are all perfectly aligned with the images Alexander McCall Smith painted for me in his wonderful books.

I especially love the scenes and sounds of Botswana, a country and region of the world I know shamefully little about but which is growing in my affection quickly.

I love the warmth, vibrancy, and sweet compassion that characterizes the series, and am looking forward to watching the rest of the episodes in season 1 and then moving on to the rest of the series over the winter. What a wonderful way to get through the coldest part of the year…with a little sunshine from Botswana and Mma Ramotswe.

Espresso Tales

I really enjoyed listening to Espresso Tales, second in the 44 Scotland Street series, by Alexander McCall Smith.

Particularly entertaining are Bertie's adventures as he struggles to pursue his own interests in the face of his ghastly mother Irene. I loved the bit when he and his father, Stuart, take the train to Glasgow to retrieve their car, which his father had forgotten on a business trip, and they encounter Lard O'Connor, who seems to be a sort of Scottish mafia kingpin. I love the honest innocence with which Bertie encounters the world and makes a friend of virtually everyone he encounters. I absolutely loved the encounter between Cyril, Angus Lordie's dog, and Irene, and, of course, Tofu's birthday bowling party that Bertie attends. Finally, the bits where he talks Scots is priceless--sweet and so funny and so Bertie!

I also really liked reading about Bruce's new business venture in the wine trade--he is truly a fascinating character, and heaven preserve me from too many encounters with his type in real life.

The only bits that I dreaded were when Ramsey Dunbarton read from his mind-numbingly boring memoirs. I realize that the joke is that the memoirs are so boring that they put his wife to sleep. However, I listened to the audio version and so couldn't easily just skim these parts as I most assuredly would have done if I had been reading the book.

I took a short audio break after finishing this book to listen to Jonathan Gash's The Grail Tree, which is a Lovejoy antiques dealer mystery, but now I'm back on Scotland Street with Love Over Scotland. These books are definitely addictive, and I like listening to Robert Ian Mackenzie read them--he does a good job of providing a distinctive sound for each major character and while the pacing is a bit slow, it works for this series.

44 Scotland Street

I have a new obsession--the lives of the people who live at 44 Scotland Street, Edinburgh as related by Alexander McCall Smith. What's even more delightful than reading/listening to these slices of everyday life about the people living in an apartment building is knowing that the series has 5 books in it, so having just finished the first, 44 Scotland Street, I get to launch directly into the second, Espresso Tales.

McCall Smith has done a wonderful job of capturing the flavor of his beloved city through an ensemble of characters, from the naive 20-year old Pat who has a heart of gold and practical streak that makes for a charming mix, to her boss, Matthew, who is a hopeless trust fund baby who couldn't find his way out of a paper bag, to her flatmate Bruce, who is such a complete narcissistic jerk that you can't help but want him to fall flat on his face, to the sweet sad story of Bertie, an intelligent 6-year old boy with an absolutely vile mother, Irene. There are a host of other characters as well--some funny, some witty, some interesting, some sad, and some real. With their permission, McCall Smith includes fellow writer Ian Rankin into the stories, as well as a few politicians and other notables.

My only regret is that I didn't read this series before my trip to Edinburgh last summer. How I would have loved to do the 44 Scotland Street walking tour, which would have taken me to the Cumberland Bar, Valvona & Crolla deli, Jenners for shopping and tea, as well as numerous other real locations that McCall Smith has his characters visit regularly. After I looked at Scotland Street on Google Earth, I looked around the Internet a bit more and discovered this pdf of the guide In the Footsteps of 44 Scotland Street, which was produced by The Scotsman, the paper that published the stories serially before they were collected and published in book form.

Oh well, I'll just have to go back to Edinburgh so that I can do the tour!