Alexander McCall Smith 44 scotland street 6 Books Collection Pack Set RRP: £49.22 (Love Over Scotland, Espresso Tales, 44 Scotland Street, The Importance of Being Seven, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BERTIE, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones)

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Summer has come to Scotland Street, and the long days have prompted its denizens to engage in flights of fancy. With the domineering Irene off pursuing academic challenges, Stuart and Bertie are free to indulge in summer fun. Stuart reconnects with an old acquaintance over refreshing peppermint tea while Bertie takes his friend Ranald Braveheart Macpherson to the circus. But their trip to the big top becomes rather more than the pleasant diversion they were hoping for. Once again, Scotland Street teems with the daily triumphs and challenges of those who call it home, and provides a warm, wise, and witty chronicle of the affairs in this corner of the world. This is the 15th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus. The fifth book in the 44 Scotland Street series, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, finds Bertie still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the Cub Scouts. Matthew is rising to the challenge of married life with newfound strength and resolve, while Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual. With his customary deftness, Alexander McCall Smith once again brings us an absorbing and entertaining tale of some of Scotland’s most quirky and beloved characters—all set in the beautiful, stoic city of Edinburgh.

On the upside, Bertie has been happily free from psychoanalysis, saxophone lessons, yoga classes, Italian lessons, etc. since his mother Irene moved to Aberdeen to get a Ph.D. What kind of story would we tell in our own putative Edinburgh serial novel? Again, I fear we’d get that wrong and, seduced by tartan noir, contemplate a thriller or a crime novel, failing to realise that the serial novel can’t really handle anything with a particularly complicated or convoluted plot. McCall Smith, whose own tastes run to the shrewd, slow-building comedies of Barbara Pym, intuitively realised that something similar could easily be adopted to serial fiction. Just as Armistead Maupin centred his tales on 28 Barbary Lane, on San Francisco’s Russian Hill, so he himself could base an enjoyable Edinburgh comedy of manners around a New Town stairwell, and that if the characters were sufficiently interesting or different, we would happily follow their interactions in subsequent volumes. Perhaps Bertie, the precocious five-year-old, will have the normal boyhood life envisioned by his father, Stuart. Bertie wants to attend Watson school, where he would get a chance to play rugby. He yearns for a life of fishing and rugby instead of yoga and Italian lessons orchestrated by his pushy mother.Last week the 14th volume – a world record for a serialised novel, no less – ended its run in The Scotsman, ahead of publication this week by Polygon as The Promise of Ankles. Time perhaps for an insider’s guide to the crafting of a serial novel. On my second read of this book, I enjoyed it possibly more than the first time because I knew what to expect. This is not a novel of plot and event. It wanders from one character to the next, and lets you into their stream of consciousness in a way that might feel frustrating if you want Things to Happen. But I love this book for its close affinity with the city of Edinburgh, and the feeling it gives me of getting introduced (or, even better, re-introduced) to people who have lived in and breathed the air of the Scottish capital so that it's part of who they are. And the reader has the privilege of just going along for the ride in their everyday lives... walking with them over to their favorite coffee bar, hanging out with them during a slow period at work, having incidental conversations that stray hither and yon, and musing with them over many of life's imponderables. It's the closest substitute I can imagine for traveling to Edinburgh and actually making friends with everyday people. You wouldn't expect to solve a murder mystery or embark on a romance for the ages on a real-life normal trip, would you? But you might expect to meet someone interesting and chat with them about this and that, and maybe even meet their friends, right? And not all of them will be your cup of tea--a few of them could be annoying. But it's a whole social process of slowly expanding the network of people that have let you into their lives and thought processes. That's what this book does. No more, but no less. It's as loosely plotted as life itself, but that's why I find it in a class by itself. Welcome to 44 Scotland Street, home to some of Edinburgh's most colorful characters. There's Pat, a twenty-year-old who has recently moved into a flat with Bruce, an athletic young man with a keen awareness of his own appearance. Their neighbor, Domenica, is an eccentric and insightful widow. In the flat below are Irene and her appealing son Bertie, who is the victim of his mother’s desire for him to learn the saxophone and italian–all at the tender age of five. Ramsey Dunbarton, retired lawyer whose main claim to fame is his erstwhile performance as the Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers A collective sigh of relief must have been heard from many readers lips when she left Scotland Street.

Bruce, a strikingly handsome surveyor, is a narcissist who thinks all women should want to date him. Angus Lordie is a traditional portrait artist with an animus against The Turner Prize, which awards conceptual art - such as a video of a chair seen from different angles - rather than art objects. In fact Angus has taught his dog Cyril to lift his leg whenever he hears the words Turner Prize. So now we’re onto book 14 in a series that that has already won the hearts of readers throughout the world. In McCall Smith’s new novel, they’ll discover that seven-year-old Bertie finally gets to live in the Promised Land (Glasgow), just as his father’s budding romance is stymied by the narcissistic Bruce Anderson (not a real villain but the nearest we get to one here). But though we read on to find out what happens to the characters, the real charm of 44 Scotland Street lies in the sometimes surreal unpredictability of the other stories McCall Smith will add to the mix. The chapter headings hint at their range. ‘Rhododendrons and Missionaries’. ‘Bruchan Lom’. ‘Akratic Action’. ‘A Speluncean Entrance.’ I’ll explain one of them and you’ll see what I mean. From the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to Isabel Dalhousie, Alexander McCall Smith is famous for crafting warm and witty series beloved by fans around the world. One of his most charming series, 44 Scotland Street, tells the story of this cozy Scottish neighborhood’s residents, including the star of the show, Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. This is the 14th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus.Olive insists Bertie agreed to marry her when they're twenty (he didn't), and Olive now claims to be looking at venues, searching for a band, tasting wedding cakes, etc., much to Bertie's horror.

McCall delivers abundant wit and unexpected twists and turns as he exposes the pretenses, glamour, and self-defeating behaviors in the daily lives of the characters. This is a series so deftly crafted that the reader feels an intimate knowledge of the characters. Is romance blossoming in Big Lou’s café? The aptly named but surprisingly couth Fat Bob is a professional strongman who raises the tax-deductibility of bacon rolls for his occupation. His history prompts discussion about acts of kindness and concern for others.

Comments

I don't remember when (if ever) was the last time I read a novel published first in a newspaper. Mircea Eliade comes to mind, althout I am not sure if 1 I finished reading that particular thing I am thinking about (no idea which novel btw :D) 2 it got published in *daily* or rather *weekly* instalments... Anyways, 44 Scotland Street is published daily and I was intrigued by the concept. One might think reading this is a utterly waste of time, but I enjoy this particular reading and it goes quite smoothly, which is something I need now. Let's see for how many weeks or months, hehe. It feels at time as if watching some sitcom, so, perfect for what I had in mind.

While Bertie is precocious (a neighbor finds him reading a book on the life of Kierkegaard), he is sweet-tempered and just wants to be a normal boy. His best friend is Ranald Braveheart Macpherson. He wants to be a Boy Scout, but that group is anathema to his termagant, ultra-leftist, ultra feminist mother Irene. In past books, Irene has painted Bertie’s room pink, had him wear pink pants, attend yoga sessions, learn Italian, play the saxophone, and undergo psychotherapy for no other reason than Bertie is a normal little boy for all his intelligence. (BTW, Irene had an sexual encounter with said psychotherapist during a session at a flotation tank. This resulted in the birth o I always enjoy the books in this series, and like the fact that the novels - replete with words and phrases from the author's profession as a legal scholar - expand my vocabulary. Recommended for a bit of light reading.

I will be clear up front that this isn’t a book I would have chosen on my own, since I primarily read classics and nonfiction. That said, I do see why my friend liked it. I though it was okay, but no more than that. One should be aware of what lays ahead when getting to the books of the likes of Alexander McCall Smith. This guy is so prolific, that one might wonder when is he doing everything that he does.