AMS is a soul author for me. He is someone I trust. I feel I know him. I am safe with him. It doesn't matter what is going on, I know he won't let me down. I could say this about any book he writes, sight unseen.

Domenica thought: I really would like things to be forever. I would like for us to be able to sit at this table once a week, perhaps, with these friends. I would like to talk about the things we talk about, the small things, whatever happened in the world. I would like to wake up in the morning and not think that things were getting worse. (31) Despite the fact that little happens in the way of plot, this book made me laugh out loud many times, boil with fury and frustration.and also shed many tears both happy and sad. My only explanation is that Alexander McCall Smith is probably the worlds greatest writer right now. Bruce, Antonia, and Sister Maria...finding their hopes, dreams intersecting in a profound and life changing way. A stage adaptation, entitled The World According to Bertie, was performed at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [5] Television series [ edit ] I found that the book worked best as a bedside book. It isn’t so engrossing that you don’t want to put it down when it’s time to turn out the light. You never have to spend more than a few minutes to get to a convenient stopping point, and never have to stop reading in the middle of a chapter or scene. It isn’t as soporific as, say, Aquinas or Kant, but it is relaxing, intellectually undemanding, and generally restful.

The 44 Scotland Street serial novel follows the lives, affections, shortfalls and laments of a group of residents of 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building on a real street in Edinburgh. With its numerous occupancy flats, 44 Scotland Street is a corner of Edinburgh’s New Town that arouses lots of interest – a mix of Bohemians, aging haute bourgeoisie, students, and vibrant members of the intelligentsia. Olive and Pansy indulge in cancel culture but are unable to get Tofu to react as intended; Irene coins the term “toxic caninity” with reference to the gold-toothed Cyril; Sister Maria-Fiore reveals a past in the Vatican’s Intelligence Service and puts it to good use in discovering the truth about Fat Bob. As for Bruce, I am left wondering how long this new persona will last. Not to be too much of a pessimist, and I do believe people can change, but … really??

The gallery is broken into and Matthew decides to ask Pat to keep the painting at her flat until they are sure it is a genuine Peploe. Matthew is clearly attracted to Pat and would like to date her, but Pat does not reciprocate his feelings and does not want to get involved with her boss. Bruce, a strikingly handsome surveyor, is a narcissist who thinks all women should want to date him. That pretty much sums it up, I think. The audio version is performed by a man (can't recall his name, sorry) who does an ok job. I don't like the way he performs most of the women. And I read mostly by listening, so this is a small issue for me. However, will I stop listening? Nope. Just putting it out there in case it might matter to you. 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. There, under the table, with its distinct sub-tabular smells, Cyril’s self-restraint was frequently tested almost to breaking point as he contemplated the ankles that he might so easily and deliciously nip. He did not bite; lesser dogs did that…”It’s the most anticipated event of the decade—Big Lou and Fat Bob’s wedding—and everyone is invited! But the relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Domineering Irene is set to return for a two-month stay, consigning young Bertie to a summer camp. Not content with that, she somehow manages to come between the enigmatic nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, and her friend, the hagiographer, Antonia Collie. Every autumn, I look forward to the latest installment of 44 Scotland St. Reading each book is like sitting down with old friends to discuss what’s been going on in their lives and their spheres of influence. This latest installment was a delight. As always, Alexander McCall Smith has incorporated some tension into several of the plot lines within this book with resolutions that involve, as his plots usually do, characters who choose to act with kindness, humility, and concern for others. Even Bruce and Irene.

This series is perfection in my opinion. I love everything about it. There little point in giving a plot synopsis because I’m not sure there is a plot, nothing in particular happens. The pacing is set by character development and conversations and the passage of time in these novels is arbitrary. It seems to occur at a different pace for some than others. Bertie for example has aged maybe one year in 14 books while others have married and now have toddlers. There is astute social observances and deep philosophical musings on a range of topics from the mundane to the deep. It’s quotidian in the best way. Gilles Deleuze, when younger and before he was plunged into the terminal nightmare of COPD, juxtaposed the traditional with the zanily postmodernist very handily indeed, though his road was Woke. Pat is accepted as a tenant at 44 Scotland Street, where she meets her fellow residents: Bruce, a narcissistic surveyor with whom she somewhat reluctantly falls in love; Domenica MacDonald, an opinionated but fascinating middle-aged widow who is an anthropologist; and Angus, a portrait painter and owner of Cyril, the dog with a fetish for ankles.When Irene turns up at the Scotland Street flat without advance notice, readers will be cheering Nicola on as she handles the unwelcome arrival, but that doesn’t go quite how either woman expects; Bertie is booked into summer-camp, and hopes he will be allowed a penknife; Elspeth lies to Matthew, and they both spend quite some time agonising over it. The new tenants turn out to be five university students, and everyone knows students can be bad news with their parties and such. Nevertheless, Domenica is impressed when she meets the 'leader' of the group, an affable, well-built young man named Torquil, who has a strikingly handsome face with dimples. As always, characters reflect on, or expostulate on a variety of subjects, exposing the reader to small doses of gentle philosophy in the process. Childhood games, customer service, the comfort of continuity, envy, sonnets, Neanderthals, historical guilt, vanilla poetry, prayers and barking, bagpipes and belonging, oppression, justice and the blessing of benign government, the loss of the Gaelic language,and categories of rows in a shared flat: all these feature. And of course, McCall Smith can’t resist a dig at the Turner Prize. There is some humor, but it’s a muted humor. It’s not the wit of Austen, nor the hilarity of Wodehouse, nor the wry English humor of John Mortimer. It’s humor strained through a screen of cheesecloth.

I love this kind of ensemble piece. The chapters are short and change focus among the residents of the building at 44 Scotland Street. Not much happens, and everything happens: love found, lost and found again, awkward encounters, a hidden masterpiece, a secret tunnel, dinner with the boss (and boss’s wife and daughter), rebellion, great neighbors (and bad ones), a precocious child, a new job and therapy sessions. Through it all the reader is treated to the author’s witty observations on this microcosm of Edinburgh society. We meet two new characters in this book - two professional men patronizing Big Lou's Coffee Shop - who happen to be the director and secretary of the Scottish nudist society. There's a rivalry between Edinburgh nudists and Glasgow nudists, and this vignette is hilarious. 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. Their chance day-to-day criss-crossings, quirky foibles and comic adventures are all observed by Number 44's longest-term resident, anthropologist Domenica MacDonald, her painter friend Angus Lordie - and Angus' dog, Cyril, the only canine in Scotland with a gold tooth.

Publication Order of 44 Scotland Street Books

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. There are very short chapters, and at first I could tell this was written in serial form and I didn’t like it that much, but I got used to it, and even started appreciating the jumping around between characters. Five-year-old Bertie is a Grade 6 on the saxophone and speaks fluent Italian as a result of his pushy mother, Irene. Bertie gets into trouble and is expelled from East New Town Nursery. His mother forces him into psychotherapy, and his dreams of being a normal five-year-old continue to be thwarted. 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.