44 Scotland Street

Reading this book was like drinking a cup of hot cocoa in a cozy warm kitchen while the rain pitter patters outside. Sigh. I drank up the sequal (which wasn't quite as lovely) and I check daily for the 3rd in the series - the triquel?? Daily? Yes, daily. I have a neat little research room in the university library due to an office shortage in the department in which I'm studying, so each day on my way to the stairwell I swing by the 2 rows of English fiction. I could easily put a hold on it, but I rather find it just when I need it.

McCall Smith wrote this novel in installments for the newspaper (so I think this is why it moves along a little faster with a bit more oooomph than the Ladies Detective Series) - and believe it or not, some of the characters are real people as themselves, or under different names, in the city of Edinburgh. In his own words -

"What I have tried to do in 44 Scotland Street is to say something about life in Edinburgh which will strike readers as being recognizable about this extraordinary city and yet at the same time be a bit of light-hearted fiction. I think that one can write about amusing subjects and still remain within the realm of serious fiction. It is observing the minor ways of people that one can still see very clearly the moral dilemmas of our time. One task of fiction is to remind us of the virtues- of love and forgiveness, for example - and these can be portrayed just as well in an ongoing story of everyday life as they can on a more ambitious and more leisurely canvas."
Well put. These days I'm surrounded by quite a bit of posturing under the guise of knowledge sharing, although, I can't say I wasn't forewarned about this, so it's lovely to consider the worth of the simple things we enjoy, that they are not insignificant in the greater scheme of things.