These two Alexander McCall Smith novels were originally written as a serialized newspaper column, just like Robert Louis Stephenson used to do. I’ve really enjoyed his light touch and wonderful character development – he floats effortlessly between dozens of characters, with lots of interesting perspectives on life.
In one of Alexander McCall Smith’s short stories, I remember him talking about a poet who wrote under different pseudonyms, each with a different personality. The protagonist stated that in our day, the poet would have been psychoanalyzed as a schizophrenic and his poetry would have been sterilized into diagnostic fodder. Luckily, Smith can get away with displaying multiple personalities in such a masterful way that we can all just indulge.
February 5th, 2007 at 12:25 am
You have time to read that stuff, but not the Sig Tau emails? What are you trying to prove?
February 5th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Yes, I need to catch up. It’s intimidating though!
February 5th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
We miss you. We really do!
February 6th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I’m on it… 611 emails to read!!
February 6th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
If there is a series of Patrick, Kevin, Patrick, Kevin. You can basically skip those. Summary Patrick = Love, Kevin = hate.
Glad to hear you are done with treatments. Let me know when you are up for a short visit.
February 6th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Also feel free to skip all the ones about the Bears and the Colts. We all know how that turned out.
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
Mike, I just read Alexander McCall Smith’s “Friend’s, Lovers,Chocolate”.Another story with the curious Scottish philosopher, Isabel Dalhousie,and her journey to see if heart cells in a heart transplant friend of hers have MEMORY, like our brain cells. I thought Andrea’s blog had his works on on her blog, so I answered her e-mail she sent today,told her about this book,. and then looked at her blog, and realizing it was you with Smith’s works on your blog.–hence the review–you’ve probably read it –but just in case