- ISBN13: 9780307387066
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The latest completely charming installment in the bestselling 44 Scotland Street series.
There is never a quiet moment on 44 Scotland Street. In The World According to Bertie, Pat deals with the reappearance of Bruce, which has her heart skipping—and not in a pleasant way. Angus Lordie’s dog Cyril has been taken away by the authorities, accused of being a serial biter. Unexpectedly, Domenica has offered to help free him. As usual, Big Lou is still looking f… More >>
The World According to Bertie: A 44 Scotland Street Novel
Tags: According, authorities, bertie, biter, cyril, heart, lordie, Novel, quiet moment, remainder mark, Scotland, scotland street, Street, World
#1 by Carol Fieldhouse on April 17, 2010 - 4:09 am
After a three week visit to Africa including Botswana it is so enjoyable to read this short books. A number of people on the trip had read the entire series. We were in search of Pumpkin soup!
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Bill Jordin on April 17, 2010 - 6:15 am
The World According to Bertie (2007) is the fourth fiction novel in the 44 Scotland Street series, following Love Over Scotland. In the previous volume, Big Lou lent Eddie thirty-four thousand pounds and signed over half interest in her coffee shop. Matthew and Stuart went to Glasgow to talk to Lard O’Connor.
Angus apologized to Antonia and she told him that Domenica was coming home. Antonia also told him that she was moving across the hall to Bruce’s old flat. Bertie related his adventures in Paris and Dr. Fairbairn decided that Bertie had acquired some imaginary French friends.
In this novel, Pat Macgregor is the daughter of an Edinburgh psychiatrist. She is now attending courses in art at the University of Edinburgh. She is also living in the same house as Matthew and working parttime at his art gallery.
Matthew Duncan is a young business man. His gallery has been doing well lately as he learns the business. This probably also had to do with Pat’s knack for selling art.
Domenica MacDonald is an older anthropologist with an eventful past and a lot of friends. She has recently returned from studying pirates in the Malacca Straits.
Bertie Pollock is the son of Stuart and Irene Pollock. His father is a statistician in the Scottish Executive and his mother is a woman with very firm opinions. Irene has trouble understanding Bertie. They live on the floor below Domenica at 44 Scotland Street.
Lou Brown is the owner of The Morning After coffee shop. She has a new boyfriend who is a Jacobite. Big Lou believes that every man should have a hobby.
Angus Lordie is an Edinburgh artist. He is an older man and a friend of Domenica. Angus has a dog named Cyril, who was recently impounded on a charge of biting people.
Bruce Anderson — the narcissistic young man — is back from London. Pat sees him on Princes Street, but is not sure that the man was really Bruce.
In this story, Pat is late for work, but Matthew can’t really blame her for such a small bit of tardiness. After all, he is often late for his own appointments. Today, though, Matthew has a meeting to attend with a client. He tells Pat to close the store if he doesn’t return by quitting time.
Later, Matthew is talking to Angus and comes up with an idea for a painting. He asks Angus to sign a blank canvas. They title the blank canvas “Piece Be With You”, price it at 32000 pounds, and hang it across from Matthew’s desk.
Later, Pat sells the signed and titled — but otherwise blank — canvas to the Duke of Johannesburg. When Matthew arrives, Pat informs him of the sale They both wonder if the client is a real Duke.
Later they learn that the title was purchased by a political donation, but the politicians reneged after receiving the money. Since then, Johannesburg’s grandfather and father have been using the title. Now he is continuing the tradition.
Bertie tells his mother that there are two different worlds: the grown-up world and the world of children. He tells his mother that his teacher doesn’t know about Larch’s violent tendencies. Irene retorts the Miss Harmony knows what Larch is doing.
Bertie doesn’t like a girl in his class. Olive has drawn blood from his arm with a real syringe and then later told Bertie that he has leprosy. Then Miss Harmony finds out about the incident and pinches Olive on the ear to demonstrate how leprosy is detected. The pinch also makes Miss Harmony feel much better.
This tale relates the events around Bertie Pollock. His life continues to be disappointing, but he holds up to frustration very well. The rest of his family, however, gets quite excited on occasion.
The story will continue. The next volume is The Unbearable Lightness of Scones. Read and enjoy!
Recommended for McCall Smith fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of ordinary lives, commonplace people, and one brilliant child. For anyone who has not previously read this series, the initial volume is 44 Scotland Street.
-Bill Jordin
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by Phern Hunt on April 17, 2010 - 9:03 am
I love Alexander McCall’s writing, especially Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency with the beautiful and wonderful solver of crimes of the heart and the neighborhood, Mma Ramotswe, and Sunday Philosophy Club with Isabel Dalhousie, intellectual ethicist and nosy-body. The 44 Scotland Street series is disappointing to me in that as a multiple narrative story it has only a minor weaving together of stories, and mostly about characters who just are not interesting enough for me.
The great story is that of the forever 6-year-old Bertie, and how his psychological development is perpetually stifled by his mother, who will not allow him to ‘be a regular boy’…which is all he wants. Being a psychotherapist myself, I am fascinated by Bertie and his mother’s visits to the psychoanalyst, Dr. Fairbairn…not the original Ronald Fairbairn. The doctor does seem to discover the source of Bertie’s unhappiness, which is quite easy to do (because Bertie will tell anyone): it is his mother, no big surprise. But Fairbairn is so taken with Bertie’s mother (spends most of the sessions allowing her to complement and idealize him, as they discuss the psychoanalytic theory of Melanie Klein) that he never gets around to helping Bertie!.
I hesitate to continue reading the series because I suspect that Bertie will not be helped by any of the adults in his world, and his suffering will continue for the sake of the story. His father had a breakthrough at one point, and made some changes in Bertie’s life…painted his pink bedroom white…but by the next novel in the series it was back to pink again…so, once again, no forward movement for Bertie.
The other characters living in and around 44 Scotland Street just do not interest me…sorry to say. I was hoping that The World According to Bertie was going to be his, and only his, story…and would look forward to that in the future.
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by Carol E. Cooney on April 17, 2010 - 11:56 am
I was happy to read this fourth installment in the 44 Scotland Street books. It was back to the form of the 1st book. VERY enjoyable!
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Wallaby on April 17, 2010 - 12:58 pm
To really appreciate the many stories entertwined in this fourth installment in the 44 Scotland Street series, you must have read the first three books. It is the continuing story of about 12 characters who live in the same Edinburgh, Scotland neighborhood. You must appreciate the more subtle type of British humor, but if you do these are laugh-out-loud gems.
McCall-Smith is a master of telling ordinary stories in an extraordinary way, rich with humor and wisdom. There is the bland Matthew and his yearning for love and Angus who adores his unlovable dog. Sniping neighbors, narcissistic lovers, and always the precocious Bertie who manages to maintain his wise balance despite the most horrible mother in the world.
Rating: 5 / 5