- ISBN13: 9780307275981
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The third installment in Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved 44 Scotland Street series is sure to delight his many fans.
This just in from Edinburgh: the complicated lives of the denizens of 44 Scotland Street are becoming no simpler. Domenica Macdonald has left for the Malacca Straits to conduct a perilous anthropological study of pirate households. Angus Lordie’s dog, Cyril, has been stolen, and is facing an uncertain future wandering the streets. Bertie… More >>
Love Over Scotland: A 44 Scotland Street Novel
Tags: alexander mccall smith, anthropological study, bertie, cyril, denizens, domenica, Love, malacca straits, Novel, Over, remainder mark, Scotland, scotland street, Street, uncertain future
#1 by Nancy H. Carter on April 17, 2010 - 4:35 am
This is a wonderful book full of tales of love shown from the point of view of an entire society, limited to Glasgow, Scotland. The characters are varied, interesting and endearing as they stumble through life. The writing is simple yet profound.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Audra Jane on April 17, 2010 - 7:03 am
This was by far my favorite of the Scotland Street series. The stories were witty, entertaining and just plain enjoyable to read. While I still cannot help but feel sorry for Bertie I was happy to see him enjoy some part of his childhood with his excursion to Paris, sans Irene, his overbearing mother. I loved the direction Matthew and Pat were headed and that Big Lou will still be around to serve up more coffee and advise. Domenica had a rather interesting anthropological study on her hands in the Malacca Straights and Angus, in her absence, had an unfortunate incident occur when Cyril, his beloved dog, was snatched.
All this and more in the ever entertaining world of those who reside on Scotland Street. A definite read for McCall Smith fans.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Bookreporter.com on April 17, 2010 - 7:25 am
When you step into the pages of a 44 Scotland Street novel, you enter Edinburgh as prolific novelist Alexander McCall Smith’s own private guest. McCall Smith’s intimate love affair with his adopted city peeps through the windows of this fictional townhouse condominium like a cool Scottish sun on a rare cloudless day.
LOVE OVER SCOTLAND is the third in the saga of the residents of 44 Scotland Street, and it finds several of its inhabitants from the first two novels in new digs but maintaining firm ties to the relationships they first nurtured behind those doors.
Still in residence is the six-year-old child prodigy Bertie, whose saxophone jazz riffs waft up the stairwells and through the heating vents to the other residents. His absent-minded father — having lost, or mislaid, the family car again — inadvertently introduces his family and some of the other main characters to Lard O’Connor, a Glasgow businessman of uncertain means. O’Connor’s influence does not stop with Bertie’s father, however, as Big Lou, the owner of the corner coffeehouse, encounters problems with her boyfriend. Meanwhile, under the guidance of his insufferable mother, Bertie finds himself heading off to Paris with a student orchestra only to end up buskering for Euros on a Paris West Bank street corner when the field trip goes awry.
Anthropologist Domenica has flown off to the Malacca Straits to study pirates of the Far East, subletting her Scotland Street flat to a novelist friend, Antonia. She has also left her old friend, Angus Lordie, and his philosophical dog, Cyril, to Angelica in hopes they will entertain one another while she develops her theories on modern pirates on the high seas. Her matchmaking skills are tested as the two meet in a disastrous dinner for two. Domenica puts to good use her knowledge of Pidgin English on an adventure with an aging pirate off the Sumatran coast.
Meanwhile, Cyril provides a comedic voice to the story with his wry comments on the potential tenderness of the ankles he observes in passing, particularly those of the denizens of a local pub, where he is treated to his bowl of Guinness and the occasional chip. Tethered to a fence rail outside an upscale delicatessen where his gobbling of a salami has left him persona non gratis, Cyril is kidnapped and escapes in an unsavory part of Edinburgh, leaving poor Angus to look inward darkly at his lonely life.
The townhouse’s professional student, Pat, has moved out of Number 44 due to personal entanglements with the rakish Bruce, only to find an even more distressing situation with her new female roommate. Thus she finds herself moving in with her shy and bumbling boss from the art gallery, Matthew, and she begins to discover just how complicated relationships can make one’s life, especially when young and beautiful. Matthew, meanwhile, has come into a handsome inheritance that leaves him quite wealthy, but no more or less cultured, well dressed and sophisticated than the starving art store owner he’s always been. He also discovers that having money isn’t the solution to problems, either his own or of others.
Alexander McCall Smith’s gentle satire and congenial voice bring us many smiles and the occasional chuckle as he weaves his storytelling net to enfold each of these memorable characters.
— Reviewed by Roz Shea
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Michael A. Maus on April 17, 2010 - 10:05 am
“44 Scotland Street” is a good story told well. This is relatively light reading, but it is worthwhile nonetheless.
It is easy to get bogged down in the book, since it contains neither mystery nor violence. But Mr. McCall Smith writes quite well and the story is enjoyable.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Faye on April 17, 2010 - 10:17 am
It’s painful to witness everything Bertie suffers at his mother’s hands, but I really like him and I can’t stop reading about him. I loved his time in Paris, and my favorite part of the book was his (extremely premature) audition for the Edinburgh Teenage Orchestra. Poor Bertie. I hope good things are in store for him, and I hope they happen soon.
Rating: 4 / 5