La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

La’s Orchestra Saves the World

by Alexander McCall Smith

Though the plot in the first part of the book seemed a bit trite to me, Alexander McCall Smith’s writing and the plot in the rest of the book struck me as slice-of-life writing at it’s most beautifully realistic.

La is pursued by a young man in college, prior to World War II, and agrees to marry him. She isn’t sure she loves him at first but thinks they will make a compatible marriage. She does come to love him very much and is devastated when he runs off to be with a lover in France. His father is ashamed as well. He gives La the husband’s portion of the family business and a house in Suffolk.

La moves into the house just before World War II and the story is moved forward by some minor intrigue as La gets comfortable in her new home. But then the war arrives and La goes to apply for “war work.” They don’t have much for her. The major encourages her toward the Women’s Land Army and La ends up helping with a farmer’s chickens.

The story explores simple village life in Great Britain during World War II, what people thought and felt. How it could be affected by outsiders coming in, rationing, simple pleasures, and how distanced it was from the conflict at the same time. They grew their own vegetables. They listened to the radio for news. It’s the minutiae of daily life and the reflection that make a slice of life novel. World War II is the backdrop but life goes on in spite of those events.

La meets a friend’s brother, Tim, who works at the RAF base and together they start a village orchestra. Of course, the orchestra doesn’t really save the world but it can be argued that it saves a number of people from abject despair, La included. The orchestra creates connections between people — village people, country folk, and people from the Royal Air Force base that all need something to sustain them.

Tim gets a worker from the base, a Polish airman with a damaged eye, assigned to help at the same farm where La works. She is quite smitten but Feliks is distant.

It is a slow book but the ending may have been my favorite part as you see how things come full circle and how such simple things as a village orchestra and one person can change the world for some people. It’s about how a single life does matter and what we do, the kindness we offer, the connections we make, matter. They may be the only things that do give meaning to life on this scale.

Is it unrealistic to hope that Feliks and La meet again and share some part of their life together? There are elements of chance and there are things the characters do to make things happen. Isn’t that true to life? 

In the end, the writing skill of the author and the way he ties things together, make this an enjoyable story. The pace of life in the country, the drudgery and the simple pleasures, make it enjoyable. If you’ve experienced that, you’ll recognize it. If you haven’t, you may find it enjoyable to see it from a distance.

Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith

Corduroy Mansions

By Alexander McCall Smith

I was looking for a nice relaxing book on CD to listen to on my ride to and from work this past week when I saw an Alexander McCall Smith that had been recently returned to the library.  I’ve really only followed his Isabel Dalhousie series set in London but this looked promising, with the picture of a small dog on the front, Corduroy Mansions.

It has been a little different than I expected.  There is a fairly large cast of characters, unlike the Isabel Dalhousie series.  It’s quite civilized and pleasant then something startling happens, sometimes even something rather ugly.

It all centers around an apartment building called Corduroy Mansions.  The book is set up in a series of 100 short scenes moving from the people in the apartments out to all those they are involved with. 

There are four flats in Corduroy Mansions.  The top floor is where William and his son Eddie live, the girls are on the first floor and the ground floor is occupied by Mr. Wickramsinghe.

Here is a rundown of the tenants and their major relationships in the story -

William – Wine merchant who is trying to get his 24 year old son Eddie to move out.

Eddie – William’s son, rather ungrateful, he steals Freddie de la Hay to put in a dog fight.
Marcia – Caterer and friend of William but she would like to be more. 
Freddie de la Hay – Vegetarian Pimlico Terrier that William is “sharing.”. 

Dee – First floor neighbor, works in a vitamin shop.

Martin – works with Dee at the vitamin shop.

Jenny – First floor neighbor, Personal Assistant to the odious MP, Oedipus Snark.

Oedipus Snark – Odious MP.
Berthea Snark – Oedipus Snark’s mother and a psychologist, who is writing an unauthorized biography about her son.
Terence Moongrove – Berthea’s new age hippy brother
Barbara Ragg – Literary agent and Oedipus Snark’s girlfriend.  She breaks up with him then immediately picks up a young man in the car park.
Hugh Macpherson – young man Barbara picks up.
Rupert Porter – partner at literary agency with Barbara – annoyed that his father sold Barbara’s father a flat at market value that he wanted.

Caroline – First floor neighbor, doing a masters course at Sotheby’s in Fine Art.

James – Caroline’s friend in classes at Sotheby’s, who may or may not be gay.
Tim Something – photographer who once took Caroline’s photograph for a magazine.

Jo – First floor neighbor, Australian ex-patriate, first girl in the flat at Corduroy Mansions.

Mr. Wickramsinghe – Ground floor neighbor, an accountant who only shows up a few times, but he feels like a major character.  Hopefully he will be back in future books.

Though the book is character driven there is a thread of plot that ties things together very neatly with some intelligent and interesting observations.  I highly recommend it and look forward to the next one.

The Right Attitude to Rain ~ Alexander McCall Smith

The Right Attitude to Rain
By Alexander McCall Smith

You may know Alexander McCall Smith better as the mystery writer of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series but The Isabel Dalhousie Series also has some sort of mystery to the books, though it is often more of a puzzle than a mystery in the traditional sense. 

Isabel Dalhousie is a moral philosopher by profession and the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. She lives in Edinburgh and her thoughts are often taken up with the moral questions of everyday life. 

In this latest installment, Isabel’s cousin, Mimi, and her husband, Joe, come for a visit from Texas. 

Mimi and Joe also know someone else visiting from Texas, Tom and his fiancé, Angie.  Tom invites them all to a house party, but there’s something not quite right about Tom and Angie.  Is Angie a gold digger?  Is she more dangerous than that?  Is that uncharitable of Isabel?  It preys on her mind.

As a moral philosopher, Isabel is often concerned with the right and wrong of situations and behavior.  When she first sees Tom and Angie, she reacts quite strongly to them.

“She found herself disliking them, this man and woman standing beside their expensive car, because of their arrogance.  She looked down into her coffee cup, and then up again.  No, she thought.  This is wrong.  You should not dislike people you do not know.”

The Right Attitude to Rain introduces a romantic element to the series.  Isabel has become quite enamored of Jaime, Cat’s ex, but he is 14 years younger than herself and she just can’t accept the idea.  Then she takes him to help inspect a flat she is considering purchasing for her housekeeper, Grace, as retirement security.  The owner takes a liking to the two of them, and offers to sell the flat for ten thousand less than the asking price.  She wants to help the couple out.  But they aren’t a couple and it would be dishonest to accept the flat under such misapprehension.  But it does start Isabel thinking, why not?  Why not her and Jamie?  Grace points out the obvious.  Cat probably won’t like it. 

 “…she’s going to be furious… the reason we know Cat would feel that way is that people are human.  That’s something you need to write about in that Review of yours.”

In fact, Cat doesn’t like it, even though she has taken up with someone else.  She is very jealous and even calls Isabel taking up with Jaime “disgusting.”

The story has a lot to do with change, both how far Isabel has come and how much she changes just in this book.  At the beginning of the book, she notes the changes since her marriage ended.

“… now she would see through John Liamor; and she had changed in other respects too.  She had become more forgiving, more understanding of human weaknesses than she had been in her twenties.  And love, too, had become more important to her...”

I read this some time ago but picked up the book on CD because I needed something to entertain me on my long commute; and I always find these books thought provoking and yet relaxing.  It is read with a pleasant Scottish accent which does not detract from the ability to understand what is being said and lends a much stronger feeling of Edinburgh.  It is well worth the listen, or the read, and if you find you like it, there is more available.  The Right Attitude to Rain is the third book but there are now eight books in the series with the ninth, The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds, due out in October 2012.