“The Sunday Philosophy Club”, “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate”, “The Right Attitude to Rain” and “The Careful Use of Compliments.” All four by Alexander McCall SmithAh, Isabel Dalhousie. All four of the books involving this 40ish woman from Edinburgh, Scotland, are certainly worth a trip to the bookstore, library, or even Amazon.com! Most parts are wonderful, though some are a bit, well … pontificatory.Miss Dalhousie is the editor of The Review of Applied Ethics and the books are occasionally as long-winded as one assumes The Review might be. Isobel finds herself in philosophical dilemmas involving strangers in crisis that she really could just leave be – “It was her biggest problem, after all: how to draw limits to the extent of one’s sympathy.”
Of course, this is what one is meant to see about her. Mystery series tend to have a protagonist with a thematic interest, whether it be catering, forensic pathology, running a bed and breakfast, home repair, an alphabetical sequence or something else. Alexander McCall Smith has picked Ethics as his (or rather, Isabel’s). To be cognizant of this is half the battle, and then one can really enjoy the books.
The story lines are engaging. The slow parts build up an anticipation to get back to the real story. Will she fall in love again? Will her niece, Cat, do likewise? What will Grace, the housekeeper, think? Isabel has wonderful characters in her life; the ex-boyfriend of her niece whom she, Isabel, secretly adores, the aforementioned Cat, who owns a gourmet shop In which a person could spend happy hours salivating wistfully over anchovies and Italian cheeses, and a housekeeper who serves as both ally and moderator, plus there’s even a fox in the garden!
Without giving too much away – whilst she is jumping head first into strangers’ needs and problems, she is helping herself as well. She has loves to get over, loves to develop, and family relationships to cultivate. She is perpetually torn between becoming a “spinster” or a ‘hipster.” She could go either way at her age and consequently vascillates between the two. One hopes that a happy medium will be reached and that she will get there with a modicum of blathering self-actualization. We cheer when Isabel follows her heart rather than her mind, and is led to greater happiness.
The other characters she meets are just begging to be snap-judged, which Isabel cannot help but do. She does nothing without thorough examination, except jump right in when someone needs help, as this quote exmplifies, “She thought, I have no excuse to go and see this person. I don’t know her, and she owes me nothing. I am calling on a complete stranger. But if that had not stopped her before, it did not stop her now…”Isabel has passions for philosophy, W.H. Auden (whom she calls affectionately WHA), and Scottish art, all of which are brought in to assist in her ethical quandaries. Are things what they seem or is there more going on that she has simply overlooked because of her rash assumptions?
The second-guessing afterwards can be a little tiresome, but the mysteries develop as much from the contrast between her initial impression and the situational reality, as from any other source. She realizes through her internal monologues that she is as infallible as the next person. She sees herself in people and the help she gives may be as much for their greater good as for her own, causing her to comment, “I have learned something about myself …”
Isabel is perfectly aware of her failings and we like her all the more for them. Often when contemplating the actions of others, she realizes that “she had almost done that. And everything on those shelves [her ethical journals], all the elaborate structures of right and wrong, had been for a few moments forgotten. Which is how most people acted when it came to temptation. They gave in.”
Along with a sense of humor and a very compassionate heart, Isobel also has a wonderfully direct approach to life with a pension for taking chances. Happily for both Isabel and the reader, she also has cash enough that the mundane trials of work, bills, cleaning and such like, do not need to be discussed. (Really – don’t we get enough of that on our own time? I’ll just tape record myself if I want to hear a bitter tirade about dirty dishes…)
Each of the four books in the series involves Miss Dalhousie in a different personal and philosophical dilemma, but with a common theme – to get involved or not? Of course, she choose the former and not only does the reader feel she should, but, moreover, hopes she will. Isabel explains simply,”If one feels a connection, one must get involved.”
McCall Smith seems to want us to come to his conclusion that some things deserve great intellectualization and other things simply do not. The journey we take with Miss Dalhousie is really to help us figure out which is which.Isn’t that a good lesson to be learned by everyone?I’d say so.Editor’s Note: Jenn invites readers to contact her with any thoughts on books at [email protected]