The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street) by Alexander McCall Smith
| The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street) by Alexander McCall Smith | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: Back amongst our Scotland Street friends...grab yourself a cuppa, sit back and enjoy! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 288 | Date: July 2010 |
| Publisher: Polygon | |
| ISBN: 978-1846971457 | |
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This is, believe it or not, the sixth instalment in the 44 Scotland Street novels. Alexander McCall Smith continues to amaze me with his prolific writing, and thank goodness since I look forward to every one of his books and am glad that he has several series on the go at once! Here we are back in Edinburgh, back on Scotland Street, amongst a familiar cast of characters, peeping once again behind their net curtains to see what's going on.
Evereyone's favourite, Bertie, is still struggling with his over-protective, over-zealous mother Irene. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga class, saxophone lessons, Italian lessons, and he longs to go away to Scout camp, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as a helper. And, as the title suggests, he is looking forward to being seven. His little brother, Ulysses, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene herself goes missing in a rather mysterious manner...
Meanwhile Domenica and Angus are planning a trip away to Italy along with Domenica's man-hunting friend, Antonia. And don't worry - Cyril is going along too as he's got his own passport! As is usual in these stories, very little actually happens. Just normal day to day business, going for coffee, going to school; everyday life. This makes the books a little twee I suppose, but for me this is their charm and shows McCall Smith's fabulous skills in observation. I think to fully appreciate the stories you need to come to this book having read the others, so the characters are familiar friends already, otherwise you'd be a little lost with regards to past references.
I took off a star (which it pains me to do with authors I love!) but I felt that although this is another wonderful book there was just a little bit of 'something' lacking. I felt that if the chapter I was reading wasn't about Bertie, or Angus and Domenica, then I wasn't as interested as I might previously have been. Matthew just left me feeling irritated with him, Pat was barely in the book this time and Big Lou also only had brief appearances. Usually I'm interested in all the characters, although Bertie is my favourite, but there's something about Matthew and Elspeth's relationship that doesn't quite work for me somehow. I missed the awful Bruce, who only briefly appears, and because of these factors I lowered my star rating. But this is still a lovely book, and sits well within the series.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
Further reading suggestion: There's lots to choose from when it comes to Alexander McCall Smith! If you enjoyed this particularly then you'll probably enjoy Corduroy Mansions.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street) by Alexander McCall Smith at Amazon.com.
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