The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday

You are never disappointed with any of Alexander McCall Smith\’s books. Prepare to be inspired and have your opinions and intellect challenged and stretched. Charming lead characters are complex and flawed and inspiring all at the same time. With the strokes of his pen/keyboard, Mr Smith transports you to Edinburgh….his genius allows you to feel like you are living with the characters through all the situations presented. A joyful read!

If you are hoping that Isabel and Jamie will marry in this book, don\’t hold your breath. She is still too insecure, afraid that his good looks will cause him some day to lose interest in her. But all the while their relationship is deepening, and the book ends on a note of joy. Before that note is struck, however, Isabel finds herself jealous of Jamie\’s relationship with an American composer, Nick Smart. She is afraid that he might convince Jamie to depart Edinburgh to further his career as a classical bassoonist, leaving her and their toddler Charlie in the lurch. While she ponders that possibility, however, another mystery comes her way. Dr. Marcus Moncrieff is a doctor disgraced by scandal. Did he falsify data for an antibiotic during clinical trials, only to have it be put on the market and lead to the death of a patient? Or did his nephew who was also his assistant set him up for personal gain? Perhaps the drug company itself handed off culpability. Moncrieff\’s wife turns to Isabel, hoping to clear his name and lift him from the despondency into which he has fallen since being forced to surrender his career. As is typical with McCall Smith, the ending is not what you might expect. But read this series not for the plots, which only serve as a backdrop to Isabel\’s good intentions, ethical musings, and multifaceted relationships–they are all worth pondering. Read it, too, for a chance to catch a glimpse of Scotland. I have heard that the audio version of this series particularly captures the national character.

\”The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday\” is the fifth installment in Alexander McCall Smith\’s Isabel Dalhousie Series and it will not disappoint the many devoted readers who have come to appreciate the gentle humor and examination of life\’s moral dilemmas that are at the heart of this group of books. \”Comforts…\” continues philosopher Isabel Dalhousie\’s well-meaning attempts to find safe passage through the daily minefield of moral issues that routinely come her way. As a stand in for \”Everyman/Everywoman,\” she gives voice to anyone who confronts these same life crossroads and tries to take the right direction in each situation. It seems to me that she also serves as medical ethicist McCall Smith\’s Scots alter ego in raising these issues for public examination as well. This book moves Isabel\’s relationship with her younger boyfriend down the road a bit, demonstrating how love and self confidence are not always fellow travelers. In Isabel\’s case, however, there is more than the glimmer of a silver lining here that we would expect to be further explored in the next installment of the series. \”The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday\” provides the comfort of well-evolved characters and the now familiar and interesting environment of the city of Edinburgh. As always, the author provides an intelligent story line that provokes some thought and reaction to its characters. He does not, on the other hand, provide a heavy duty plot or black and white conclusion to the story. Altogether, a very enjoyable book–particularly for those who have been following the series. Maybe not the first book in the series for newcomers to begin with.

The 5th book in the Sunday Philosophy Club series has Isabel looking into another interesting ethical issue. She is asked to check into the case of a doctor who has been discredited for bad data regarding a drug that he evaluated in clinical trial, from a company that sponsored his research. She is also dealing with an ethical problem relating to her journal when her former rival for the editorship submits an article. Does she accept it to lay the feud to rest, dismiss it out of hand, or find another course? When she begins to investigate the drug scandal, she finds that perhaps there may be a reason for an involved family member to frame the doctor. Meanwhile, in her personal life, she feels insecure about Jamie\’s friendship with a conductor, and worries that he is hiding things from her. She also makes a loan to Eddie at Cat\’s deli and wonders if she made a big mistake in doing this. Things are not always what they seem and Isabel comes to some surprising conclusions to these puzzles.

I love McCall-Smith, I find his books soothing and wise and feminine yet balanced (this probably comes from their being written by a man!). I always get involved in his characters\’ lives, care bout them and can\’t wait to read more about them. Plots are not the point; human interaction and thoughts are, and they are presented with such a light hand, and such an obvious love for life and people and places that I always feel better after spending time with these books. Do not buy the Dalhousie or the Precious Ramotswe series (which I also love) if you want a proper detective story, but do buy them and enjoy them all, possibly in chronological order, if you want to be reconciled with life. Sounds like a lot to ask from books, but read them and you will see what I mean!

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