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Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith

A Slow Gentle Amble
review by Maryom


Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher, editor of the Review Of Applied Ethics, but finds difficulty in applying either philosophy or ethics to her day to day problems - particularly those concerning her feelings for a much younger man, Jamie, ex-boyfriend of her niece. She also manages to involve herself in the affairs of a recovering heart-transplant patient who feels he is receiving messages/visions from the heart's donor, and those of her niece, Cat, and her new admirer, a handsome Italian with a special interest in Scotland.

A gentle tale of the good folk of Edinburgh - a million miles away from Ian Rankin's Rebus novels or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Isabel and her friends are engaging, well-meaning (dare I say middle class) people with everyday sort of worries and cares - though maybe not many of us are torn between younger men and handsome Italians. This isn't the first time I've read this novel and, although I found this series a little harder to 'get into' than the Scotland Street books, I'm finding it growing on me. In some ways it's a sort of modern day Cranford-type novel, a slow gentle amble of a novel rather than a mad dash, the perfect thing for lazy afternoon reading.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - LittleBrown

Genre - Adult Fiction


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