| 44 Scotland Street | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 6181
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1400079446
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781400079445
ASIN: 1400079446
Publication Date: June 14, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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| Customer Reviews:
A Rollicking Excursion through Edinburgh April 27, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The first thing to know about this book is that it was written in seral format for a newspaper in Scotland. The second thing to know is that it doesn't make a lot of sense. The third thing is -- if you can get past the first two, this book is downright hilarious. Don't expect a great work of fiction, but do expect some wry observations on the human condition, as well as some unique characters.
I would have liked to see things wrapped up a bit more at the end (What happened to Bertie? And Lizzie? And Big Lou??), but still -- LOVED THIS. Alexander McCall Smith is an intelligent, entertaining, and quirky writer.
 McCall Smith is a marvel! March 11, 2006
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
I believe I've become addicted to Alexander McCall Smith's writing! Everything I read by him, I thoroughly enjoy. This book is very different than The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, and the Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld series. Each has its own character, style and humor. This book is based on a daily newspaper serial, McCall Smith was asked to do after he brought up the subject in an article he wrote in the newspaper, The Herald, in Scotland. As usual, McCall Smith was up to the task and, I believe, is working on another serialized story that will eventually be put into book form.
This book is about the motley crew who inhabit an apartment building on the edge of the Bohemian part of Edinburgh's New Town, 44 Scotland Street. There's Pat, the newest tenant, and from whose point of view the story is told;. Bruce Anderson, the gadabout narcissist who is sure every woman in the world adores him; the Pollack family, little Bertie, age 5, his pushy mother, Irene, and his long-suffering father, Stuart. Then we have wise and free-spirited Domenica Macdonald, a woman in her sixties, and another man, Mr. Syme, who stays to himself and is rarely seen by the others.
Among the storylines are Pat's struggle with her growing attraction to flat mate Bruce, Bertie's acting out resulting from his growing resentment of his mother's efforts to make him grow up way before it's time; and Domenica and Pat's growing friendship. To support herself, Pat takes a job at an art gallery run by a mild-mannered, seemingly ineffectual, rich kid named Matthew, and a series of events unfold involving a painting. My favorite character turned out to be Bertie as he begins to rebel against the pressures brought to bear on him by his parents. The characters are a mix of personalities as one would expect, and the events portrayed are an equal mix of serious, kooky, and downright hilarious! I hope there will be more books about these characters.
Carolyn Rowe Hill
 Hilariously entertaining January 28, 2006
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
This novel deserves 5 stars.
I was given 44 Scotland Street as a Christmas gift. I assumed it was a "detective story" given the author's previous well known work. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the book was like nothing else I have ever read. I have lived in Scotland and have visited Jenner's department store in Edninburgh, as well as some of the other landmarks mentioned in the book. I can assure readers who have not been to Edinburgh that the descriptions and the characterizations are very real, for example, the rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Although it may be difficult for non-Scots to fully appreciate certain elements of the book, the characters can be found practically anywhere and in any time. For example, the narcissistic Bruce and the class-conscious Sasha.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone and especially homesick Scots. I can hardly wait for the sequel.
'44 Scotland Street' an extremely fun and entertaining place to go! January 15, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed '44 Scotland Street' and couldn't put it down. Call it a guilty pleasure, or call it an absorbing glimpse into the lives of a variety of characters. It was like being a fly on the wall, watching Bruce preen in front of the bathroom mirror; I loved to loathe this guy, and how delicious to see him squirm through various situations. Yet even he was well-rounded enough to have some good in him, as you see him being kind to the boss's ugly duckling daughter. Many of these characters, Pat, Angus, Domenica and Matthew, felt like friends to me, probably because each segment was told from the point of view of it's character. Each chapter ended with a small cliffhanger that made you eager to continue to the next segment. If I had been reading this in the newspaper, as originally published, this would have tortured me! I really needed to read on for resolution. Finally, I really enjoyed seeing the little boy prodigy rebel against his horribly pushy mother and try to insist on living a normal life. Hooray for Bertie! And hooray for Alexander McCall Smith! I would rate this book right up there with the Mma Ramotswe books, and am hoping for a sequel soon.
Young urbanites December 29, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
The book is a serialized novel a la TALES OF THE CITY. The book was written while it was being published. Necessarily it has a rambling form.
The ingenue character, Pat, is on her second gap year. She seeks to rent a place. Bruce Anderson functions there as a sort of manager. He is a surveyor. Pat is going to work in a gallery. Her father is a doctor. Domenica Mcdonald lives in the opposite flat. She is an anthropologist who publishes in obscure journals. She has lived in India.
The gallery is not Pat's first job. Pat's employer's name is Matthew. He has not been in the gallery business long. Matthew spends time at Big Lou's, a coffee bar. He believes that he has discovered it. Big Lou is a woman. She worked at a nursing home in Aberdeen and received a bequest from one of the patients.
In her building Pat hears someone playing 'As Time Goes By' on the tenor sax. It turns out the musician is a five year old boy, Bertie. It seems that Bertie no longer wants to study Italian, he is suspended from his nursery school, and he wants to go to a school where uniforms are worn and rugby is played. In the last piece featuring him he makes a friend his own age.
The main action concerns a painting in Matthew's gallery. Pat puts it in an alcove near the ironing board in her building for safe-keeping and Bruce mistakenly takes it, thinking it had been abandoned, to use as a prize at a Conservative Association Ball. Fortunately Pat and Matthew are able to retrieve the painting which receives a designation of being the work of a different artist. The upshot is that with the new attribution it turns out to be quite valuable.
This is the longest book of Alexander McCall Smith I have read, and in many respects the best.
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