When the events of
the world seem to be spiraling into a sewer, there is no greater calming factor
than a quick read novel by Andrew McCall Smith. In his 2016 The Bertie Project, he offers a lovely trip into and through the beguiling lives of the folks around 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Bertie's mother has
returned from her stay in a Middle
Eastern harem to
reassert her iron-fisted control
of Bertie and his father Stuart. Bertie is handling the
return to language lessons, yoga, and analysis with equanimity but Stuart has begun an extra-marital fling as a tiny little sign of independence. Meanwhile handsome Bruce is getting a
makeover from his new found Australian
Amazonian squeeze. Big Lou,
the local coffee house proprietor, finds that the MD she has met seems to want her to wear
a matron’s uniform to more than a costume party. And then to top it
all off Angus, the artist and
part-time poet gets defenestrated in his own home.
Domenica, his wife, handles the philosophical twist on all of these events
while the absurdity of the situations puts lip gloss on the faces of all.
Serious as it may be, we can’t but help laughing at the predicament of Angus
sailing out of a window and landing upside down in a tree for instance. In
another comical situation, we have Bruce and Aussie superwoman Clare in a tiny clothing
store changing room trying to stuff Bruce into too-tight “hipster” jeans. Meanwhile
Bertie moves calmly through the storm without telling a single fib and
proving once again that naïveté is charming when coming from total innocence
and a generous heart.
Of course it’s old hat for McCall-Smith, but it’s more like a a nice old Harris Tweed cap than a silk topper. The ending once again ties all up
and leads to a poem by Angus at one of Domenica's dinner parties. It continues to reinforce that
love in the small moments with your friends may be all there is to keep you
sane amidst the swirl of hatred and gratuitous violence of the world at large.
Read it if you need a bit of a lift from depression.
Some Additional Nuggets
p.106 We need people to wear their uniforms of
identity from policemen to head waiters.
It helps preserve order and confidence in the pillars of civilization.
p 134 We need rituals that make us members of
something. Once again they affirm the order of
the universe. "Acts make you pause for thought. .
." but ritualistic
performance moves beyond you as an individual and into the corporate. There is
no immediate purpose to it other than binding you to others doing it and to the species as a whole.
p 197 The problem with doing the right
thing is that it spoils all the fun.
p. 240 The Winston Churchill martini. "Pour in gin and bow in the direction of
France."
Angus’ poem
“Innocence glimpsed in others reminds us
Of the time when our
own consciences were clear.”
When we lose we
think we lose forever, but that is not true.
Think of love at those times because
it always returns to say that I was
always there but you just didn’t
hear me at the moment.
