Alexander McCall Smith writes books (a lot of books) and they are the kind that are needed when you are under duress and ready to shout “STOP” to the universe. There is a soothing quality about his prose and the characters who utter it. The villains are more pompous or unconscious rather than evil and the good folks always seem to be able to solve their problems by practicing some element of unconditional love. That keeps them and you going.
This brings us to Isabel Dalhousie the main character in
McCall Smith’s The Conditions of Unconditional Love. She is well-off,
happily married with two children, and the editor of an academic philosophical
journal. She says early on, “. . . we have to accept people for what they are
and not spend our time looking for perfection in them.” Now, according to her
husband Jamie, Isabel also has a penchant for taking on the troubles of the
people around her. He would like her not
to do that, but she is persistent and he finally gives up and just watches. For
the reader, it is exactly those gently quirky and often humorous problems that
draw you in.
Four troubles are featured in the book. Isabel’s scholarly
nemesis has tried to set up a conference that will result in giving him a way
too large a paycheck for organizing it. Second, her husband has suggested offering
a spare room to a woman who has run into a bad patch. Third, Isabel is
maneuvered into participating in a book group comprised of women who hate each
other. And finally, her niece, Cat, has
had another troublesome love affair. These problems throw a monkey wrench into Isabel’s
normally comfortable and ordered life. By the end, each has been put into the
rearview mirror. Isabel feels better. Her husband Jamie is happier. The
troubled person or persons feel better and McCall Smith has worked his erudite,
poetic, and gently humorous magic once again. He is the ultimate feel-good
author.
I give it four out of five.
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