The Winds from Further West
I have just finished Alexander McCall Smith’s latest standalone
novel. It’s called The Winds from Further
West. Neil, the main character, is a medical researcher, a doctor, and a professor.
His job is placed in jeopardy when he is accused of a politically incorrect
statement by a student. His good friend James, a gay man, pushes him to stand
up and fight, but Neil resists making a scene and ultimately resigns his
position and moves west from Edinburgh to the isolated Scottish island of Mull.
There, among people who live off the sea and the land, he begins to ponder a
new life.
I cannot stop
thinking that the title pushes us further west than the Hebrides. Those winds
may be coming from all the way across the ocean. Neil’s predicament mirrors any
number of experienced professionals who have been caught up in Trump’s meatgrinder.
Down with diversity, equity, and inclusion and up with moving the disagreeables
to holding pens before deportation.
Neil learns quickly from his superiors that the new world of
schooling says, “We are not here to educate young people. We are here to
participate in the process of discovery that the students themselves will
initiate and control.” Neil wants neither to be baited into a phony apology for
his non-existent sin, nor to mount a spirited personal defense. He senses that this
kind of egalitarianism might work with morality or aesthetics, but for the
basic laws of science, reasonable certainty ought to win the field. With no
room left for tolerance of those who refuse to buckle under, he heads for a slower-paced
contemplative tune-up.
Our hero is thoughtful and likable, while Henrietta, his
administrative boss, is mealy-mouthed and vile. But never fear. As we start to
sort things out, our author Smith returns to his time-tested philosophy. You
can get lost things back with a little love. You can accept that people can be
flawed, but not necessarily wicked. You
can be confident that ruthless academic administrators and business tycoons are
not the total wave of the future? Ultimately, extremes are short-lived and “temporary”
in the vast scheme of things. Life, as always, is riddled with compromises that
may need courage to address. if you can just commit yourself to doing “small
acts of kindness” now and again, everything will be easier for you and others.
McCall Smith writes with such humor, love of nature, and gentle
insight that you can easily forget that his work is underpinned by an
impressive depth. I still find his African books his best, but this
contemporary foray is well worth picking up.
4.5 out of 5
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