Espresso Tales

The characters that first charmed us in  44 Scotland Street: A 44 Scotland Street Novel (1) are back and even better as we learn more about their everyday lives. The author has given us a pair of virtual binoculars and lets us unobtrusively watch their lives unfold in a parade of human foibles, love, desire, and moral issues. The short chapters are quick and clever, the writing fast-paced and fun.The most likeable character is Bertie, the precocious six-year-old whose mother has turned her little genius into an Italian-speaking, saxophone-playing , yoga-exercising mess. All he wants to do is be a little boy and his very wise insights and struggles to achieve normalcy will warm your heart. His over-bearing mother Irene and milquetoast father Stuart are also back and finally have a long-overdue confrontation about Bertie's upbringing.The narcissistic Bruce is fired as a surveyor and, in the moments he is not admiring himself in the mirror, he embarks haphazardly on a career as a wine merchant. Pat is still sharing his flat and she herself finally makes a big step by ending her second gap year and enrolling at Edinburgh University. Domenica, the well-travelled neighbor, finds a boyfriend for Pat and continues to extemporize on world affairs. But it is Ramsey Dunbarton, a non-resident of the townhouse, and his wife who provide the bulk of the humor as Ramsey reads from his memoirs and tells us more than he realizes about himself. Also peripheral to the story are the coffee-shop owner Lou who reveals a lost love, gallery owner Matthew who confronts his father, and the therapist Dr. Fairbairn who attempts to right a wrong and gets unexpected results.Will Bertie ever be able to wear jeans and not strawberry dungarees? Will a case of Petrus wine be Bruce's key to success? Will Pat become a nudist to please her new boyfriend? Will a train ride with his son be enough to make Bruce stand up to Irene? Will Mrs. Dunbarton ever wake up?More heart-warming moments and laugh-out-loud ones make this a most enjoyable addition to the totally delightful Scotland Street series. As for this reader, I eagerly anticipate my next trip to Scotland Street.

In "Espresso Tales," the marvelous sequel to "44 Scotland Street," Alexander McCall Smith once again displays his mastery of getting inside his characters' heads, whether they be child or dog, narcissistic macho or crashing bore, a woman feeling the pinch of advancing age or a mother overdoing it in the nurture department. The story I predict you'll fall in love with is that of Bertie, the precocious youngster who can speak Italian and play the saxophone but hasn't yet mastered crossing streets. As the episodes switched from character to character, I pounced on the ones dealing with Bertie to see how he was progressing in thwarting his arch-nemesis, his loving mother, who has ensured his place as class freak in the first grade by making him wear pink (make that "crushed strawberry") dungarees to prove his liberation from gender stereotypes.The novel is character-driven, but the characters I felt succeeded the least were Pat, the young woman who played the lead role in "44 Scotland Street," who, while sweet, is rather bland, and Ramsey Dunbarton, whose tediousness is so well characterized I tended to skip over his boring monologues when I realized that they didn't further the plot.But these are small complaints. Even if you haven't had the pleasure of reading "44 Scotland Street," you will enjoy this novel if you love rich depictions of exotic eccentrics; in the end, you will recognize them to be very much like people you know.

This book, the second in the "44 Scotland Street" series truly gives the reader's palate a taste of Edinburgh. Taking off from his first book, this one develops to a far greater degree those characters introduced in the premier book. McCall Smith has a way of capturing the Edinburgh environment which describes it as the unique and even quaint place that it is. There is no other place in the world like it.The feeling of Scottish allegiance plays a large part in the descriptive short chapters that Smith creates. Because the novel is a series of serialized columns, each chapter is short and succinct. But each chapter has its own character, has a point to make and a flavor to project.The reader will be introduced to deeper understanding of the original characters and their relationship to each other. In addition, Smith mixes his characters and their personalities so that there is nothing boring about the book. Rather, each reader will recognize types of people, yet they will be enhanced broadly by the uniqueness of the Scottish environment in which they reside.Like all McCall Smith's writings, this book is truly a wonderfully descriptive and interesting portrayal of life in Edinburgh, and in fact, life itself, everywhere. Readers should not miss the opportunity to enjoy this fine piece of work develop by Smith in daily segments. It truly is a joy to read.

I now know the characters so well I feel I might bump into them as I go about my daily life...they're so very real! Just finished reading this a d am about to embark on book 3. Very readable, relaxing and written in such a way that each character is as important and as central to the storyline as every other...just like in real life!

Just a joy from start to finish. Funny, touching, satirical and evocative, it is a love letter to Edinburgh.Along with Ian Rankin's Rebus books, it makes the city come alive as almost an additional character in the story. It makes me want to be there again. There is one flaw in this particular book in the series from my perspective, an attempt to add interest to a dry, ancient lawyer's memoirs left me bored. As ever with these books, it is only a few minutes before we move on to one of the other characters though.To end on an upbeat, The thoughts of Cyril the dog call to mind some of the best of Jack London as in White Fang etc. I hope dogs think like that.

Reading AMS's novels makes me want to sell up and move to Edinburgh at once. It sounds like a wonderful place. These novels started life as newspaper columns so every chapter is very short -- 2-3 minutes on the Kindle -- which makes it ideal for reading at bedtime, or on the tube, or in commercial breaks.All the characters are middle-aged, even the ones who are actually supposed to be 20, which makes you wonder if McCall Smith has ever met any young people, but, being middle-aged myself, this helps me identify with them. The most gripping character is five-year-old Bertie, forced by his appalling mother to be a child prodigy and new boy (junior version of a new man) when all he wants is to be a muddy kid. If you ever read this, Alexander, please kill Irene off!

I loved the first book and laughed out loud several times, but this book was a bit of a let-down for me, I'm afraid.I ended up flicking through the pages about Ramsey Dumbarton, just found them so tedious. I also got a bit tired of Domenica droning on about this that and the other, too. Loved Cyril's chapters, though!Bertie and Irene are as amusing as ever, I loved his attempt to camouflage himself at the posh school!Bruce, Matthew and Pat are still there, but lacking something, I felt.Maybe it's just that the novelty has worn off for me, but unlike the first book, I won't be in a hurry to lend this one to a friend, it will have to go to the charity shop!

I enjoyed the first book in the 44 Scotland Street series and wanted to know more about the varied Edinburgh residents introduced therein. I wasn't disappointed and will read the books that followed Expresso Tales. The series is really an up-market soap-opera that is particularly appealing, I think, to those of us who know Edinburgh well. There are some in-jokes and mild satire about the prejudices and foibles particular to residents of different districts of the city. The mutual distrust between Edinburgh and Glasgow is humorously described. These books make comfortable bedtime reading that will make you laugh but won't keep you awake at night.