Well, it looks as though the commute is doing its job because suddenly I am falling behind in my blogging, as opposed to my reading. I've finished two books in the past week and, thus far, haven't found time to write about them. Therefore there might be a kind of double feature thing going on here.. that is, if I don't fall asleep first (hey, I have to get up early!).
I know I said I would try to wait to read Alexander McCall Smith's Espresso Tales until a trip to Edinburgh was on the horizon. But with a new job and no holiday time in sight, as well as a fairly depleted bank balance, I decided to take the plunge.
To give the author his due, when I saw the novel sitting in WH Smith, I really couldn't resist buying it. I've compared McCall Smith to J.K. Rowling previously, and the way I felt when I saw Espresso Tales can only be related to the way I feel when I catch sight of the new Harry Potter on the shelves--I felt like I was getting my friends back (yup, pretty pathetic).
Anyway, it was great to see what Pat, Bruce and the gang from 44 Scotland Street were up to. As well as the old favourites, McCall Smith introduced some new characters--namely a nudist love interest for Pat, and a Glasgow con artist whom child prodigy Bertie beats at cards.
Although I enjoyed the book and will undoubtedly read the third (and most likely last, according to McCall Smith) installment to The Scotsman serialisation, I felt that the novel was missing something. The plot antics seemed too desperate and exaggerated, and there were some characters (i.e. Ramsey Dunbarton) I could've done without knowing more about.
Nonetheless, there were parts of the book that were absolutely laugh-out-loud funny, and the characterisation was, as always, flawless. Sitting on the Tube in the baking heat, there really is no better place than 44 Scotland Street.
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