Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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136 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
Academic Trifles, 5 Nov 2003
Alexander McCall Smith's short stories about three German academics are a delight. These well-written and undemanding trifles follow the eventful life of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, whose major worries in life are on the scale of whether his seminal work on Portugese Irregular Verbs will be relegated to the back room of the university library. The language is beautiful, the humour gentle and librally scattered, and the occasional illustrations are charming. The stories provide wonderful escapism and are perfect for reading in the park at lunchtime.One criticism: This book, along with the other two "volumes" about the hapless professors, is very short and all three were all published at the same time rather than bound together, forcing you to pay thrice if you want to enjoy all of their adventures (and you will want to!); very cheeky Professor Smith. I suppose that this just goes to show that some academics do have business acumen as well as far too much time on their hands!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Curiously memorable incidents...., 4 Jul 2005
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....although not that enjoyable a read. After greatly enjoying The "Ladies' Detective Agency" books, this came as a bit of a let-down. Very different. But my wife liked it!
The protagonist, an unlikeable German academic is totally unable to see his own serious social blunders. Comedy of embarassment, I suppose, but mostly cringe-makng for me.
The odd incident does linger in the mind, months later.
By all means read it, a clever and well written book, but one that may not entertain you in the same way as other books by this excellent author.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld as Don Quixote, 16 May 2006
I enjoyed At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances the most of the three books in this series. I think, however, that most people will enjoy this book more if they have read at least Portuguese Irregular Verbs if not also The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs before this book.
Two things are different about this book from its predecessors in this broadly satirical series: First, von Igelfeld finds himself softening so that he's actually trying to be helpful . . . rather than superciliously putting his own interests first as he does in the earlier books; second, the two stories are longer and allow Dr. Smith more room to rove.
"On Being Light Blue", the professor is surprised when Unterholzer remembers his birthday. With some prodding, von Igelfeld admits that he'd like to be a visiting scholar at Cambridge. Unterholzer likes the sound of that because that would mean that Unterholzer could "borrow" von Igelfeld's much nicer office while von Igelfeld is away. Unterholzer finds no difficulties in making arrangements for the invitation, and von Igelfeld is soon off in England. This gives Dr. Smith an opportunity to have great fun at the expense of English academics to parallel his normal satire of German professors. Von Igelfeld arrives and is soon concerned about having to share a bathroom, which leads to many internal complications (humor intended) to the plot. There's also academic scheming in the background . . . because von Igelfeld is the potential tie-breaking vote in a faculty plot. The story has an unexpectedly heart-warming tone before it's done that will remind you of the Botswana stories a bit.
"At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances" is one of those wonderful flights of satirical fancy that so many authors have favored us with concerning Latin America including Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana. After returning from Cambridge, von Igelfeld is delighted to discover that he's being considered for an award in Colombia. That potential honor leads to lots of humorous complications as von Igelfeld finds himself in the middle of a revolution at the Villa of Reduced Circumstances. What happens from there will amuse all but the most serious. It's a wonderful take off on honors, motives and government.
Have a ball!
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