The Careful Use Of Compliments (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Book Report: Isabel Dalhousie, wealthy old-Edinburgh-family woman, art collector, philosopher, editrix of The Journal of Applied Ethics, lover of a beautiful younger musician, single mother.Wait...what?!My Review: This is the fourth Isabel Dalhousie novel, as I am pleased to note Pantheon is now marketing them, not mysteries. Now I wonder why my library still keeps them in the mysteries...?It's a lovely, warm way to spend a frustrating day's end, reading a well-written book about quiet, domestic things, and feeling thereby that one has checked in on the doings of some rather remote, but nonetheless cherished, friends. That's the charm of the Isabel Dalhousie novels for me. It's just smooth sailing such as this that gets comparatively little respect, critical or commercial; how glad I am that Precious Ramotswe has given McCall Smith the megaphone that brought these unfashionably serene books to a broad, general market.And how delightedly I received this particular book! The previous entry in the series wasn't very good at all, seeming to me to have been composed on a laptop perched on the author's knee while traveling to signings, clunked onto the never-the-right-height hotel desk for a fast few hundred before passing out, and edited by fax while jouncing over unpaved roads in Botswana. While I'm not quite ready to forget that readerly disappointment, I'm a long way from unhappy after this evening's pleasures.Isabel does several interesting things in this book, and does them with verve. I think it was this sense of verve that I missed in book three, The Right Attitude to Rain.Cat, Isabel's niece, appears again in this book, though she isn't as central a character...this is but one example of the evolution of the series, that natural fading in and out of some characters. It's just like life. Only better...it takes less time. Recommended, no reservations, for anyone needing a quiet place to relax and have a good conversation with good people. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
This, the Isabel Dalhousie series, is one of two series that I keep tabs on, and both have new books out this fall. This series is largely character driven, has a great sense of geographic place, and is just an easy, entertaining read. Plus, I'll always give points for a book whose main character is a philosopher. I do think this particular book is the weakest of the 4 Dalhousie books, but that's alright. Still quite enjoyable.I do confess that I almost didn't list this on my Goodreads account - I am a reader who has always felt guilty about reading certain books, the literary equivalent of a bag of Skittles, even though in this series McCall-Smith weaves in great little tidbits of info on art, music, Scotland, and of course distillations of philosophy. In any case, I'm trying to get away from this guilt, and the anecdote and conclusion I fall back on is this: I was once discussing childhood reading habits with a bibliophile friend, and I mentioned having loved The Babysitters Club as a kid. She scoffed, and pointed out that there was so much great YA fiction, why would I chose to read that. I was offended, and then kind of embarrassed, but then thought, well hell, I gained a life-long love of reading from my experience with that series, and that's all that matters to me. And so it continues.
What do You think about The Careful Use Of Compliments (2007)?
I LOVE Alexander McCall Smith. His books are just plain delightful. They are my comfort zone. Like-able characters, fun plots. While his writing does make me think, he has a light handed touch at ethical dilemas and current events. I love the way the main characters often have a rambling train of thought that allows the author to weave around lots of life's little issues without hitting you over the head with it. Fleeting references to a world view. The books are like those old "Little House" type TV series - that always had a message and ended well. McCall's books make me feel good when I've been dealing with other heavy reading.
—Nancy (NE)
I enjoyed this book very much, but then I always like McCall Smith. Isabel Dalhousie might be my favorite character that he's created, largely because she reminds me of me. Everything for her is fodder for thinking, and she lives in a complicated moral universe where every decision is weighed against Dalhousie's notion of right and wrong/should or shouldn't do. But it's not as dry as all that sounds. She loves a niece who hardly seems worth the bother, for the most part, and she loves a man who's younger than herself. McCall Smith is a master of restraint discussing their relationship; he simply lays it out, leaving the reader's reaction entirely up to the reader.One of the things I like about his novels set in Scotland, as this one is,is the similarity between the culture he describes and our own. It's just distant enough to allow some fresh perspective. Since hearing McCall Smith speak, I bring a more distant eye to Isabel. McCall Smith said that she "often gets it wrong," and this clue helped me enjoy the possible irony of Isabel's use of her tremendous wealth to outmaneuver an enemy, while finding the most morally justifiable grounds for doing so. A neat little plot twist rounds up an enjoyable story.I'm inclined to wonder if these books would be as favorably acclaimed as they are if a woman had written them. I suspect not.
—Mary
Book ReviewThis book "The Careful Use of Compliments" by Alexander McCall Smith is an engaging romp in the world of ethics, revenge, forgiveness, and honesty. The main character Isabel Dalhousie is a wealthy young woman living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is the editor of an obscure journal, "Review of Applied Ethics" largely read by academics and featuring various tomes of rhetoric authored by doctorate students and other desperate individuals. All articles are selected for print by the esteemed editor Isabel Dalhousie.Largely the novel focuses on the private life of Isabel, her baby and her lover Jamie. They have an uneasy relationship in some respects as Jamie is fourteen years her junior and in much more straightened financial circumstances. However the novel remains light hearted and animated while allowing readers to learn a little as they wend their way through the delights and intrigues of Isabel's days.Carinya
—Carinya Kappler
