The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith

Oh light holdiday reading. This was a nice quick read, not bad, loosely a mystery, with a little of intrigue towards the end and lots of cups of tea and musings of the 40-something main character who like Phryne Fisher (see review below) lives without a partner, is independantly wealthy and is concerned with living according to her view of how 'one should' in such circumstances. While Phryne muses more on the cut of her swinging 20's frocks and the quality of silk in her shortie nighties, drinks rather a lot and has wild elegant indulgent sex with talk dark quiet types, Isabel Dalhousie is a well-behaved, respectful (if a little nosie, but hey aren't we all), woman concerned with morality. I dig that not once did the book describe the cut of her hair or the jaunty swing of her ankle in a green ankle-straped heel - she is formless in the way that a male protaganist might reasonably expect to be in a novel: she is her life, her actions, her relationships, looking out of and acting from her body. She is not coquetish and flirty, but she does harbour a sneaky little crush on a younger man, which much to my diapointment was never consumated. I thought themusings on philosophy and little trite, just a little, but maybe a nice 'taster', and certainly not alienating to anybody. Her role as an acandemic (even a part time one) I found a little hard to swallow, as despite editing a journal she seemed little more than vagueley intrigued by the subject matter, but in a restrained, affable, hoby-like way - as if she was eighty and reading about hydrangeas for the local fair (sorry to be ageist). I guess what I noticed was the distinct lack of passion, the whiff of enquiry and personal scholarship that i would expect such a character to actually have. But whatever. I'm sure Alexanders' readers prefer her mild mannered and musing than driven and incandescent. She is someone you could pop around and expect an omlette from, with a well-ordered, comfortable existence and a mild curiosity that pulls her into intrigue. The mystery element was quite nicely crafted as something that was almost secondary to her life and partly constructed by her own inquiry. I hope she shags the boy in the next one. I hope she shakes things up a bit and has a wild jaunt to Italy and writes a book or two. Or maybe I'm projecting...