Customer Reviews

The Lost Art of Gratitude (The Sunday Philosophy Club series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You have to believe that author Alexander McCall Smith has a special fondness for his main character in "The Sunday Philosophy Club" series, Isabel Dalhousie, for he has created for her a seamlessly agreeable life. She is intelligent, well-educated, well-to-do and beautiful. She has a handsome, sensitive and younger fiance, who has fathered her beautiful and well-behaved son. Isabel loves her "job" as a moral philosopher and editor of a scholarly journal and lives in a historic mansion in Edinburgh, a city that fits her like a glove.

So without the frisson and stress, how does "The Lost Art of Gratitude" (and others in the series) grab the reader's attention and hold it? It may well be that the very stresslessness of living is what makes her story so interesting and enjoyable to the reader. You know that nothing terrible will ever really happen to Isabel and to the ones she loves. Who doesn't fantasize about a world where we are surrounded by beauty and intelligence that will never end? Where babies don't ever have to have their diapers changed nor do they ever get colic or throw tantrums. Where your SO, in addition to being beautiful/handsome and talented, respects you and intuitively connects with your every thought and impulse. And is always yin to your yang.

McCall Smith does provide a few gray clouds for his heroine in "The Lost Art..." in the form of a couple of Isabel's old adversaries--Minty Aucterlonie and Christopher Dove, but they have both been vanquished by Isabel in the past, and there is no doubt that she will prevail against them again.

Ultimately, the greatest pleasure from the book for this reader, was the time and space that Isabel Dalhousie is given to ruminate about the human condition and the interactions of people in ordinary day-to-day situations. This isn't peace in the Middle East or the answer to world poverty, but it is important reflection on how we behave toward each other as residents of shared communities. Hypocrisy and greed are two of the main identified enemies for Isabel, but all human folly is grist for her consideration. Respect and charity are always her goals.

McCall Smith's paragon does have interesting flaws--she is overly considerate and reasonable and therefore unable, at times, to correctly read the baser actions of others. These misunderstandings and her occasional outright cluelessness give the story needed zing and interest.

"The Lost Art of Gratitude" is another gentle and sweet installment in a series that you have to hope will hold McCall Smith's interest and enterprise for many years to come.

The Lost Art of Gratitude is the 6th novel in the "Sunday Philosophy Club" series by Alexander McCall Smith, which center on philosopher and occasional amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie. The book picks up only 2-3 months after "The Comfort of Saturdays" - Isabel and Jamie's son Charlie now being 18 months old.

If you've read the other books in the series you'll know that they feature an assortment of storylines, most of which seem to take a backseat to Isabel's musings on everyday matters. This book is no different. Minty Auchterlonie asks Isabel to help her with a troublesome problem, Isabel's niece Cat has a new and unsuitable fiance, Brother Fox is injured and needs medical attention and Christopher Dove is scheming to force Isabel to resign as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics.

I truly love this series, but I was so disappointed by this book which felt like it was written "by numbers". One of the things that I like most is Isabel's musings on life and ethics. However this time round they felt forced: formulaic rather than intriguing. Also, McCall Smith seemed to have only limited interest in the plotlines. Cat's relationship felt like it was tucked in as an afterthought ("must involve Cat - oh let's give her another problematic boyfriend and we can just wrap it up by Isabel hearing about what happened"). The Minty storyline was given more prominence but then again it felt like he got bored with it in the end.

If you've loved this series as I do, you should still read the book - while disappointing, it's not completely dreadful. However I'd wait for the paperback. If you're new to the series, don't start here! Start with The Sunday Philosophy Club (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries). It's a series best read in order.

There's a significant word in the title - "Novel". Yes, "novel", not "mystery" as the previous Isabel Dalhousie books have been labelled. So, there is "truth in advertising" because there is certainly no solving of mysteries in this book.

Instead we have the gentle story of a few weeks in the charmed life of Isabel Dalhousie and her relatives, friends and enemies, in which nothing much happens.

The not-so-nice Profs Dove & Lettuce re-appear but are easily and oh-so conveniently foiled again. The main storyline (or what I assumed was the main storyline) involving Minty the investment banker seems largely unresolved by the end of the book, so much so that I had to re-read it to make sure that I hadn't accidentally missed some important plot development by skipping a page. Perhaps the plan is for the next novel in the series to bring the Minty storyline to some kind of closure, or is the lack of closure somehow the point of the novel?

Perhaps "The Lost Art of Gratitude" is an attempt to resposition Isabel Dalhousie series into the serialised format of the 44 Scotland Street series, where we expect to follow the storylines of the characters from book to book. Or perhaps the author has just run out of steam with this group of characters?

If you are an Alexander McCall Smith fan and have read all his other books (as I have), by all means read this book for completeness (I am sure nothing I could say would stop you anyway). If you are new to Alexander McCall Smith, then this isn't the book to start with, try Number One Ladies' Detective Agency.

I won't bother recounting the plot of this book, because that is not what grabbed me. Rather, it was the stream-of-consciousness style of the author's narrative. This is a man writing about a woman's experience--which always makes me a little skeptical--but he seems to have found a "true enough" voice here. His heroine is the good-natured Isabel Dalhousie: 40 years old, a divorced Ph.D., mother of an 18-month-old son, newly the fiancé of her toddler's much-younger father, aunt to an edgy niece who used to date her fiancé, and the owner and publisher of a journal on moral philosophy who works from home. She seems a kindly sort, prone out of some instinct of goodness to want to insert herself helpfully into the business of others. No secret here, that instinct can get her in trouble. She calls Edinburgh her home, and McCall weaves local Scottish color into his plot line.

But the book, whose happenings pass over just a few days, is spelled out in terms of Isabel's thought process. While I found it similar to my own and therefore liked it, most novels are rendered in terms of dialogue. This one has dialogue, of course, but the reader is also privy to all of Isabel's thoughts between her utterances and those of her associates. It took some getting used to that, perhaps the first 100 pages or so. But the thread hangs together, and so in the end did not bog down as I was afraid it might. I would call it a unique writing style, and in the end it held personal resonance for me. (Beware, however, if you are afraid of "thought broadcasting.")

"And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant." -- Jonah 4:6

The sixth novel in this series about moral philosophy concerns happiness: The book demonstrates that you obtain that delightful state when you appreciate the good parts of your life and realize they are more valuable than your annoyances. Cultivate gratitude and you will be happy.

Unlike the earlier books in this series, there isn't much plot at all. Readers will rejoice in some good news for Isabel Dalhousie in her personal life while groaning over another run-in with professors Dove and Lettuce as well as some unsettling interactions with Minty Auchterlonie. There are two brief scenes with Cat that are a bit trying as well. Your heart will be warmed by some great moments with Charlie and Jamie.

There's no doubt about it that the series loses a lot of steam in this book. Even the wicked Minty didn't succeed in entertaining me very much: She just another grasping person who has to have her way.

I would have graded the book at three stars, but the charming moments were delightful and frequent enough to lift this book into the above-average category for me. Some of the humor is very well drawn, and I could easily imagine the author chortling in his kilt as I read it.

THE LOST ART OF GRATITUDE continues the adventures of Isabel Dalhousie, a wealthy, middle-aged divorcee who is also a Doctor of Philosophy. For the uninitiated, Isabel enjoys the leisure to sit in contemplation, observing passersby in a window seat of a favorite High Street coffee shop, meditating on their comings and goings. But now that she has two-year-old son Charlie to look after, her life has changed dramatically.

The joys and demands of motherhood consume much of her time, and as the sole owner and publisher of the Review of Applied Ethics, the magazine of philosophical essays, she finds her days and evenings fuller than ever. When she faced being forced out of the editorial position by two of its quarrelsome directors, Professors Dove and Lettuce, she simply bought the magazine outright. Maintaining full editorial control is far more satisfactory, but her new lifestyle leaves less time for her to worry about what other people are doing and why they are doing it.

In addition to being a powerful magazine publisher, Isabel is a woman with the well-earned reputation of being a bit "nosy" among her peers (if you hadn't figured that out already). But Isabel would prefer to describe herself as inquisitive or curious or observant but never nosy...she just likes to be of help. And unfortunately for Isabel, her method for solving problems (either through discretion or butting in where she's not welcome) occasionally catches up with her, which is what sets off the plot in McCall Smith's sixth Dalhousie novel.

One day, when Isabel and Charlie are enjoying an outing, she runs into Minty Auchterlonie, a remote acquaintance with whom she has tangled in the past. She tries to avoid Minty and her pushy little boy who is Charlie's age. But Minty, a powerful, wealthy investment banker who moves in the same social circles as Isabel, seems determined to reestablish their relationship and invites Isabel and Charlie to her son's birthday party. There, Isabel discovers Minty's real reason for the impromptu invitation: she is being blackmailed over a dark, personal secret, and because she has heard of Isabel's unique success at discreetly handling such ticklish situations, she seeks her help. When Isabel finds herself manipulated into meeting with a prominent local attorney who is the purported blackmailer, she not only feels used but also suspects that Minty has misled her and everything may not be as it appears.

And to make matters worse, Professors Dove and Lettuce turn up at her home office with evidence that Isabel has allowed a plagiarized article to be published in her magazine. Isabel is nothing if not meticulous in her vetting of all articles for publication, so she is quite disturbed at the potential for scandal and loss of reputation. Again, things are not quite as they seem, and Isabel's unique approach to resolving the dilemma is amusing and infinitely satisfying --- not only for her but for the reader as well --- once again proving that even dicey problems can be taken care of without the weaponry of the courtroom.

Meanwhile, her personal life with Charlie's handsome young father, Jamie, a professional musician with whom she is deeply in love, intensifies. There remains that niggling problem between Isabel and her niece Kat, from whom she more or less stole Jamie. Many fences remain in need of mending in her personal relationships as we are reminded that Isabel's complicated ethical dilemmas often outstrip those of her subscribers.

Alexander McCall Smith is an absolute master of the novel of gentle intrigue. His wise resolutions of the often small yet persistent problems that each of us face in our lives make us yearn for such sagacity on a larger, global scale. His hugely successful series, beginning with THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY, has topped the bestseller lists from its first publication in the United States and abroad, and has recently been adapted into an HBO program of the same name. A master of tackling sticky situations --- which comes from a career of teaching medical law and bioethics in Africa and Scotland --- McCall Smith crafts a wonderfully intriguing novel, one that leaves us waiting for the next in the series.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

While most of us do the best we can, it is sometimes without much thought. Dalhousie shows in a simple but effective method how to think...not just about what we are doing, but how to think deeper than we generally do. Smith is a master at delving below the surfaces of our behavior.

Feeling a bit paranoid investment banker Minty Auchterlonie fears someone detests her so much that they are trying to harm her. First government tax agents are investigating her though she has no idea why suddenly they are doing it unless someone tipped them off. Second she received a funeral wreath from an unknown sender.

At a child's birthday party, Minty tells her friend Scottish philosopher Isabel Dalhousie, whose not quite two year old son Charlie is at the bash, that she believes someone is after her. Isabel investigates using skills honed by being the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. She questions the most likely suspect Jock Dundas, who believes he sired Minty's son during an affair they had; he wants time with his alleged offspring or he will expose her to her spouse Gordon McCaig. Meanwhile her enemy accuses Isabel of failing to prevent plagiarism at the Review and her lover Jamie asks her to marry him so they and their son Charlie can be a family.

If you seek a bit more action turn to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency tales. However as with Precious's detecting, Isabel is a great focus who holds the intelligent slice of life plot together (see The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday). Character driven, readers will enjoy this sage saga as evil comes in many shapes, but never a Dove as Isabel learns first hand The Lost Art Of Gratitude as no one seems to appreciate her efforts.

Harriet Klausner

Some prolific authors can tire readers with shallow novels and immature characters. I never seem to tire of reading Alexander McCall Smith. In the sixth novel featuring philosopher Isabel Dalhousie titled, The Lost Art of Gratitude, Smith continues to develop Isabel as a complex character. Her relationship with Jamie continues to deepen, her work as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics provides her with stimulation, and her son, Charlie, is now eighteen months old, and he brings her great joy. Isabel exudes her care for others in this novel, while she maintains a solid center of gravity which keeps her steady against any obstacles. First-time readers can easily start here and be satisfied with a novel that does not rely on its predecessors to be complete. Any reader who appreciates character-driven novels will likely enjoy this one.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

While the book is written in the same style as the others of this series, it seems that our author has made our heroine somehow selfsatisfied with a life where she has everything she can wish for. In all this description of her personal happiness, he forgot a bit to pay proper attention to the case she is suposed to deal with. The story gets stranger and stranger, and in the end, it is not really resolve in a way which we would have come to expect from the previous books. It is more like she goes "oh well, I really don't care much about the resolution of the case for my readers, as I am pretty happy being a content mother and having this gorgious guy at my side". But I really loved the part devoted to fox, who has come to be as dear to me as he is to Isabell.