Customer Reviews

The Right Attitude to Rain

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The Right Attitude to Rain (2006) is the third novel in the Isabel Dalhousie series, following Friends, Lovers, Chocolate. In the previous volume, Isabel spent a bit of time thinking of Auden and Brother Fox. With a little help from Jamie, she tracked down the donor of Ian's heart. And she brought about a sense of resolution between a father and his late son.

In this novel, Isabel is concerned about her interventions into others's affairs. Several people, particularly Jamie, have chided her for going over the line into nosiness. However, she has convenient excuses for noticing a foreign couple park their car in a clearly marked no-parking zone and for following them into the Scottish Gallery. As it happens, she is destined to encounter this couple often during the next few weeks.

Speaking of intervening, Isabel is looking for an apartment for Grace, her housekeeper. Isabel's father has asked Isabel to take care of Grace and she has decided that this request means that she should provide a place for Grace to live. Isabel asks Jamie to go with her to inspect an apartment close to his home.

Isabel immediately takes a liking to the seller, Florence Macreadie, and Florence seems to like Isabel. Florence also seems to approve of Jamie. Florence has inherited a house in Trinity from her aunt and must leave her long-time residence. Yet she is not enjoying the flood of nosy viewers who have come into her home.

Cat has another boyfriend, Patrick, and Isabel is determined to hold back her opinions of the man. Isabel is told about Patrick by Eddie, Cat's only employee, who seems to approve of him. Isabel soon learns that Patrick is dominated by his mother, whom she knows slightly, but she virtuously refrains from mentioning her growing doubts on the relationship to Cat.

Isabel has houseguests during the summer. Cousin Mimi McKnight and her husband Joe have fled the Dallas heat and are visiting Isabel for a few weeks before moving on to a house in Oxford. They are seldom within the house during the daylight hours. Joe is researching the history of adoption in the libraries and Mimi is haunting bookstores to find works by Arthur Waley.

In this story, Isabel spends too much time thinking about the morals of various subjects innocently introduced by various acquaintances. She is personally concerned about her relationship with Jamie. Of course, Jamie loves Cat, but her niece has spurned all his advances. Now Isabel is free to wonder about her own feelings for the much younger -- fourteen years -- and very good looking man.

Naturally, the Review of Applied Ethics takes up some of her time and lots of her mentality. She has a young professor on her editorial board who asks many questions. Another member of the editorial board submits an incoherent article on "The Ethics of Tactical Voting" that requires extensive editing. At least it gives her some outlet for her obsessive cogitations.

This story is more personal than the previous novels, with few elements of a mystery story. Actually, the author has always dealt more with the daily mental life of Isabel Dalhousie than with her investigations into illegal acts. There are some improper activities occurring in this novel, but they are almost irrelevant to the main plot.

Highly recommended to McCall Smith fans and to anyone else who enjoys tales of a highly intelligent woman with independent means and a rather old-fashioned approach to life and romance.

-Bill Jordin

Finally, Isabel starts acting like a 40 year old instead of like an elderly lady! This book really started showing us how likeable and interesting Isabel really is, and for that I am grateful. I found the first book in the series rather dull, liked the second book a lot better, and finally really enjoyed this one.

Isabel develops a romantic interest (I won't spoil it for you!), has some visitors from America, and generally has some interesting and fun times. The plot, as in the previous books, has little enough to it that I don't want to say much more, but the philosophical musings and thoughts on everyday life are charming and a pleasure to read, and I was thrilled to see her character blossom so nicely!

Can't wait for the next one.

I've very much enjoyed the books in this series, but we've left the Sunday Philosophy Club Mystery series and entered the realm of Isabel's philosophical musings. That's not in and of itself a bad thing, but it's a change of pace. Part of the change are strange changes of detail: Isabel no longer thinks of herself as a "middle aged spinster" (as she did in the first book), but there are other changes that just become inconsistencies. In this book, Jamie has his apartment because he inherited it from an aunt; in the first book, we're told his parents bought it for him. In this book, Isabel's parents met in New York while her father was a student at Columbia. In earlier books, he studied at Harvard. What is consistent is that Isabel still thinks Jamie is beautiful, in a Mediterranean sort of way.

Most important is the change in tone. I still relish Isabel's deeply ethical approach to life and McCall Smith's writing, but this book feels like it should be viewed separately from the other books. It delves more deeply into Isabel's inner life, while dealing only superficially with her relationship with other. Even her affair is given a very cursory treatment.

If what you enjoyed about the previous Isabel Dalhousie books were the interplay of philosophy and genuine mysteries, then this book may leave you unsatisfied. If you really relished the philosophical discussions, then read on, and ignore the fact that the only "question" (not even a mystery) is of the nature of "does he like me."

Once again, Smith has produced a stunningly glorious novel that spends its time dealing with both human relationships and ethics; as Smith is wont to do. In a finely crafted piece Smith examines the attitudes toward a relationship between a man and a woman who are separated by 14 years. This plot element is one that Smith has carried over three books now and had to be resolved for the sake of ethical clarity.

With particular finesse, Smith weaves in both the American perspective and the Scottish perspective because "Isabel" is half each and Smith mixed in some visiting American relatives from Texas. He thus created an opportunity to mix and match cultures in this ethical question. The resolution of that question I will leave to the reader as he or she consumes this finely created addition to the "Isabel Dalhousie" series of Smith books.

As always, Smith is clear, with fine and illustrative human experience examples to point out the fine points of ethics, especially as it mixes with real society and real human beings. Nonetheless, his messages are clear and his style is engaging. The book is recommended to all readers of Smith's former works and anyone looking for a quick and interesting take on the societal position of older women being involved with younger men.

This book was a great disappointment. I don't know what I expected after the very good second book, but it certainly was not this. The Right Attitude to Rain reads like a long, ponderouss, unfunny episode of Seinfeld. For all of its credentials, it is essentially a book about nothing- except lusting after a younger man.

While I am happy to see that this book was subtitled "An Isabel Dalhouse Novel" instead of "Mystery", I think this book would have been more appropriately labeled "Romance", since the sole purpose of the book seemed to focus on when and how Isabel would get together with Jaime.

Unfortunately, this book was not much of a romance, either. I could not relate to it on any front. I am actually the same age as the main character, married to a younger man and without children. I am an inquisitive and educated person. I have been to Scotland and have met many people like the ones described in the book.

Despite all of the similarities, this book just rings false to me. This new relationship between Jaime and Isabel(friends with benefits?) is not in the least bit romantic. Isabel has to be the worst "detective" ever, frequently and repeatedly jumping to wrong conclusions throughout the series. For someone big on examining the morality and ethics of others, she is remarkably blind to her own. Whether Cat had rejected Jaime or not, surely an affair with a man who is the ex-lover of one's niece and closest living blood relative warrants some kind of moral/ethical debate. It is shocking to me that Isabel was taken aback at Cat's reaction to her new relationship with Jaime. I would have been suprised if her response had been anything other than it was. I don't think it should have taken a philosopher to anticipate that.

Isabel's constant pining over Jamie, and his seeming almost indifference to her, really wore on me. I forced myself to finish this book. A very sad end to what had been a good series. I know another book follows this one, but I will not be reading it.

I have had enough of the self-absorbed and self-righteousness musings of Isabel Dalhousie.

Don't read this book for the mystery...read it for the wonderful and literate writing of Alexander McAll Smith, the lovely discriptions of Edinburgh, Scotland and for the gentle philisophical musings of Isabel. In this novel, Isabel (at long last) begins a romance, has a visit from her American cousin, has a terrible argument with her neice, Cat, and does get involved in a small mystery. There is a continuing plot with returning characters. Isabel looks for an apartment for Grace, her housekeeper because Isabel's father has asked Isabel to take care of Grace. Cat has another boyfriend, Patrick, and Isabel doesn't take to him, but she is determined to hold back her opinions of the man. Isabel goes to a weekend house party with Jamie in the country and there she encounters the mystery.

Jamie, Grace, Cat, they're all there to enjoy and there is some charming dialog to savor as well. The nicest thing of all, though, is the development of Isabel's character.

Alexander McCall Smith is an extraordinary writer under any circumstances, and this most recent chapter in the life and times of philosopher Isabel Dalhousie is no exception. The writing is excellent as always and Smith's philosophical gems are scattered throughout. I'll state up front that an element of the story introduced near the end disappointed me. I'll say no more about it so as not to spoil the book for anyone else. It's been almost a week since I finished reading The Right Attitude To Rain and the feeling has stuck, so it must be genuine. However, I have to say, I'm very interested in how this issue is handled in the next Isabel Dalhousie book.

In TRATR, Isabel's cousin, Mimi, and her husband, Joe, visit from Dallas. Another Dallas couple appears in the story, as well. Tom Bruce, wealthy, middle-aged, and living with the results of Bell's palsy (have had it, so I know what he's dealing with. Mine went away. He was not so lucky) has a flirtatious, pretty, young fiancée, Angie. They are visiting Scotland, the land of Bruce's ancestors. The two couples, plus Isabel and Jamie (Isabel's niece Cat's old flame), spend time together, including a weekend getaway outside Edinburgh. Cat, meanwhile, is seeing a man who has a powerful mother. Isabel sees trouble there, but is trying not to interfere. Her relationship with Jamie heats up. I thought Smith handled the increasing heat between them very well, showing Isabel's anxiety over the age difference (14 years...nothing when it's an older man and younger woman, such as with Tom and Angie). Jamie seems to adore Isabel, but one wonders how committed he would be to a permanent relationship. Another plot feature is Isabel's search for a flat for her housekeeper, Grace.

I like the everyday feel of the Dalhousie stories and enjoy taking in Smith's words of wisdom as they are presented through Isabel's character. On page 234, Tom Bruce shares with Isabel the wisdom he has gained from his disfigurement and how people react to him. She then reflects:
"She did not say anything, but she knew exactly what he meant. To be able to imagine the other, and the experience of the other, was what wisdom was all about; but nobody talked about wisdom very much any more, nor virtue, perhaps because wisdom was not appreciated in a world of glitz and effect. We chose younger and younger politicians to lead us because they looked good on television and were sharp. But really we should be looking for wisdom, and choosing people who had acquired it; and such people, in general, looked bad on television--grey, lined, thoughtful." Amen.

Carolyn Rowe Hill

In another installment in the Isabel Dalhousie mystery series set in Edinburgh, Scotland, we see the wealthy philosopher in a different light. In previous books she was described as a middle-aged spinster, but in this novel Isabel has a suitor. Who cares that he is her niece's castoff? Or that he is fourteen years her junior? Isabel ponders these sticky details as she continues to fall in love with Jamie.

Isabel isn't an innocent; she has been married before and has seen much in her life. She is aware of how fortunate she is to have inherited a house and enough money to keep her in good stead for life. She enjoys a good relationship with her niece, Cat, and is hosting her cousin and spouse, Mimi and Joe, on vacation from America.

It is through Mimi and Joe that she is introduced to another couple from America. Tom and Angela were observed by Isabel in an Edinburgh museum before she met them. She noticed things out of kilter with their relationship on first view, and those things are only reinforced when introduced. Why is Angela with the older man whose face is partially paralyzed? Is it love? Of him or his money? Should Isabel tell Tom of her suspicions about his fiance? Always a philosopher, Isabel feels the need to think and talk these questions out with Jamie. Here lies my biggest, maybe only, problem with the book. Jamie seems to agree with her every spoken thought and seems to have no opinions of his own. He comes across as too malleable. It's hard to feel sexual tension in the story when he has so little personality.

But this series is about philosophical judgments and how they apply to everyday life, and this book is no different. Isabel Dalhousie is an intriguing, fun character. The other characters in the book are interesting and the dialogue is entertaining. The lack of strong mystery doesn't detract from the diversionary amusement value.

Alexander McCall Smith always makes the reader aware of the gentle nature of humans, and a genteel way of life. This book becomes more difficult to put down after the halfway point.

Armchair Interviews says: You can count on this author making you think about human nature.

I have always enjoyed the Isabel Dalhousie's books and in my opinion The Right Attitude to Rain is a notch above the others. Even though Isabel was still analyzing family and friends, and coming to her own conclusions in the story was a departure from the other books. Isabel's niece, Cat, has a different personality or a different side, maybe that's what I'm trying to say. Oh well, no need to expound on the plot and other parts of the as there are numerous reviews posted. I would like to add that Mr. Smith has created a wonderful story in which you will definitely care for the characters.

I am a fan of several of this author's series, so I must admit that my opinion is a bit biased. However, this book is so far my favorite in the Sunday Philosophy/Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries. Before this book, I had to keep reminding myself that Isabel was only in her 40's (as opposed to, say, 80s). Her crush on Jamie seemed a bit tragic and, honestly, frustrating. Normally, I enjoy curling up with these books and a cup of tea for a leisurely read but, by the time I came to the end of this one, I couldn't put it down. I really like where the series is going and I can't wait to see how Isabel's life changes with this new development.