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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that Alexander McCall Smith doesnt like women so very much

38 replies

Lucyellensmum99 · 04/08/2012 18:22

Now i could be getting this so wrong, but i just can't help but get that feeling sometimes. I can't put my finger on it, but, i have been reading the Isabelle Dalhousie series (in totally the wrong order as i tend to buy from charity shops) and i can't help but thinking he actually has a bit of a poor opinion of women.

This woman is a "moral philosopher" of independant means (she is seriously rich, an inheritance). Living in Edingburgh. Its all quite twee with a moralistic undertone. But he really does paint her as a little bit ditsy, niave and spoilt. She has just had a baby in the last book i read - she constantly palms him off on her house keeper. She has a younger lover who was originally her neices boyfriend. Her niece is not happy about this, even though she dumped him and he turned to the aunt for solace hmm. (i dont think there is too much of an age gap between aunt and niece).

Oh and in the book "the correct use of compliments" he made reference to our multicultural society being a bad thing. That we were no longer a community and we don't even speak the same languages anymore hmm

Am i misinterpreting here? I sort of like reading these books, they are escapist and i should like to be isabel, but then again, i wouldn't. Im not sure i'd like her as a person - i woudnt dislike her, shes just not my cup of tea.

Anyone else read these?

OP posts:
geegee888 · 04/08/2012 18:28

Is he the one who wrote that book that was serialised in The Scotsman, about the girl who had all those rich men (improbably) chasing her that she kept dumping and turning down? And then the next series was about a relative who again had hordes of men improbably chasing her, including one half her age? I think the author might have been rejected by a woman and never quite got over it...

Just too Edinburgh-Smug.

Original poster
Lucyellensmum99 · 04/08/2012 18:32

Im not sure geegee but it does sound like the sort of thing he would write yes.

Edingburgh Smug is exactly how i would describe them. I shift from wistful envy to Hmm

OP posts:
MadgeHarvey · 04/08/2012 18:34

You are misreading or misinterpreting. AMS is a superb author - may I suggest you try the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series? Both the main characters are strong wise women with a sound understanding of life and men!
Isabel Dalhousie doesn't seem at all ditsy to me - she is a fictional character you know! Are you trying to suggest an element of racism too? Or trying to start a different debate re the pros and cons of multiculturalism?

ratspeaker · 04/08/2012 18:35

Cant say i've read any of the Isabelle ones but i do Like Mma Ramotswe

SardineQueen · 04/08/2012 18:36

I enjoyed the no1 ladies detective agency stories very much.

I didn't see anything sexist in them, quite the reverse.

LindyHemming · 04/08/2012 18:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MissAnnersley · 04/08/2012 18:42

I really love AMS.

I've read the Isabelle Dalhousie books, the Scotland Street series and the first three Mme Ramotswe books.

My favourite are the Edinburgh based ones. I love recognising the places although I am biased because Edinburgh is one of my favourite places.

I don't think YABU, because we can't all like the same things but I definitely don't agree that he doesn't like women.

ratspeaker · 04/08/2012 18:44

I agree with Euphemia re Scotland Street ( but the books are quietly addictive as in shhh dont let on I've bought another one )
but sadly I've met people like some of those characters

"Edinburgh smug" does sum up some very nicely

MissAnnersley · 04/08/2012 18:47

I like a bit of Edinburgh smug. Grin

I was there on Thursday and had my usual dream about being rich enough to live there and buy a flat in the New Town.

MissAnnersley · 04/08/2012 18:47

And shop in Harvey Nicks.

bigkidsdidit · 04/08/2012 18:50

I live in Edinburgh and have a son called Bertie whom I regularly take to Valvona and Crolla Blush when I named him we loved in London Grin

Anyway I think you are misreading - I try to be quite alert to that sort of thing but don't see any in those books

RunnerHasbeen · 04/08/2012 18:52

I think the female characters he creates are diverse enough to make their features specific to them and not reflect his opinion of women in general. I think Isobel Dalhousie is a particular type of woman and not portrayed as particularly different from the men she meets at art shows and other "upper class Edinburgh" events, it is that culture he is poking fun at, not gender. As for the Scotland street series, that is meant to be a wee, twee soap opera - of course it will be implausible.

He produces so many books at such a rate that I'm kind of glad there is some variety and he can create characters, some of which might have opinions that differ from his own. I'm probably one of the only people here who has had to read his medical ethics textbook and there is no way he is prejudiced against minorities or other cultures, you are being over sensitive to take offence at the thoughts in the mind of a fictional character. He may be good at seeing two sides to a discussion of a topic, but that doesn't reflect personal opinion.

ZZZenAgain · 04/08/2012 18:54

have only read his No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series and I didn't pick up on the attitude you describe in those books.

MissAnnersley · 04/08/2012 18:54

He also writes or wrote reading books for, I think Ginn.

geegee888 · 04/08/2012 18:57

Every second character in his books seems to be of "independent means"! Do any of them actually have such a thing as a job? (I know the art gallery owner one (the one who chased the aunt and the niece) supposedly had a job, but since the reader was constantly reminded he had no need to make such a thing as a profit, and he kept giving his stock away to potential girlfriends, can you really count it?

Wasn't there even a wierd dog which could talk or something, which was the most smug of all Edinburgh residents?

TheSmallClanger · 04/08/2012 19:06

Characters of independent means are useful to novelists, because they don't have work schedules to complicate their lives/plots, and have lots of money to do exciting things.

I'm only familiar with the Mma Ramotswe books, and they did not strike me as at all sexist, but I mainly know them from the TV adaptations.

LindyHemming · 04/08/2012 19:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Lucyellensmum99 · 04/08/2012 19:49

No madge, definately not looking to go down that road!! As i said, its just an underlying feeling. Errr, i do know she is fictional Hmm

I just got really irritated by the fact that she was able to buy her way out of difficulties, she got usurped as editor by a twattish man, but then bought the journal and effectively fucked him over. But then he deserved it. I'm not sure where he was going with it - but maybe you are right, maybe its a two fingered salute at the Edingburgh Smug than women. She also never gets things right, her inklings always show something amiss but it never what she thinks it was.

As i said before, i switch from wanting to BE isabel and thinking that she is the sort of woman id really dislike in real life (if she were real, which of course she isn't, in case people wondered!)

OP posts:
Original poster
Lucyellensmum99 · 04/08/2012 19:50

He writes well, i enjoy his style of writing - but i do feel a bit Hmm when i'm reading it, they are quite comforting books, if that makes sense. Just sometimes when im reading i think - oooh, thats a bit sexist.

OP posts:
ZZZenAgain · 04/08/2012 19:51

maybe he gets a bit annoyed with the character too, pretty much like you do and it comes through in his writing

Original poster
Lucyellensmum99 · 04/08/2012 19:54

lol ZZZen, im not sure thats a great marketing strategy :)

OP posts:
IvyMay · 04/08/2012 20:35

Haven't read the Scotland series but have enjoyed the Ladies No 1 detective series. Our local library has a big stretch of McCall-Smith's in the kids' section and I borrowed one for my daughter, thinking it'd be good - and it was dreadful. One of the most tedious children's books I've ever read. Was v. disappointed, so can def believe his work is variable.

ImperialBlether · 04/08/2012 20:39

I thought the Ladies No 1 book (only read the first, not sure whether there are more) was the worst book I have ever read in my life.

ratspeaker · 04/08/2012 20:40

OK hands up, who'd like to skelp Bertie's mum around the face with a smelly kipper

You know you'd shy away from her in RL as she helicoptered her poor child around the town.
I once knew someone sort of like that, they moved away, think it was to the New Town. hmmmm I wonder...

ratspeaker · 04/08/2012 20:44

Oh and you've got to admit there are quite a few folk around the New Town of independent means.
I must admit even if I had the money I wouldn't choose to live in the New Town