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

[Lucyellensmum99]

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?

I've seen him speak at a couple of events and thought he was hilarious, articulate and sharp. I read one of the Isabel Dalhousie books (involved a chap pitching over the balcony at the Usher Hall I think) and thought it was utter tripe.

Edinburgh smug is a great descriptor. I'm an Edinburger, but this woman bears no resemblance to any woman I have known. I know she's fictional, but she's not believable. And unbearably smug!

I only finished the book because it was a book group selection and I wanted to be able to explain just why I'd hated it so much!

I've lived in the New Town, and found it unbearably Edinburgh Smug. And Harvey Nichols is a pretty boring shop. I'd rather live in the countryside.

I thought the Scotland Street books were a kind of fond send up of Edinburgh Smug. Even the choice and description of Scotland Street itself, as hanging onto the fringes of the New Town and not being a particularly well regarded street.

I think it shows that he can't have been a very hands on father - i've read all the scenes with the child in absolute astonishment because none of it rings true.

But then I think he's just old fashioned. The journal hasn't been bought up by elsevier, isn't typeset overseas and the authors submit by post! And the journal has unbelievably high subscription figures and she writes to librarians to discuss this. Staggers belief.

But then if I was writing an imaginary world i'd cut out all the modern unpleasant stuff too I guess.

So I take the books for what they are and I look them!

love them I mean

I'm brand new here so I hope I'm responding to a post about Isabel Dalhousie. (If I'm in the wrong place, please let me know) I've read tons of AMS books and have "liked" all his other female characters (except Bertie's mom, of course). Having said that, I can't say as I care for Isabel Dalhousie. I just finished my 3rd book in her series and disliked her more with each. I think I'll just stay away from them from now on.

I think there is great variation in the way he writes female characters: I didn’t detect a hint of disdain for women in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency but I think the contempt he holds Scottish women in is clear. It’s easy to loathe Bertie’s mother as a caricature of Smug Edinburgh and to find Dalhousie intolerable and I think this is an intentional belittling of a certain type of women whereas the men in these series aren’t painted as repellent or ridiculous to the same degree. Therefore I agree with you OP and wonder if there is a misogyny underlying his writing which is apparent in the No.1 LDA because the idea of a strong African woman is very much romanticised within his books.

I read one of those books where at one point she sort of befriends a professor guy in his 50s while investigating something on his behalf. And I thought "oh god, either she is going to have a fling or is going to reflect on him.being ruggedly handsome in a silver fox kind of way". But she didn't. The woman in her thirties didn't consider the 50 year old self inseet as a potential partner at any point
Which just goes to show how badly some writers write women. But yeah, I don't actually think he is that bad in comparison really.

I've always found he writes women well. He describes strong women (No 1 ladies detective agency for example), career women, sahm, and academics (the Scotland Street stories). He makes them realistic, and mostly demonstrates how they 'manage' the men without them realising it!
Ibthink you've misinterpreted him!

I think in some ways they are a bit 2 dimensional. But the men are as well. Its how he writes all the characters. Actually... maybe 2 dimensional is the wrong word - the books frequently have depth to the characters I guess. But it isn't deep literature, it is cosy crime and it the character development sort of bounces along happily as the plot develops. That isn't a criticism BTW. It is well written, but written within a specific genre and the mildly comic, easily to imagine characters sort of fit that.

I've always vey much enjoyed his books and it's never once occured to me that he doesn't like women. An American friend said he addressed her book group in NY some years ago and thoroughly charmed them all. She's hard to impress and has what she calls "a bullshit detector" but she described him as "totally delightful." I was quite jealous.....

To read about a character who is perfect, with no flaws or quirks, would be very dull.

Haven’t read any of his non-academic work, but he taught me at university. In that context, he was a really lovely man; supportive and encouraging of all his students, male and female.

I think there was a certain amount of jealousy from other faculty members due to his wealth and minor celebrity, but certainly never any suggestion of misogyny.

So any non perfect female character must have been written by a woman hating misogynist?

she got usurped as editor by a twattish man, but then bought the journal and effectively fucked him over. But then he deserved it.

Presumably you think he's a man hating misandrist too