OPINION:
Bertie Pollock is a polite and solemn 7-year-old boy with a devoted and gentle father and a thoroughly nasty mother.
This is perhaps one of the most rare of the many books by Alexander McCall Smith in which his characters are not all well-meaning and kindly, and even more surprising he takes a swipe at the breed of feminists who despise men.
The author is a gentle philosopher whose writings tend to focus on people on whom he usually bestows the benefit of all doubts. There is, he suggests, usually a reason for their being unpleasant and maybe they don’t mean it. He offers no such excuses for Irene Pollock, wife of Stuart Pollock and mother of poor little Bertie.
Bertie is a remarkably well-behaved child who in the McCall Smith tradition tries to think the best of his spiteful little friends. Which makes it remarkable that he inquires of his father how things would be if “mummy wasn’t here.” The implication is that not only would she be happier but so would her husband and oldest son.
The younger son, encumbered with the name of Ulysses is not Stuart’s son, according to recent conclusions reached by his father when he meditates on his “loveless marriage.”
The viperish Irene is having an affair and planning to leave Stuart, something he discovers because Bertie has been listening to his mother’s phone calls. And Irene’s treatment of Stuart is full of contempt and dissatisfaction because he is a man. Which makes you wonder what her appeal may be for the other man in her life. But Stuart is a man who hates friction and puts up with mistreatment constantly, even when his wife points out he probably won’t get a promotion simply because he is a man.
Men, according to the dismal Irene, are responsible for historical mistreatment of women and consequently should be despised and treated as second-class citizens. The fact that Stuart has gone along with this kind of nonsense for so long is the one unlikely aspect of Mr. McCall Smith’s plot.
Stuart is not just henpecked, he is crushed and rarely takes issue with Irene. When she finally admits she is going to leave he is overjoyed, and it seems far-fetched that all he asks of her is that she thank his devoted and charming mother who will move into her daughter-in-law’s place and make everyone happy. Especially Bertie.
In fact Stuart’s mother is one of the few reasonable women in the book, and when he decides to give up his job as well as his wife, her friends are convinced that is the right thing to do for a creature such as a man. It is unusual for the author to focus heavily on neurotics and unfortunately one of the few normally pleasant women is Pat who is obsessed with a thoroughly objectionable and narcissistic man, an obsession she doesn’t understand herself but which she seems incapable of controlling.
It takes another man to persuade her of the problems of Bruce whose favorite occupation in life is looking in a mirror at himself. Children are the most appealing aspect of what there is of the plot which is set in Edinburgh, one of the author’s favorite locations, but an unusual place for him to set a scene so populated with nasty people.
It is doubtful that there is anything nasty about Mr. McCall Smith, which is what makes this piece so unlikely. Bertie is a noble little boy, which is also unlikely, and it tells the reader a lot that he doesn’t complain and nor does his father, when he explains he doesn’t own a kilt which he badly wants. The reason, he says, is that mummy didn’t like kilts or anything involving what she sees as silly traditions, and sewed fabric into a cushion cover. The reaction of most children to such behavior may be imagined.
The book is entertaining, but it also arouses an odd question as to whether the author has actually encountered an Irene Pollock in reality.
• Muriel Dobbin is a former White House and national political reporter for McClatchy newspapers and the Baltimore Sun.
• • •
A TIME OF LOVE AND TARTAN
By Alexander McCall Smith
Anchor, $15.95, 272 pages
Please read our comment policy before commenting.