Corduroy Mansions

This is the first book I've read by McCall Smith. I get the feeling that I started with the wrong book.

I didn't realise when I started reading that this book started life as a newspaper column. I imagine that, as a newspaper column it could have worked, but it didn't work so well as a novel. It was choppy and disjointed and mostly uninteresting. There was no main storyline, just a mix of snippets from various peoples' lives, and I think that too much was going on for it to work as a cohesive story. None of the characters were believable. Not one of them had a personality, they were stuffy and wooden and stereotypical and I refuse to believe anyone is that clueless about life, let alone a whole bunch of people who happen to live in the show more same building. For me the only character that was mildly interesting was Eddie. Throwing someone out of their house because 'they should have moved out at their age' is despicable, but here it is portrayed as perfectly acceptable. There was much about this book I found a bit off, and in some places bordering on offensive.

As other people have mentioned there are a lot of loose ends at the end of this book. I don't care enough about any of the characters though to read on to see how they are resolved. show less

Just when I was feeling a bit down because the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series had run its course for me, I discovered Corduroy Mansions. This book is fantastic--vivid and humorous characters (including an adorable "Pimlico terrier")whose capers tend to dwell on that fine line between reality and fiction. I found that the characters here are not as reliant upon rhetoric as in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and that lack of predictability makes this my favorite book from AMS thus far.

Corduroy Mansions is a droll British comedy of errors. The novel follows the lives of the Pimlico flat's inhabitants and the trials and disappointments of their ordinary lives. William needs to get his fully grown son to move out of his house, and keep his avid suitor from moving in, while downstairs four young women wrestle with romances of their own. Bertea's caught up in looking after her brother, whose daft lifestyle leaves her on edge. Everyone's got someone else occupying their mind and is rattling rather distractedly through their own lives.

Author Alexander McCall Smith writes with verve and wit, but something about this farce kept it from holding my attention. The characters and their predicaments are interesting, but the plot show more never seems to go anywhere--and wading through all the dithering over decision-making is monotonous and drags the story down. Several characters play a very small part in the tale, and don't seem to have enough to do. Either their roles should have been expanded or excluded all together.

While Corduroy Mansions is cleverly told, it lacks any nuance capable of hooking the reader and inciting him to care. I want to like this book and recommend it wholeheartedly . . . . I just can't. show less

There is just something special in the way that Alexander McCall Smith writes. I knew when I picked up Corduroy Mansions that I'd be in for a treat, and I wasn't let down.

Here's what I love most about Alexander McCall Smith's writing: his character development. There is not a single book of his that hasn't had me waxing on and on about at least one of his characters, and Corduroy Mansions is not exempt from this. I don't know who I loved more, William (and Freddie de la Hay - the vegetarian dog), Oedipus Snark (such a fun, bad character) or Barbara and her adorable, naive brother, Theodore.

This was the perfect airplane read. It had me giggling softly to myself, thoroughly engrossed in the unfolding drama all centered around a quiet, show more unassuming building. A fantastic read and one I highly recommend. show less

I see that this was originally published as a series of amusing short articles in a newspaper, and I can see how that works. I'm not sure it necessarily works as a novel. It uses a mansion block of flats in london, the Corduroy Mansions of the title, as the thread to string the story together. So you meet William, Eddie (his son), Marcia (who's like to be Willaim's significant other) Freddie de la Haye (William's dog) and a host of other inhabitants, employers, friends, and so on of the people who live in the flat. In some ways it doesn't work as a novel as it jumps about too much, you'll be following the Berthea/Terrence thread, then suddenly move to follow Caroline & James (who have a complicated relationship). Few of the characters show more achieve any resolution, few of the storylines are settled by the end of this series of writings.
It was fun, with all ranges of human (and canine) emotions, but I'm not sure that this format sets it off to best advantage. show less

I'm an Alexander McCall Smith fan. I love his gentle and thoughtful writing. I've enjoyed reading the 44 Scotland Street series. Corduroy Mansions contains many echos of the 44 Scotland Street series, yet there is sufficiently different material and themes to enjoy it, rather than seeing it as the recycling of previous material for a different audience.

The pacing of both works has obvious similarities, entirely due to their origins as newspaper serialisations.

Both series have a narcissistic central character - Oedipus Snark in Corduroy Mansions, and Bruce Anderson in 44 Scotland Street. Bruce attempts a career as a wine merchant, whereas in Corduroy Mansions it is William who is the wine merchant. Both have explorations of the art show more world, and the role of dogs in human society.

I always marvel at Alexander McCall Smith's ability to invent and develop interesting and realistic characters, and to explore ethical and moral themes. I look forward to the next installment. show less

I really enjoyed McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I loved learning about Botswana and getting to know Precious Ramotswe and her friends. Nothing devastating ever happens - there are bad things but there is good at the end. Precious is a sensible person who knows her worth and cares about others.

I moved into all the other series he wrote and I believe I read them all or nearly all. I enjoyed getting to know Edinburgh, particularly from the 44 Scotland St series, and when i visited that great city in 2008 I found the pub that is frequented by many of the characters. There is no plaque on the outside - perhaps there should be?

A few things have bothered me about these books, however. As gentle as he tends to be, show more McCall Smith also favors generalizations that go unchallenged. As: "Nobody touches anyone any more because they are afraid of being misunderstood." And "people are too busy to have dinner parties very often any more". More than once this reference to touching comes up and it is representative of what bothers me about these books: it is an exaggeration of the truth: some people are indeed sensitive to touch or to some kinds of touch, but most of us are not. Most of us welcome it. And even those who are sensitive are usually understanding when somebody makes a mistake.

McCall Smith makes fun of some types of persons by, again, exaggerating certain qualities that might be found in some but not all. For example, the head of a health food store pushes colonics to the point of offering to give one to an employee herself. And does not see the awkwardness of the offer. Persons who are vegetarians are invariably represented as either hippie-dippy or extreme and inconsistent earth-savers. One who insists on feeding his dog a vegetarian diet yet likely does not eat that way himself.

And dogs. Clearly McCall Smith likes dogs. His representations of them are always sympathetic. Yet there is so much he does not know about them while imparting traits they simply do not have. For example, he believes they feel guilt. Dogs do not. They live in the present and whatever is in the past stays there. Yet he does not recognize that dogs do have an inherent sense of fairness. If one is given a bone but its friend is not, the bone-less dog feels slighted. I learned these things by reading about studies on dogs. There have been many studies because of the way they were bred for human use. There is no other animal who needs humans as well as other dogs in its life.

I am bothered that somebody whose work is in bioethics has no sense of the ethical use of animals for human use. Is his Scottish upbringing so strong that it overcomes such considerations?

I bring up this issue because the dog in this book was raised vegetarian by its main owner. Yet when the co-owner takes on the dog he cares not a whit about the original owner's beliefs and practices. It seems like he should have at least let the man know that he might not follow all of the same practices. It seems rude to ignore them and laugh behind his back as he feeds the dog meat.

I admit I am taking this opportunity to air a few grievances I have nursed while reading all of these books. In general I enjoy them but I am beginning to enjoy them less, particularly because of the exaggerated generalizations and the stereotyped characters of those who hold certain views. show less