44 Scotland Street
By: Alexander McCall Smith ; illustrations by Iain McIntosh.
Contributors: McIntosh, Iain.
Publisher: Polygon
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Edinburgh
Language: eng
Number of pages: 325
ISBN-13: 9781904598169
Subjects: Apartment houses -- Fiction.; Young women -- Fiction.; Art galleries, Commercial -- Employees -- Fiction.; Roommates -- Fiction.; Edinburgh (Scotland) -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Other titles: Forty-four Scotland Street
Description: One of McCall Smith's particular talents is his ability to portray archetypes without resorting to stereotype or cliche. Thus we immediately recognise the Edinburgh chartered surveyor, stalwart of the Conservative Association, who dreams of membership to Muirfield golf club. We have the pushy Stockbridge mother, and her prodigiously talented five-year-old son, who is making good progress with the saxophone and with his Italian. Then there is Domenica Macdonald who, rather like Miss Jean Brodie, is that type of Edinburgh lady who sees herself as a citizen of a broader intellectual world.In McCall Smith's hands such characters retain charm and novelty, simultaneously arousing both mirth and empathy.