Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley October 23, 2013
Author Alexander McCall Smith
Distributor:
ISBN: 9781846972539
Publisher: Polygon
Release Date:
Website: http://www.newsouthbooks.com.au
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Bertie is coming up to his seventh birthday but is somewhat terrified that his mother will do as she has always done in the name of gender equality and healthy living, by organising the birthday party from hell. All he wants to be is 18 so he can have the birthday he has always wanted with the friends he would like to invite.
Through his eyes we meet his mother and father, his friends, his neighbours, his little brother, who, it is often pointed out, probably does not have the same father as he looks remarkably like Bertie’s psychotherapist, who left town in a hurry.
Bertie is back giving us his personal and insightful look at life as he knows it, from the vantage point of an almost seven year old perspective, in this modern day world of families, extremes, in every sense of the word and the veneer of normalcy which can coat the most bizarre of events.
In this gently satirical insight into modern day life McCall Smith takes so many of the issues faced by the modern family gently lampooning the ridiculous, the traditional and the everydayness, which despite all the efforts to change in the name of political correctness, still underpins life in suburbia.
Bertie is coming up to his seventh birthday but is somewhat terrified that his mother will do as she has always done in the name of gender equality and healthy living, by organising the birthday party from hell. All he wants to be is 18 so he can have the birthday he has always wanted with the friends he would like to invite.
Through his eyes we meet his mother and father, his friends, his neighbours, his little brother, who, it is often pointed out, probably does not have the same father as he looks remarkably like Bertie’s psychotherapist, who left town in a hurry.
As with all McCall Smith novels we are captivated from the first word as he paints a delicate picture of life’s many foibles. It is charming, enveloping and un-put-down-able once you get to the end of the first page.
We can so totally relate to Bertie’s struggles to try and get his Mother to treat him like a normal boy, to have a party like normal boys and to eat normal food like normal people.
The many people who look out for Bertie in his daily endeavours have been beautifully created bringing to life a rich tapestry of community life.
We meet Angus Lordie, painter, who always seems to be almost if not always on the wrong side of Animal Welfare with his trusty hound Cyril, the triplets Tobermory, Fergus and Rognvald and their Danish au pairs, along with their parents, friends of Bertie’s mother Irene along with a so many of the members making up the community of 44 Scotland Street.
There is so much of life and living packed into Bertie’s neighbourhood that each of the characters develops their own momentum, to the point where you feel you know them intimately, that they are all people in your neighbourhood; that you are a part of theirs.
But even with all their eccentricities, confusing options and attempts to come to terms with life their way, while looking out for Bertie, none of them could have predicted the series of events, which led to Bertie having the birthday he had always wanted: gender equality not invited.
As always with Alexander MCall Smith his writing absorbs with his dry wit coupled with his shrewd insights into people, life and living.