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Title: The Importance of Being Seven
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Narrator: Robert Ian Mackenzie
Format: Unabridged
Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
Language: English
Release date: 08-21-12
Publisher: Recorded Books
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 589 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
Perhaps best known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith delights fans around the world with his warmhearted 44 Scotland Street novels. In the series sixth entry, the residents of 44 Scotland Street grapple with problems both trivial and severe, but none so great as when six-year-old Bertie Pollock - who longs to be seven - mislays his mum and learns a valuable lesson about wish fulfillment.
Members Reviews:
Beyond touching
Alexander McCall Smith is perhaps my favorite living author of fiction.
This latest book is one of his most moving and touching, I think. Mr. Smith's sense of humanity is so uplifting it leaves me a little weepy by the end of the book.
I highly recommend this book particularly for anyone who would like a little warmth and humanity, which is so hard to find in literature these days let alone the world.
I Never Get Tired of these Books!
The Scotland Street series just gets better with each new addition. The only very slight criticism I can come up with is that most issues get a little too easily addressed by the end; still, there is the unsolved--as yet--worry I carry about Bertie and his very odd mother, and the somewhat benign concern that Bruce will never truly reform, so the series never becomes tiresome. I am so spoiled by Alex. Smith's storytelling that--even though I have a fairly full library of as yet unread books--I keep coming back and checking to see if there's another Scotland Street sequel for me to try. I laughed out loud many times as I listened to this one, and could hardly wait for a new opportunity to keep going.
Like visiting with old friends
Would you listen to The Importance of Being Seven again? Why?
Yes, I actually have listened to parts of it again. I'm fascinated by the way in which McCall Smith effortlessly weaves philosophy into the story.
What other book might you compare The Importance of Being Seven to and why?
Since this is a series, it can be compared with any of the other books in the series. As in other series (take Ann B Ross's Miss Julia series, for instance) the characters are recurring, and half the fun is in finding out how they've progressed from the last book.
What does Robert Ian Mackenzie bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?
I have read some of the books, as opposed to listening to them. I find the audible versions tend to put me more convincingly in Edinburgh. Robert Ian Mackenzie can turn on a Scotch brogue in a way I can't. He's particularly effective as Angus Lordie.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Many laughs, many smiles. Maybe even a tear or two.
Any additional comments?
I love the way he sees the world through his characters' eyes, be it six-year-old Bertie, or Cyril the dog, or the twenty-something Matthew. These are well-delineated characters. Too many fictional characters are caricatures. McCall Smith's characters are wonderfully low key, each with his or her own limitations and self-perceptions, navigating a world filled with other human beings with their own foibles people who are narcissistic, overbearing, dishonest, self-deluded, self-sacrificing, gullible, hopeful, sad, funny and sweet. They each come with the sort of mild eccentricities and self-doubt that you'll recognize in members of your own family.
