the pencil reads

No this isn't a book about Portugese grammar. This is the first book of a trilogy by Alexander McCall Smith comprising Portugese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, the third of which I read in April this year.

The series revolves around the adventures of Professor Dr Mortiz-Maria von Igelfeld, a pompous Professor specialising in ancient and obscure languages. Although it is touted to be "deliciously funny", the only chapter that made me smile was the first, `The Principles of Tennis', where a group of academics tried to play tennis according to a rulebook.

The other stories were mediocre, even on the verge of xenophobic. For example, in the last chapter `Death in Venice', von Igelfeld keeps imagining the water tainted and the stares of a Polish family. In both this chapter as well as `Holy Man', von Igelfeld is relieved to return to Germany, "dear, friendly, safe, comfortable Germany!".

All of this is to be taken in a light-hearted vein I suppose, but as a whole, it is not quite my cup of tea. The binding and cover of the book is lovely though.

Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 at 10:40 AM. :)