Heavenly Date: And Other Flirtations

Rating:
Summary: Not for the light of humor
Review: If the only thing you have ever read and loved by Alexander McCall Smith is his #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, then I would caution you about buying this book. The stories are wonderfully written, as is everything that he writes. But these stories are not light and cute, some of them are actually very dark. Even the ones that are funny are comedic like a Chekhov play. If you really want to branch out from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, then try reading the Portuguese Irregular Verbs trilogy first. They are a little more satirical, a little dryer, and sometimes ever-so-slightly darker, but not anywhere near as dark as Heavenly Date can be.

Rating:
Summary: Hugely Disappointing
Review: Perhaps I was unfair to expect something as appealing as the "Precious" stories about the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, but I found little rhyme or reason to these tales. Even the weakly ironic twist at the end of the "fatties" dating story was cruel. If I could have found one that was at all uplifting, or even seemed to be written with a kindly-though-damning POV on the menacing labyrinth of courtship and marriage, or of the whole dating scenario, I would have deemed the book a good one; but after reading it through to the end, I wondered why I had bothered.

Rating:
Summary: Despairing; unbalanced
Review: The Publishers' Weekly reviewer who wrote "Smith's nine stories, with their light humor and touching moments, should inspire smiles and sighs in tenderhearted readers everywhere" can't have read more than the first story, "Wonderful Date," which really is tender and sweet. I found myself getting more and more depressed with each successive story. "A Nice Little Date" was absorbing but shocking; "Bulawayo" was relentlessly painful. The stories over all are well-written enough, but it isn't always clear what really happened or what the point is. "Intimate Accounts," for example, I gather is really more about the psyche of the psychiatrist than of the three clients whose accounts he relates, but it isn't developed enough and I waited in vain for the payoff.

The overall view of relations between the sexes, as well as the human psyche, is dark, despairing, disturbing, unbalanced. I don't recommend this collection.

Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse into the Lives of Various Characters
Review: The writer of the popular #1 Ladies Detective Agency has produced another winner. This volume of short stories is like a glimpse into the various worlds of each character. From a husband with intimacy problems to a botched date that ends in death, this book promises to entertain.
Skillfully written, the reader is pulled into each story. In a few sentences, the characters are given life. In a few pages, the story becomes real, with the characters moving throughout.
Much as real life does, these stories alternately take happy or sad turns. Also like life, they don't seem to end at the last page. As a reader, I was left wanting to know more.
For a short story collection, the characters are surprisingly life-like, complete with faults. Heavenly Date showcases stories about the nature of humans and their interaction with each other.
Although the book has a slow start, stay with it. Heavenly Date is a great way to spend an autumn afternoon or to just to pass a few minutes reading. If you like short stories collections or are a fan of Smith's previous bestsellers, this book is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: These stories are as good as those in Botswana - buy it!
Review: These stories are not set in Botswana, but they are funny, delightful, occasionally sad (McCall Smith is naturally one of the funniest men you could ever meet but he can't be funny ALL the time) and well worth reading for seeing how he writes good stories in different parts of the world. Christmas is coming - be sure to buy all your friends plenty of copies of this delightful series of tales! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)

Rating:
Summary: A Darker Side
Review: These stories have a completely different flavor from the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Fans of those books will find this one surprising and probably disturbing. The stories are not about happy endings, although one or two do end happily, but about consequences. When people act on impulse, or follow a course of action without understanding its implications, or simply give in to the darker side of their natures, things happen. The characters don't necessarily get what they deserve, they get much more, for better or worse.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent--but don't expect Precious redux
Review: This collection of short stories shows Mr. Smith to be a master of the form. Further, it shows the influence of his "day job" --ethics worm their way into every tale. As might be expected, the moral land of gray makes for wonderful explorations of character, human behavior and reader satisfaction. Mr. Smith's writing is clear, concise and perhaps even formal in tone; perfect. These are not tales written by a lightweight. I see many negative reviews: it's because these stores are neither lighthearted nor "easy" and they were not meant to be. But they are well-crafted and wonderful, something like dark chocolate!

Rating:
Summary: Dark and depressing
Review: Unfortunately most other reviewers here were looking for a continuation of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series when selecting Heavenly Date. I am also a fan of the Botswana detective books, but I believe it is important to review this book based on its own merit. The stories are engaging and the characters are well distinguished from one story to the next. Each story gives a concise insight into impulses and oddities found in relationships and personal interactions. It is offbeat, the locations are varied, and the stories range from humorous to slightly bizarre. I found this to be an extremely entertaining book for light reading. So, if you enjoy this author's ability to explore a broad range of subjects as well as his insights into people and relationships between them, give the book a chance. If you are looking more about Precious Ramotswe, wait for the next book in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Stands On Its Own
Review: Unfortunately most other reviewers here were looking for a continuation of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series when selecting Heavenly Date. I am also a fan of the Botswana detective books, but I believe it is important to review this book based on its own merit. The stories are engaging and the characters are well distinguished from one story to the next. Each story gives a concise insight into impulses and oddities found in relationships and personal interactions. It is offbeat, the locations are varied, and the stories range from humorous to slightly bizarre. I found this to be an extremely entertaining book for light reading. So, if you enjoy this author's ability to explore a broad range of subjects as well as his insights into people and relationships between them, give the book a chance. If you are looking more about Precious Ramotswe, wait for the next book in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Well-Crafted Stories Cover Familiar Mating Ground
Review: Warning! Alert! Alarm! This is most definitely NOT part of Smith's highly enjoyable No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. There seem to be an inordinate number of people who bought this book without noticing that rather key point, and then unfairly blasted it for not being sweet and charming. Originally published ten years ago, the nine stories here are quite different--don't expect wholesome characters, rascally scoundrels, and a generally upbeat tone (even though the jacket copy says "heart-warming"). More accurate is the blurb on the cover which compares them to the short fiction of Roald Dahl.

Each of the stories in an examination of a male/female relationship, and the picture is often not a pretty one. The twenty page opening "Wonderful Date" is probably the most benign of the lot, a sweet story about two elderly aristocratic Swiss on a date who then break out of their formal routine by befriending a young couple. "Nice Little Date" is brief ten page encounter between an American rock star on vacation in Portugal and a young prostitute, and a rather empty meditation on the legacy of colonialism. Next is the longest story, "Bulawayo", fifty pages set in in Rhodesia in the early '60s. It's about a young couple who get married for all the wrong reasons and lead quiet lives of unfufilment. It's well written, but the story it tells about disappointment and longing is a familiar one.

"Far North" is my own favorite of the bunch, twenty pages about a professional woman in Australia who gets stuck on a terrible date. Her resignation is familiar to anyone who's had to see a bad date through to the end, but then the story veers into dark humor and tension. "Intimate Accounts" is a rather weak and self-concious twenty pages of a psychiatric therapist recounting several unusual cases. The touching "Calwarra" is about a young woman in rural Australia who seeks to escape her circumstances and gets bogged down. "Fat Date" is a quick ten page comic sketch of a blind date between two "large" people. "Maternal Influence" is another well-written riff on a familiar theme, this time fifteen pages about a controlling mother who smothers her son--until his spine is stiffened when he meets a nice girl. The final (and title) story injects a dose of magic into the proceedings, where a young Englishwoman spending the summer in Tuscany experiences a divine conception. I didn't particularly care for it, but others might.

The stories are almost uniformly well-written and crisp, however the meditations on dating and mating are fairly commonplace stuff. Smith does it well, but there's not a story here that's likely to linger very long in the reader's memory.