"Corduroy Mansions could not be described as being in good order but at least it did not appear to be falling down.
"This old place suits me," remarked William to his friend Marcia. "It’s like an old glove, familiar and comfortable." "
Sigh. That's this place, too. But the future place (2 weeks from today) as well. Or so I hope.
That's an excerpt from the second installment of Alexander McCall Smith's newest literary venture: Corduroy Mansions.
Brief background here: he's an author, born in Zimbabwe when it was still Southern Rhodesia to Scots parents. He eventually became a lawyer and taught law at the University of Botswana. He now lives in Scotland and in 2002 or 2003 (I don't remember) began a series entitled The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency, set in Botswana*. He then started the Sunday Philosophy Club series, which takes place in Edinburgh, he had a series of short stories I never read and whose name I forget, and he has a children's series. He captures place and mood exquisitely, in my opinion, and his characters are charming and subtle and like old friends. He also obviously loves his characters and his readers and places little literary winks at them/us in his books.
By far, the most interesting and most endearing series to me (although the
Botswana series will always have a special place in my heart) is 44 Scotland Street. It is a novel which was started in 2004 and was published in daily installments in The Scotsman newspaper. It was originally a bit of a bet, or experiment but it proved so popular and McCall Smith enjoyed writing it so much it continued for years, and it's published in bound volumes. There are five now I believe, although we in the US only have three. The forth is coming out in two weeks and we'll just have to wait for the fifth. You could only read the 44 Scotland Street series in the paper edition of The Scotsman.
Now, however, he is taking a break from 44 Scotland Street and has started a new daily serialized novel, Corduroy Mansions. It seems as if it will be very similar to 44 Scotland Street in that it takes place in a small apartment building and the novel will follow the lives of the residents, but this time in London not Edinburgh. Not a terribly original idea for a novel, and a serialized one at that, but McCall Smith's strength is in character development and his amazing ability to truly capture the sense of a very particular time and place. It is available for free on The Telegraph Online and on an iTunes podcast (excellent for those auditory-learners among us).
What is particularly interesting, especially for those currently enrolled in a graduate level class that deals with these sorts of things, is that it's being described as a "digital novel" which is thoroughly modern but which also uses a very long established literary practice (although it's been out of vogue for some time--that of the serialized novel being written as-it-goes, allowing for feedback and input from the readers. But now in the digital age, it's on a much larger scale than Dickens overhearing the public worrying about the fate of Little Nell and responding to that in his next installment. It's instant, it's broad reaching, and it should be very interesting. I also find it interesting that he brings up the role of fan fiction type novels in his article introducing the series.
It's just all around an interesting day in the history of the book.
I'd encourage anyone, interested in book history or no, to at least check it out. So far it seems just like him--charming, witty, cozy, and fun.
*Edited to say, he wrote it in 1998 but it was not published in the United States until 2002.