Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1396 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-30
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain - just as in life the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have. Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues: she edits a philosophical journal and spends a great deal of her time considering how to improve the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure; her niece Cat, who is embarking on a new relationship with a dubious workaholic mummy's boy; and even an American couple newly arrived in Edinburgh on a tour. And then there is Jamie, Cat's ex-boyfriend, a handsome, gifted musician fourteen years Isabel's junior, with whom she is slowly and hopelessly falling in love. Intensely thoughtful and consistently entertaining, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN is shot through with compassion and unassuming intelligence.

Customer Reviews

Evening Cocoa
This book is very pleasant and undemanding stuff.
The plot inches along and any pretense at investigating crime has been abandoned. There is a twist at the end, but the next book synopsis gives it away.
You can read these books quickly and with little effort but the main character (Isabel Dalhousie)occasionally becomes annoying and the book sometimes just becomes an exposition of moral philosophy with the characters fading into the background.
So nothing special, but not dreadful either.

My goodness, Isabel Dalhousie is human after all.
I was very disappointed with the first Isabel Dalhousie book, 'The Sunday Philosophy Club'. Most of the characters, and especially Dalhousie herself, emerged with all the character of a cardboard cutout. It isn't just that they were so different from the Mma Ramotswe books, the first two Sunday Philosophy Club books were plain boring by McCall Smith's standards.

I still find the main character's endless witterings about moral philosophy irritating, but she has at least progressed in this novel to show that she has real, everyday, human feelings. As the book progresses, the entertainment value (and that surely is what these books are about? Maybe not?) increases, and Smith releases a nice bombshell at the end.

At last I can look forward to the next Dalhousie novel.

The Examined Life Examined
Once upon a time philosophers dealt with practical questions of ethics: When is it appropriate to lie? When can you take another life? When may you be silent while another makes a mistake? Alexander McCall Smith returns us to those musings, dressed up in the clothing of a divorced woman, Isabel Dalhousie, dealing with her personal life and her profession as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. For those who like some intellectual depth with their stories, this series will be most rewarding. For those who want big laughs and ironies that make you instantly smile, go back to The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

This is the third book in the series. In the prior books, Isabel shows herself to be a woman who likes to take her time to examine her behavior . . . before acting . . . and usually kicks herself when she doesn't let her intellect lead her. While being concerned about her niece, Cat, Isabel mostly is disappointed that Cat has rejected the handsome and worthy Jamie for a series of less good marital candidates. But Isabel has taken solace in keeping Jamie for a friend, while Jamie pines for the uninterested Cat.

When it rains, is that a blessing . . . or bad luck? In Scotland where it usually rains, you'd better take the former attitude. That's the theme of this story: How should you handle the unexpected?

The story moves forward on a number of fronts: Isabel develops an interest in an odd couple of Americans who turn out to be friends of her cousin; Cat has a new man in her life; Isabel and Jamie seem to drift closer together than either expected; Isabel helps Cat find some new help; and Isabel sets out to buy a home for Grace, her housekeeper. Each story element turns on the nature of male-female relations and examines those relations in different ways.

While there are the usual conundrums (What if someone misunderstands your purpose and offers you a bargain? What should you do if you think someone is in bad relationship? What's the right reaction when love offers itself?), there is actually more plot development in this story than in the previous two combined. I also liked the way that this book points out the limits of trying to lead with one's mental faculties. There is, after all, a strong emotional side to all of us.

I found my interest in the series to be greatly increased by this book. I'm very much looking forward to the next installment in the series.

Bravo!