Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328762 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

Great for a Good Laugh
McCall Smith promotes The Finer Points of Sausage dogs as an 'entertainment' rather than as a novel and entertaining it is. I came to it after reading the first and third books in the series (this is the second) and I was dubious as to whether McCall Smith could come up with a sufficient number of fresh scrapes, embarassments, and misunderstandings for the hapless Professor Dr Maria Moritz von Igelfeld. But he does. This book like all the other light entertainments of McCall Smith, had me chuckling out loud. In both this series and in his No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, McCall Smith displays excellent characterisation and a fine ear for the cadences of language. This is an ideal book for anyone familiar with, or even aquainted with, life in the academy. The series provides a light counter to David Lodge's equally excellent amusing books on university life. Well worth the evening it takes to read.

Much Funnier than Portuguese Irregular Verbs

No one should read this book thinking it's part of the Botswana books. I also recommend that you read Portuguese Irregular Verbs first. Without that background, the humor here won't work as well.

Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld (as in "hedge hog field") is a very self-important expert on Portuguese irregular verbs at the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, Germany. We learned in the prior book that he's also a bit insecure about his position within this field. At the end of that book, we discovered that he also harbors a disdain for dachshunds ("sausage dogs") as being insufficiently noble (he is a "von" after all). This dislike only reinforces his low opinion of his colleague, Unterholzer, who owns such a creature.

As this book opens, the good professor finds himself feeling out of sorts because his colleague and friend, Professor Doctor Doctor Florianus Prinzel, will be making a lecture in the United States before von Igelfeld. Such a blow to his pride is unsupportable, and our professor takes some short cuts to regain precedence in this arena. That decision leads to some unexpected opportunities to meet new people that may leave you laughing aloud as I was did when I read the first story.

The second story builds on that humor nicely as the professor receives his American host for a visit to Regensburg. There is a slapstick sequence in this story that had me howling on the floor.

The humor levels of the final three stories are lower and take more time to develop, but they are excellent character studies about how someone who has a superiority complex deals with the mundane bumps in the road.

In On the Couch, our professor deals with a feud between Unterholzer and him . . . while trying to maintain his commitment to truth.

The Bones of Father Christmas is a lengthy story with a delayed punch line that takes the professor back to Italy for an extended visit that puts him in the middle of a Christian controversy that has an unexpected conclusion.

The Perfect Imperfect explores how philology becomes a popular subject aboard a cruise ship when our professor takes over.

Don't take these stories too literally. They are very exaggerated . . . almost like cartoons in their humor. If you don't like such broad humor, avoid this book . . . especially if you are a dachshund lover.

I could see this book, however, being made into a pretty hilarious movie starring Steve Martin.

A must read for all students...
Ever wondered what your professors get up to when they’re not teaching? This series gives a wonderful insight in the trivial trails and tribulations of an egocentric professor and his colleagues. The fate of the unfortunate dog had me in stitches and so did the professor’s lecture series in the Mediterranean. It’s well worth a read.