To an outsider, it is often difficult to distinguish if one is Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish (for those who come from the Protestant North).
For us, they are all British.
It is only when I started reading Alexander McCall Smith's book on his character Isabel Dalhousie, who is Scottish, based in Edinburgh, did I realize that even if they are British, they are proud Scots as well, with temperaments that are a bit different from their southern fellowmen.
It is always eye-opening when a fiction writer delves on these character studies as well as vivid descriptions of the place, that allows the reader to understand the subtle cultural variances between two groups of people that appear homogeneous to the rest of the world.
Once again, the novel is set Edinburgh, and it's definitely now on my wish list of places to visit in the future! I would love to retrace the steps that Isabel takes as she walks around her favorite city.
Parang I want to borrow nga this style of writing, of using actual street names, and describing actual neighborhoods, this time, supplanted in the more hot and tropical busting city of Metro Manila.
This installment of the Isabel Dalhousie series is more interesting, not only because of the philosophical dilemmas the character presents to the reader, but also because there is a sinister act that happens in the beginning which first, looked like a suicide, but, later on, could possibly be a murder!
That's why I was always turning the page to find out the real score!
Definitely, another agreeable read from Smith!
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