About book At The Villa Of Reduced Circumstances (2004)
I read the first book in this series, “Portuguese Irregular Verbs,” found it quite amusing and so wanted to read another in the series. My second foray was “At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances” which I listened to via a CD audio book. This book is good, but I preferred the first in the series.“At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances” contains two stories loosely tied together by the common thread of the book’s hero, Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, traveling to another country for scholarly honors.First Professor von Igelfeld lands a gig as a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University and then he is honored in Colombia at the Academy of Letters in Bogotá. I liked the second part better, although I’m not sure I would if I were Colombian.Paul Hecht does a great job of reading this story and giving voice to the various characters.Professor von Igelfeld finds himself pitch-forked into local intrigue on both trips. He also finds the customs of both countries sometimes hard to fathom and yearns for the rationality of Germany. In a subtle way author Alexander McCall Smith makes the point that life is no more rational in Germany, it’s just that von Igelfeld knows his homeland and so automatically understands the mores, and even is guilty of, unconsciously, using sub-text in his own conversations.The stories remind me of the saying: “If you want things to be just like they are at home…. then stay home.”The Professor goes to Cambridge, is stressed when he cannot tell when to take a phrase at face value, and is lured into being part of a power-play by some of the professors there. Back in Germany, reviewing his visit, he is happy that he went to England and von Igelfeld realizes he had grown fond of his fellow academicians in the other country. Almost immediately he is invited to Colombia. This was the part of the book I found funnier, although I listened with guilty pleasure. Von Igelfeld finds himself in a country where apparently everyone is militant about something and the government turns over every nine months. It’s the sort of humor that would have made me squirm had I been in a room listening along with a native of that country. Further, I listened after the hacking of Sony’s emails, allegedly by North Korea, supposedly over their displeasure at the imminent release of the comedy “The Interview,” a movie in which there is a plot to kill their leader. Every time Colombia and her people were portrayed in a silly light, thoughts of (allegedly) North Korea’s reactions were in the back of my mind. (Although, it should be noted that at no time is von Igelfeld involved in any plot to kill anyone, a key difference from “The Interview.”)After the Colombian visit, Professor von Igelfeld once again makes his way back to Germany where he is able to show generosity to his co-workers.Of the few books I’ve read so far by Alexander McCall Smith, a common feature is the warm-hearted thought or scene at the end. That holds true in this book as well, which I appreciate when finishing up my reading and getting ready to head back out into the world.
I have enjoyed it thoroughly, listening to the sometimes incomprehensible, sometimes alarming adventures of the good Professor.McCall Smith has a delightful way of writing. His gentle humour, his philosophical reflections, above all, his insights into the everyday minor moral dilemmas of ordinary people, are a constant joy. Shakespeare or Austen are worthy comparisons here - he sees to the heart of humanity in all his characters. Even when he does not spell out their motivations and actions, we can make our own guesses.I love the humour. So dry and gentle, sometimes just the choice of words, it is not so much the laugh-out-loud type, but the sort that brings forth a sigh of happiness in the reader.Professor von Igelfeld, the celebrated author of the 1 200 page Portugese Irregular Verbs, has a series of adventures, both at home and abroad. In the first half of the book, friction at home is averted by a trip to Cambridge, where he finds the English puzzling and humourless. His proposed solution to the bathroom problem is masterful and utterly unworkable, his musings on the location of the missing skull penetrating, his contribution to the tears of the Master a delight.But it is in the second half of the book, after another awkward situation is unexpectedly resolved, that events take increasingly surprising turns. He returns home in a surprising fashion, and his chief academic rival finds himself the recipient of a high Colombian honour - but is it the First Class medal, or merely the Third Class ribbon?
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I really enjoyed the first two Precious Ramotswe mysteries by Smith, and of course I am a huge Hugh Laurie fan, so I jumped at the chance to listen to this short series about an eccentric linguistic scholar, Dr. Moritz von Igelfeld. This is not so much a novel as a series of short stories from the life of said scholar, and some of them were a bit funny, but most were not good enough to hold my interest. I found Igelfeld to be irritating and sanctimonious. Writing this review a year later, it is impossible for me to really remember anything that happens, except that Igelfeld spends a great deal of time professing his own importance and scholarly magnificence, and working to put down his academic rivals. And somewhere along the way he gets wrapped up in revolutions and other grand adventures that he somehow manages to bungle his way out of. There was a lack of cohesion between the stories, and in the end, I wasn't impressed.
—Donna
The final Professor Dr von Igelfeld entertainment. This novella has only two chapters. In one, von Igelfeld takes a visiting fellowship at Cambridge, and nearly gets tangled up in academic rivalries and intrigues. In the second, ever more bizarre vignette, he does to get an honorary award in Bogota, gets taken prisoner by guerrillas, helps fight against the army, and is elected president of Columbia. In both, von Igelfeld, who knows and cares nothing of politics even in his own country, fumes against these irrational worlds, where people say one thing and mean another, and longs for the dependable, rational world of his beloved Institute. Again, a very amusing, light work of whimsy, with an especially appealing ending.
—Ensiform
Again, I had to laugh at the further adventures of Professor von Igelfeld. It seems he keeps wondering into places where membership into an exclusive society has been extended to himself and not others, but he uses his influence to get them in. He ends up in Columbia, South America kidnapped by terrorists, but is able to extract himself by recommending the leader (who has been rejected membership into this society) into the group. The delight this drug-dealing thug displays on hearing of his membership into this exclusive society is hilarious.
—Jenny Karraker
