About book The Finer Points Of Sausage Dogs (2004)
I randomly stumbled upon this book on a booksale. The title caught my attention since I owned a Dachshund for more than a year already and quite thinking on reading some literature involving them. Hence, I bought it. This 2003 novel by the Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith, is a second novel in the series ‘Portuguese Irregular Verbs’. It is quite a funny narrative, scheming through it was an easy breeze since the words used were often those that are used in the dailies nevertheless there were some phrases that would need some translation since they were in German and Italian origin.I love the way how it was constructed. But it seems to be a little bit undercooked. Plot was missing (or it was just me). Though it was victorious in making me laugh, it lack the kind of humor I was looking for since reading Harvard Lampoon’s parody of the Hunger Games (which they entitled ‘The Hunger Pains’). There were some events and chapters that were dull and mistreated, and some that obviously manifested boredom in me. The delivery is so subtle as to border on the sublime. Yes, I know that this was some sort of entertainment literature, but I was hoping for a little bit substance, something that maybe quite funny yet profound. Also, since the title of the book was ‘Finer Points of Sausage Dogs’ I was enthralled that this would absolutely talk about ‘dogs’. That the story would run centrally on this sausage dog. But it became quite a misleading title for me. The sausage dog of one of the central character became prominent only as a part of the narrative’s plot but it was short-lived. It was a subtle focus to begin with. So why title something if it isn’t that quite a big deal to the grandeur of the story? (Again, that was just me).But nonetheless, I’ve enjoyed the book. Especially the last 2 chapters. It was a great book to immerse myself from the seriousness of classics. Also, there was this line that I loved from the book. This was the ultimate catch (well, that’s just for me). Here: "Remember, there is no despair so total that it shuts out all the light."Now, that was something serious and profound. Three stars then.
"'We're so honoured to have you here in Fayetteville,' said the man. 'We understand that you are a world authority on the sausage dog. We are looking forward to what you have to say to us tonight. Sausage dogs are quite popular here....'.Von Igelfeld stared at him in horror. Sausage dogs! He was expected to talk about sausage dogs, a subject on which he knew absolutely nothing. It was a nightmare.....but he was awake, and it was really happening."Poor old von Igelfeld finds himself a case of mistaken identity in this comic little book, when, to try and outdo his colleague Prinzel, he gets himself invited to the USA to conduct what he thinks is a lecture on philology (in particular Portuguese philology) and ends up in front of hundreds of academics having to give a lecture on sausage dogs. Not only that, but he has to keep the pretence up when his American colleague has a return trip to Germany and von Igelfeld ends up being called on in a real veterinary emergency. Then the poor unfortunate academic heads to Italy, and whilst there gets embroiled with the Duke of Johannesburg (he of the Scotland Street novels), a Patriarch who asks him to guard something special for him, and the Pope whom he tells to "shut up" in the Vatican Library. Then to cap it all, he boards a lecture cruise and finds himself the centre of some very unwelcome attention from the elderly ladies on the ship....What else can go wrong for this unfortunate man? And the annoying Unterholzer always seems to turn up at the wrong time...Very funny, very well written, loved it to bits!
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I bought this book for my mother-in-law because she is a dog lover. A few months later when visiting her, I found the book in with her recycle newspapers and asked her what she thought of the book. "Well, I don't really know what it was about, it didn't make any sense." So I took the book home and read it.Alexander McCall Smith is pretty light, fun reading and as such is a nice interlude.Dr. von Igelfeld, a philologist, is mistaken for a veterinarian with an emphasis on sausage dogs and is asked to America from England to give a talk. It is not until moments before the speech that he realizes the mistake that has been made and valiantly gives a speech anyway.This is just the beginning. He has many more crazy things happen in his life, like assisting at amputating an injured leg of a sausage dog but amputates the wrong one, three times! Until the poor thing has one leg left.Really a just for fun read which is a great thing now and then.
—Terri
The second, and perhaps best, of the three novellas in the Professor Doktor von Igelfeld trilogy (published together in Britain, but not here, under the felicitous title "The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom"). Little gems of academic satire! Here's a snippet for my academic friends (they'll get it):He sighed. It was not easy maintaining one's position as the author of Portuguese Irregular Verbs. Not only was there Unterholzer (and all that tiresome business with is dog), but von Igelfeld also had to cope with the distinct unhelpfulness of the Librarian and with the unmitigated philistinism of his publishers. Then there was the awkward attitude of the university authorities, who recently had shown the temerity to ask him to deliver a series of lectures to undergraduate students. This had almost been the last straw for von Igelfeld, who had been obliged to remind them of just who he was. That had caused them to climb down, and the Rector had even sent a personal letter of apology, but von Igelfeld felt that the damage was done. If German professors could be asked to lecture, as if they were mere instructors, then the future of German scholarship looked perilous. He had heard that one of his colleagues had even been asked whether he proposed to write another book, when he had already written one some ten years previously! And the alarming thing was that people were taking this lying down and not protesting at the outrageous breach of academic freedom which it unquestionably was. What would have happened if the University of Koenigsberg had asked Kant whether he proposed to write another ? Kant would have treated such a question with the contempt it deserved.Sound like anyone?
—Mark
Professor Dr. von Igelfeld gets no respect, no respect I tell ya!And it's no wonder! The height of his academic career has been the publication of an impossibly long tome on a very specific foreign language linguistic construct. It's his bloody life's work and no one wants to read it! So, when he's mistaken for a veterinarian and asked to preform surgery on a dachshund, a ridiculous dog if ever there was one, his ego wins the battle over common sense. Yes, dachshunds were indeed harmed in the writing of this book.Although The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs relies more on slapstick to drive the humor than its predecessor in the series, Portuguese Irregular Verbs, that slapstick is akin to Candide and thus it's still quite clever. Indeed I found this sequel to be just as funny as the first in the series. The brand of humor might be a bit academic for some, but I found it to be a fine follow up!
—Jason Koivu
