Review by New York Times Review
ACCORDING TO Alexander McCall Smith's website, he has four books coming out in 2017, plus paperbacks from last year's hardcover publications. His first book was published in 1980. How many have followed? Even he must lose count. One of this year's releases is the paperback edition of "Precious and Grace," Volume 17 in the much-adored No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which propelled McCall Smith into dazzling worldwide popularity. Though this can't be true, he seems to write a book as easily as I bake a cake. I have liked his Isabel Dalhousie series as much as the Ladies' Detective Agency books. In addition to relishing the gentle sleuthing and subtle plots, I have become friends with his "traditionally built" detective Precious Ramotswe in Botswana and his philosopher detective Isabel Dalhousie in Scotland. Who wouldn't like to have tea with either of these clever women? I recently read one of McCall Smith's standalone novels, "Trains and Lovers," in which four strangers share their private stories while their train car hurtles toward London. As a chance encounter turns intimate, we become aware how the stories we tell ourselves take form in the telling. This is McCall Smith's genius - he makes you love the people in his books. In crass times like these, the deep civility that powers his voice is a balm. That and he makes you laugh, and how many can claim that? The main character in McCall Smith's new book, "My Italian Bulldozer," is a Scottish food writer, Paul Stuart, who goes to Tuscany, as many have, "in pursuit of a period of freedom." He plans to finish his latest work, "Paul Stuart's Tuscan Table" - and escape the detritus of a broken fouryear relationship with his live-in lover, Becky, who has run offwith a fitness instructor, "the tattooed mesomorph." His taken-for-granted editor, Gloria, arranges the details of his escape. On landing in Pisa, Paul encounters car rental complications that result in a few hours in a jail cell shared with a scary criminal comically named Occhidilupo. Released from the mix-up, and with no cars available on a holiday weekend, Paul must rely on a bulldozer for his drive to Montalcino. And so we're offon a bumpy Tuscan idyll. In the beautiful hill town, Paul succumbs to Brunello, savory mushrooms and wild boar with fennel. He's determined to let "the beauty of the Tuscan countryside work its magic" on his ponderous manuscript. He begins to make friends around the piazza. Over coffee, he reads in the schoolmaster's newspaper that the odious Occhidilupo has escaped and is believed to be hiding not far away. This part of the book is slowly paced, but when Paul, still in his bulldozer, rescues an attractive American art historian named Anna, who has run her car into a ditch, the velocity picks up, then zooms forward. Suddenly, the errant Becky reappears. Then, right on her heels, Paul's editor arrives. And Gloria seems to have more than well-edited books on her mind. The bulldozer has starring moments. It's briefly stolen. Then no one knows how a hated wall suddenly fell in the night, restoring the view for those across the way. Lending a hand to a winemaker, Paul uses his bulldozer to move a hillock, only to discover that he's shifted a boundary line. His friend's vineyard of Rosso di Montalcino now qualifies for the upgraded, highly coveted Brunello status. The countryside does work its magic. Paul transfers to his manuscript "the quiet satisfaction of life on the land, the rhythms, the sense of history - of things having been for centuries the way they were now." His love life, in the end, comes clear. He's smitten with Italy and thinking of a book on Venetian seafood. Smart boy. The Tuscan countryside works its magic on a Scottish food writer in flight from a broken romance. FRANCES MAYES is the author of "Under the Tuscan Sun." Her most recent book is "Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir," and her novel "Women in Sunlight" will be published next year.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 11, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
McCall Smith, the hugely popular author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels, has written a rom-com stand-alone novel that puts the machine back in deus ex machina. The novel's hero, Paul Stewart, is a young, good-looking, best-selling cookbook writer, based in Edinburgh, whose girlfriend has ditched him for her personal trainer. Paul is feeling stuck; his editor believes that any step in any direction will lead Paul out of his depressive bog. This translates into a trip to Italy to research a book on Tuscan cooking and then into a series of comic mishaps that end up with Paul having to make do with the only vehicle available, a gigantic bulldozer. Amusing as Paul's plight is, and as entrancing as the Tuscan hills and the tiny town of Montalcino are, the plot itself is predictable (and as slow to accelerate as the bulldozer): Can a young, handsome, wealthy man who loves to cook find love again? Well, yes, he can. In McCall Smith's hands, even this flawed premise is transformed into an entertaining novel, but it's not up to the author's usual level.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
McCall Smith (Chance Developments, 2016, etc.) adds to the overworked subgenre of Tuscan travel romance with this pallid story about a Scottish cookery writer recovering from his broken heart in Italy.Paul has published nine wildly successful books about food and wine under the tutelage of his "freelance editor" Gloria, who may harbor but doesn't quite express deeper than professional feelings for him. This is a contemporary novel, and Paul, whose decency and sensitivity McCall Smith frequently touts, is only supposed to be 36, but his reticence, especially concerning sex, and the mildly witty, buttoned-down dialogue make both character and time frame seem much olderthink 1930s Fred Astaire sidekick. After Paul's girlfriend, Becky, dumps him for her personal trainer (the first of many oh please! moments in a novel rife with clichs) and Paul falls apart, Gloria suggests he take a trip to Tuscany to finish up his book on the Tuscan lifestyle. Arriving in Pisa, he faces a series of unfortunate events one would think an experienced travel writer would manage more handily. Victimized by stereotypically hot-tempered, conceited, and larcenous Italians, he's left without transportation to his destination, the small village of Montalcino, and even lands briefly in jail until the equally stereotypical, charming Italian "cavaliere" whom Paul met on the flight over bails him out and finds a vehicle for him to drive: a bulldozer. That bulldozer also more or less drives the plot, allowing Paul to meet charming American art historian Anna when he pulls her car out of a ditch and involving him, however unknowingly, in several escapades involving Montalcino villagers. Soon romantic complications set in: Paul thinks he's in love with Anna but she has a male friend coming to visit; Becky shows up to apologize, followed for reasons that remain vague by Gloria. Montalcino, of course, is full of natural beauty, ruined buildings, salt-of-the-earth if charming connivers, and underappreciated wine. McCall Smith knows how to concoct delightful fictions, but this one is undercooked. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
