Alexander McCall Smith’s latest book, BERTIE’S GUIDE TO LIFE AND MOTHERS, is a pleasant example of the matter-of-fact revelations of daily life we call British humor. The novel is filled with characters who are neither particularly delighted nor all that put out by their lot in life. The type of people who, after a near-miss of a car accident, say: “[I]t would appear that both of us are fine. That’s ultimately what matters, wouldn’t you say?” Yes, they are all fine. And at Smith’s prodding, this admittedly lackluster state of being becomes both more charming and amusing.

"Alexander McCall Smith’s latest book...is a pleasant example of the matter-of-fact revelations of daily life we call British humor. The novel is filled with characters who are neither particularly delighted nor all that put out by their lot in life."

The book meanders between the inner workings and outer existences of a number of individuals whose lives circle 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. This crew includes two middle-aged newlyweds, their beer-drinking dog, an ex-neighbor who returns with a nun and a small desire for vengeance, a soon-to-be seven-year-old and his demanding mother, spineless father and suspected half-brother, a university student and her therapist father, the parents of triplets and their two au pairs, a brusque but affectionate coffee-house proprietor, and a vain man without many other apparent qualities. You can imagine the kind of temperate hijinks that ensue.

Though a fair number of slightly odd and humorous incidents occur (a literary fair honoree is accidentally mistaken for the wife of a tribal leader in the UAE, a meeting of nudists takes a seriously political turn, a family contracts an au pair for their au pair), these incidents, Smith suggests with his pleasantly weary tone, are simply the stuff of everyday life. His characters appear to agree; they sagely accept the small and slightly less small indignities of their lives without too much resistance. I experienced the book much like those in it seemed to experience the nun famous for saying obvious truisms in a manner that suggests great heft. It doesn’t change your world, but isn’t it important from time to time to take a moment to recognize what’s in front of you?

There doesn’t seem to be all that much to it --- these aren't heroes or evildoers, they aren't living in alternate dystopian universes or wrapped up in breathless romance --- but there's something undeniably appealing about them. They’re, for the most part, sweetly undemanding. This snippet of their lives reminds the reader, at a time when we are continuously compelled to only pay attention to the most outsized personality in the room, of living for something a little smaller --- something Scotland-sized or perhaps human-sized.