) McCall Smith’s books are instead full of small pleasures, passing observations on this or that feature of modern life, unembarrassed moments spent contemplating a painting or a slant of light, all bespeaking a worldly confidence. (Hence perhaps the bilious contempt for McCall Smith expressed by his compatriot Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and Porno. They seem to fear, above all else, the thought that they might be dismissed as sentimental and insufficiently tough-minded. Many novelists give short shrift to the small good things of life. A charming person seems to be saying, You and I take the world as it is, and we do not despair. Charm is typically antithetical to anxiety and intensity.
Charm depends in part on confidence of a particular kind, an expansive confidence that boosts those who come into contact with it. McCall Smith’s most conspicuous quality is his enormous charm, not at all a given for a novelist any more than for a politician. An African-born academic in Scotland who specializes in medical law and frequently sits on bioethics panels, committees, commissions, and so forth, McCall Smith had published a number of books before he achieved improbable fame with a series of tales featuring Precious Ramotswe, founder of the only detective agency in Botswana, a serenely self-assured woman who solves crimes and dispenses wisdom with equal aplomb. Hard to believe that, only a handful of years ago, the name Alexander McCall Smith would have drawn a blank among American readers.
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