Member Review

The Sunday Times asked author Alexander McCall Smith to write some short stories for the paper. He proposed that he would look through the newspaper’s photo archive, choose photos, and create stories for the people in the picture. Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind is a delightful collection of photo-based stories. Some had been published previously in The Sunday Times, while others were written for this book.

As McCall Smith writes on his website: When you are with somebody you love the smallest, smallest things can be so important, so amusing because love transforms the world, everything.

Some writers would choose dramatic photos that lent themselves well for a sensationalistic approach. Others may have chosen photos of well-known people and shown a day-in-the-life moment. Fortunately, McCall Smith stuck with his strengths, choosing photos of non-remarkable people in seemingly non-remarkable situations and bringing characters to life. His other works have used rich adjectives to bring his characters and environment to life, and he does not disappoint here. Smith shows the same deftness describing these unknown figures as he did bringing Precious Ramotswe to life in his Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

Each of his stories offers a view of relationships. In stories like the titular Pianos and Flowers, he looks at the characters’ relationships over the course of a lifetime. Iron Jelloids is one of the stories that focuses on one day that led to a dramatic change in the lives of the characters. Maternal Design and Students look at family relationships and how they can impact career choices, while The Dwarf Tale-Teller of the Romanian Rom looks at the difficult choice between romance and careers. Not all of the stories have happy endings, but each has a satisfying ending.

Pianos and Flowers is a great choice for fans of Alexander McCall Smith. Anyone who enjoys reading short stories would enjoy this collection. It would be great for readers to carry with them to have a quick read. It is also easy to binge on multiple essays in one setting. Even though each story is inspired by different photographs, they are all infused with Alexander McCall Smith’s character-driven writing style. He publishes a story on his website each month for those who enjoy Pianos and Flowers and want to read more of his shorter works. I hope that Alexander McCall Smith continues to create and share such enjoyable collections.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.