Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations
by Alexander McCall Smith
(Canongate)
This collection of stories, by the author of the bestselling Ma Ramotswe mysteries, borders on the bizarre, but all the tales have a human element running through them. The characters have to deal with relationships, love, romantic or sexual encounters, and the complications people bring on themselves because of the everyday emotions that drive them, and the way they perceive themselves and other people.
In Fat Date, for instance, two people meet using a dating agency for fat people. The woman doesn’t see herself as fat — even though she has joined such a dating agency — but thinks her date is. It takes someone else making a comment about fat people for her to realise that the way she sees herself is not necessarily the way others perceive her.
The stories range from funny and far-fetched to downright ridiculous, like the mother in Maternal Influence who chases her son around town when she catches him at the movies on a secret date. She cannot cope with the new-found independence that this date spells.
In Intimate Accounts, a psychiatrist reveals the problems of three of his patients, problems caused by traumatic dating experiences. One man is scared of dentists, a phobia that began with the fact that he gets easily sexually excited. Another patient is so obsessed with looking his best that he cannot keep a relationship going.
The title story, Heavenly Date, is the most baffling of all the pieces. It is about a woman who has sex with an angel, becomes pregnant and gives birth to an angel son who is taken away by his father.
In general, the author uses ordinary people in outlandish situations and cleverly tells their stories. While readers will identify with some of the situations and emotions that drive the characters, the stories cannot be taken seriously. They are light reading, and some remain unresolved. This is probably because they are not offering any life lessons, unless it is that we should look back at some of our strange encounters and laugh about them.
This collection is very different to the author’s famous series that began with The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, but is told with the same irony and wit.