Words of wisdom from characters in Chance Encounters

Alexander McCall Smith is always a delight to read. A book of short stories is a departure from his usual novel writing, which he has described a "serial condition." These stories were inspired by old pictures of unknown people. The settings vary: Glasgow, rural Australia, New Westminster, BC. The characters are just as diverse. One young man gets work with the circus and finds himself at the funeral of a ventriloquist's dummy; another thinks war is all drill and boredom until he is rudely awakened by being taken prisoner.

This author's work is infused with humour, surprise, and compassion. Each book contains individual lines that sparkle and resonate. In this collection, I delighted in the internal philosophical pespectives of Flora, a thirtyish Glaswegian ex-nun and heiress who visits Jenner's, Edinburgh's finest department store, in the hope of meeting a man.

And indeed she does meet one, a nice one. Inevitably for an Alexander McCall Smith character, this fortuitous meeting evokes thoughts about the nature of living. Flora's ideas resonated strongly: she feels that "one should never fight destiny. Go along with it, and with the tides that carry you through life. They know where you're going, and you do not."