Portuguese Irregular Verbs

Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith
Published: 2006
Series: Portuguese Irregular Verbs
Length: 128 pages

This is a novella I picked up at the local charity book sale this year, and it’s essentially a series of short stories featuring the insufferable Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, a language professor in Germany whose 1200 page magnum opus Portuguese Irregular Verbs was given the following review: “There is nothing more to be said on this subject. Nothing.”

Each story features him with his various acquaintances as they as they stumble through increasingly absurd situations. The structure immediately brought to mind Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), one of my recent favourite novels. Both are very funny books that are just a series of ridiculous scenes with no real emphasis on the overarching plot.

Most of these characters are incredibly book smart but lacking in common sense and social finesse. At a conference hotel, they try aimlessly to learn tennis from a book, knowing nothing about the sport, much to the amusement of those watching from the hotel windows. There’s a chapter in which Professor Dr. Igelfeld travels with his mentor to Ireland and tries to make sense of the language, both modern English nicknames and ancient Gaelic foul language. He also spends time in Tuscany starving himself to disprove his xenophobic innkeeper’s opinions on German appetites. The book is a string of these comedic set pieces, poking fun at tunnel-vision academics.

The insights into society and life and not as numerous or as insightful as what you find in Three Men, but it was a fun read. I don’t think I was quite in the mood for this when I read it, so I progressed surprisingly slowly for such a short book, but I’m still planning to pick up the second in the series, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, when I come across it.

Apparently, the audiobook of this is narrated by Hugh Laurie, but only the version on UK Audible. I imagine that’s probably worth picking up if you’re fortunate enough to have access. I find it very annoying that it isn’t available in North America.