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مهمانی شام اولیری چاقه
کورنیلیِس پاتریک اولیِری و همسرش بتی به مناسبت چهلمین سالگرد تولد اولیری برنامهریزی کردهاند برای تعطیلات به ایرلند؛ سرزمین اجدادی اولیریچاقه بروند. اما فاجعه در کمین است. همهچیز بهطرز وحشتناکی غلط از آب درمیآید: صندلیهای هواپیما برای اولیری زیادی کوچک هستند، غذای هتل اندک است و او میفهمد فیلپیکر شده است. از سایر مهمانان هم که بهتر است چیزی نگوییم! آیا شانههای پهن اولیریچاقه میتواند این فشار سهمگین را تحمل کند یا او از این حجم بیحرمتی رنجور خواهد شد؟
الکساندر مککال اسمیت در این رمان تصویری سرگرمکننده و تأثیرگذار شخصیتی مهربان را روایت میکند که درکی از شرایطش ندارد. شیوهٔ روایت داستان هم بهنوبهٔ خود جذاب، بدیع و طنزآمیز است. فصلهای سهگانه هم با نامهای پیشغذا، غذای اصلی و دسر به ما نوعی پیشآگاهی از روند قصه میدهند.
الکساندر مککال اسمیت در این رمان تصویری سرگرمکننده و تأثیرگذار شخصیتی مهربان را روایت میکند که درکی از شرایطش ندارد. شیوهٔ روایت داستان هم بهنوبهٔ خود جذاب، بدیع و طنزآمیز است. فصلهای سهگانه هم با نامهای پیشغذا، غذای اصلی و دسر به ما نوعی پیشآگاهی از روند قصه میدهند.
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2014
188 people are currently reading
1152 people want to read
About the author
Alexander McCall Smith
669 books12.7k followersAlexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. Visit him online at www.alexandermccallsmith.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 333 reviews
September 13, 2018
This is an e-book short. It was over before I started. Hilariously funny, but sweet.
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction 2015, it certainly deserved the nomination.
I don't know if Fatty O'Leary, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his wife Betty, originally from Mobile, Alabama, will become a regular feature with a few adventures of their own, but I for one, would love to be on those adventures. Fatty's trip to Ireland, where everything went wrong, had me really laughing out loud. Thank goodness Political Correctness took a back seat for once. Honesty is more important.
What I actually loved about this novella is that Mr. Fatty O'Leary had a good vibe, a good heart and a positive outlook on life. While others wanted him to be an overly-sensitive person with a chip on his shoulder, or suffer from a low self esteem, he was a happy, good man. And so were his two best friends, Tubby O 'Rourke and Porky Flanagan.
If you enjoyed the No.1 Ladies' Detective Series, you will enjoy this one as well.
High Five for Fatty O'Leary!
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction 2015, it certainly deserved the nomination.
I don't know if Fatty O'Leary, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his wife Betty, originally from Mobile, Alabama, will become a regular feature with a few adventures of their own, but I for one, would love to be on those adventures. Fatty's trip to Ireland, where everything went wrong, had me really laughing out loud. Thank goodness Political Correctness took a back seat for once. Honesty is more important.
What I actually loved about this novella is that Mr. Fatty O'Leary had a good vibe, a good heart and a positive outlook on life. While others wanted him to be an overly-sensitive person with a chip on his shoulder, or suffer from a low self esteem, he was a happy, good man. And so were his two best friends, Tubby O 'Rourke and Porky Flanagan.
If you enjoyed the No.1 Ladies' Detective Series, you will enjoy this one as well.
High Five for Fatty O'Leary!
August 31, 2014
Alexander McCall Smith brings us a novella on an Irish-American antiques dealer from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his wife visiting the Old Sod, as Irish-Americans are wont to do. Needless, to say, the two-week tour of County Tipperary doesn't live up to the rosy expectations.
While not up to McCall Smith's usual high standards, the 176-page Kindle novella was pleasant enough -- although I doubt few will bother re-reading it.
While not up to McCall Smith's usual high standards, the 176-page Kindle novella was pleasant enough -- although I doubt few will bother re-reading it.
June 2, 2015
Thank goodness this was an e-loan from the library as I would hate to think I spent even $.99 on this atrocious, unreadable mess.
I held my nose long enough to get through over 15% of the book, and that was as far as I could go.
It was stupid, cruel, unfunny, and meaningless. On the plus side, it did have conventional punctuation.
I held my nose long enough to get through over 15% of the book, and that was as far as I could go.
It was stupid, cruel, unfunny, and meaningless. On the plus side, it did have conventional punctuation.
January 31, 2023
What a funny story! As the winner of Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for Comic Fiction, it deserves it.
Those who think AMS fat shames his protagonist never read the last two chapters. There is a distinction between fat shaming and portraying truthfully and sympathetically (with humor) the perils of oversized people living in a world designed for normal sized inhabitants.
The book was set in 1979. The Celtic Tiger had not yet arrived. I smiled when Fatty thought all entrepreneuring Irish should have emigrated or at least should be thinking of emigrating. The author’s humor on the difference between being Irish as Irish American and being Irish in Ireland is spot-on. This is funny and true: “Being freed from Ireland, he [Fatty’s grandfather] became enthusiastically more Irish than ever before.” Do Irish know how to be Irish, Fatty thought doubtfully. Offspring of immigrants often imagine their ancestral country where they never set foot on through rose colored lenses. It is only human.
Those who think AMS fat shames his protagonist never read the last two chapters. There is a distinction between fat shaming and portraying truthfully and sympathetically (with humor) the perils of oversized people living in a world designed for normal sized inhabitants.
The book was set in 1979. The Celtic Tiger had not yet arrived. I smiled when Fatty thought all entrepreneuring Irish should have emigrated or at least should be thinking of emigrating. The author’s humor on the difference between being Irish as Irish American and being Irish in Ireland is spot-on. This is funny and true: “Being freed from Ireland, he [Fatty’s grandfather] became enthusiastically more Irish than ever before.” Do Irish know how to be Irish, Fatty thought doubtfully. Offspring of immigrants often imagine their ancestral country where they never set foot on through rose colored lenses. It is only human.
April 8, 2017
started well, but then it just became implausible and silly. I though there was a lot of fat shaming too, didn't like that so much. Yeah we get it, "Fatty" isn't slim, seriously too many times this guy gets in trouble due to his size. I had enough at about 20%
October 1, 2014
Alexander McCall Smith: singular or plural?
Fat people have a thin time in literature. From Falstaff to Bunter to Enid Blyton's Fatty Trotteville, those who are larger than life in real life are inevitably portrayed as larger-than-life characters in fiction.
They are seen as figures of fun, fair game, warnings to us all that we, too, could end up being held in such little esteem if we allow ourselves to become, through over-indulgence, outlandishly large.
So I couldn't wait to discover what Alexander McCall Smith would do with, or to, the eponymous hero of his comic novel Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party.
Those of us who have read his unputdownable 44 Scotland Street series know that the author has form when it comes to fat people.
Who can forget Lard O'Connor, the Glaswegian gangster who, despite his spectacular bulk and menacing approach to conducting business, nevertheless emerged as a sympathetic character who wasn't just nice to his mum (the Krays cliché) but had some surprisingly redeeming qualities?
His weight did for him, of course, as he collapsed under it and fell down the steps to a basement café, but the author gives the impression that Lard was just as likely to give a freezing man his own overcoat as he might be to give a gangland rival a concrete one.
But Fatty O'Leary (real name Cornelius, though resigned to calling himself by the unimaginative nickname his girth was always going to force upon him) is a decent, loving, and relatively ordinary man.
Apart, that is, from his weight.
His enormous size, while accepted by his devoted wife and tolerated by the expanding-waistlined American public, is far from ordinary in the eyes of chair, clothes and bath designers who tend to aim their creations at the more regularly-proportioned – or what they might unkindly refer to as "normal" people.
Thus we cringe with embarrassment as passengers either side of him in the Economy cabin of an aircraft complain to a steward that Fatty is spilling out of his seat, Barbapapa-style, and squashing them to the point that it's restricting their breathing.
They have a point - and a serious medical one - so it's a fair bet that most readers, if they are being honest rather than politically correct, will sympathise with the squashed passengers rather than Fatty, whose unnatural size is, after all, a lifestyle choice.
Pragmatically, the stewards upgrade Fatty to First Class, where he feels honoured and pampered until he's served with an Economy Class meal and told in no uncertain terms that while he may be sitting in First for spacial reasons, he remains an Economy Class passenger.
When the situation is reversed and the squashed passengers are upgraded to First Class so that Fatty can return to Economy and have the three seats to himself, he's horrified to discover that they, unlike him, are given the First Class food and fine wines that he'd been denied.
The only reason he can think of for the difference in treatment that he and the two squashees received is that they, unlike him, are thin.
And, of course, he's right.
The author doesn't show his own hand in the fatness-right-or-wrong debate, but subjects poor Fatty to a string of indignities that lead to the conclusion that Fatty O'Leary is an over-large peg trying to fit into a normal-sized hole.
He becomes stuck in a bath and has to be carried downstairs, still in it, only to be abandoned in the hotel courtyard at the mercy of his chief tormentor when the men carrying him have to break off to chase some cows back into a field.
His suitcase is lost in transit, leaving him with just the clothes he stands up in, only for those to vanish mysteriously from the laundry room.
He also loses his shoes, in a lake; his face, at dinner; and his dignity (again and again) in front of the supercilious sophisticate Rupert O'Brien, whose mock concern for Fatty's plight is more damning and crushing than any names he might have called him.
The only thing Fatty doesn't lose, in fact, is weight.
Though if Fatty were in a position to read the book instead of being a character in it, he might well shed a few pounds through the sheer physical exertion of laughing as much as I did at this masterpiece of a comic novel.
Like the great David Nobbs, creator of Reggie Perrin and author of 20 other novels, Alexander McCall Smith not only creates great sit-coms between the covers but comes out with some sublime lines.
You'll have to read the novel to discover them for yourself, but there's a wonderful reference to Darwin and "the survival of the fishes" and a beautiful example of how a slight pause and a couple of additional words can elevate a thought from the mundane to the magnificent:
"No," he said. "I would not like to drown," adding, "on balance."
It's that precision with language and the comic timing it embodies that makes Alexander McCall Smith the truly great writer he is.
As I noted in my review of Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers (Book 9 in the Scotland Street series), he is also one of the most prolific authors alive – though it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that "Alexander McCall Smith" was, in fact, identical triplets imbued with the same literary talent and gusto.
I have no evidence, not having met him (or them) yet, but I continue to monitor the media in the half-hope that there will be independently-verified reports of Alexander McCall Smith appearing in two, or possibly three, places simultaneously. Then his secret will be out.
Otherwise, comic novelists like me will simply have to accept that one man really can be that terrific and prolific, which is so daunting that it could easily make some of us give up writing altogether and settle for merely being readers.
Almost four centuries after his death, the debate still rages over whether Shakespeare could possibly have written all the works attributed to him.
I've always suspected that intellectual jealousy is at work there, as some people just don't want to accept that any one person could produce so much and to such a high standard in one lifetime.
But when they try to persuade us that Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe wrote the plays instead, they create a similar problem to the one they were trying to solve: if Bacon had written them all, they wouldn't want to believe that he, either, had been able to write them all in his lifetime.
So Alexander McCall Smith (singular or plural) may spark a similar debate, especially if he continues producing books at the breathtaking rate he's achieved so far.
But back to the book: it might be unprecedented for a novel to be prescribed on the NHS here in the UK, but this appropriately slim volume could be a major weapon in the Government's battle against obesity.
For anyone who's tempted to keep stuffing themselves until they resemble the likes of Fatty O'Leary will almost certainly be deterred, permanently, if they devour this book first.
Fat people have a thin time in literature. From Falstaff to Bunter to Enid Blyton's Fatty Trotteville, those who are larger than life in real life are inevitably portrayed as larger-than-life characters in fiction.
They are seen as figures of fun, fair game, warnings to us all that we, too, could end up being held in such little esteem if we allow ourselves to become, through over-indulgence, outlandishly large.
So I couldn't wait to discover what Alexander McCall Smith would do with, or to, the eponymous hero of his comic novel Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party.
Those of us who have read his unputdownable 44 Scotland Street series know that the author has form when it comes to fat people.
Who can forget Lard O'Connor, the Glaswegian gangster who, despite his spectacular bulk and menacing approach to conducting business, nevertheless emerged as a sympathetic character who wasn't just nice to his mum (the Krays cliché) but had some surprisingly redeeming qualities?
His weight did for him, of course, as he collapsed under it and fell down the steps to a basement café, but the author gives the impression that Lard was just as likely to give a freezing man his own overcoat as he might be to give a gangland rival a concrete one.
But Fatty O'Leary (real name Cornelius, though resigned to calling himself by the unimaginative nickname his girth was always going to force upon him) is a decent, loving, and relatively ordinary man.
Apart, that is, from his weight.
His enormous size, while accepted by his devoted wife and tolerated by the expanding-waistlined American public, is far from ordinary in the eyes of chair, clothes and bath designers who tend to aim their creations at the more regularly-proportioned – or what they might unkindly refer to as "normal" people.
Thus we cringe with embarrassment as passengers either side of him in the Economy cabin of an aircraft complain to a steward that Fatty is spilling out of his seat, Barbapapa-style, and squashing them to the point that it's restricting their breathing.
They have a point - and a serious medical one - so it's a fair bet that most readers, if they are being honest rather than politically correct, will sympathise with the squashed passengers rather than Fatty, whose unnatural size is, after all, a lifestyle choice.
Pragmatically, the stewards upgrade Fatty to First Class, where he feels honoured and pampered until he's served with an Economy Class meal and told in no uncertain terms that while he may be sitting in First for spacial reasons, he remains an Economy Class passenger.
When the situation is reversed and the squashed passengers are upgraded to First Class so that Fatty can return to Economy and have the three seats to himself, he's horrified to discover that they, unlike him, are given the First Class food and fine wines that he'd been denied.
The only reason he can think of for the difference in treatment that he and the two squashees received is that they, unlike him, are thin.
And, of course, he's right.
The author doesn't show his own hand in the fatness-right-or-wrong debate, but subjects poor Fatty to a string of indignities that lead to the conclusion that Fatty O'Leary is an over-large peg trying to fit into a normal-sized hole.
He becomes stuck in a bath and has to be carried downstairs, still in it, only to be abandoned in the hotel courtyard at the mercy of his chief tormentor when the men carrying him have to break off to chase some cows back into a field.
His suitcase is lost in transit, leaving him with just the clothes he stands up in, only for those to vanish mysteriously from the laundry room.
He also loses his shoes, in a lake; his face, at dinner; and his dignity (again and again) in front of the supercilious sophisticate Rupert O'Brien, whose mock concern for Fatty's plight is more damning and crushing than any names he might have called him.
The only thing Fatty doesn't lose, in fact, is weight.
Though if Fatty were in a position to read the book instead of being a character in it, he might well shed a few pounds through the sheer physical exertion of laughing as much as I did at this masterpiece of a comic novel.
Like the great David Nobbs, creator of Reggie Perrin and author of 20 other novels, Alexander McCall Smith not only creates great sit-coms between the covers but comes out with some sublime lines.
You'll have to read the novel to discover them for yourself, but there's a wonderful reference to Darwin and "the survival of the fishes" and a beautiful example of how a slight pause and a couple of additional words can elevate a thought from the mundane to the magnificent:
"No," he said. "I would not like to drown," adding, "on balance."
It's that precision with language and the comic timing it embodies that makes Alexander McCall Smith the truly great writer he is.
As I noted in my review of Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers (Book 9 in the Scotland Street series), he is also one of the most prolific authors alive – though it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that "Alexander McCall Smith" was, in fact, identical triplets imbued with the same literary talent and gusto.
I have no evidence, not having met him (or them) yet, but I continue to monitor the media in the half-hope that there will be independently-verified reports of Alexander McCall Smith appearing in two, or possibly three, places simultaneously. Then his secret will be out.
Otherwise, comic novelists like me will simply have to accept that one man really can be that terrific and prolific, which is so daunting that it could easily make some of us give up writing altogether and settle for merely being readers.
Almost four centuries after his death, the debate still rages over whether Shakespeare could possibly have written all the works attributed to him.
I've always suspected that intellectual jealousy is at work there, as some people just don't want to accept that any one person could produce so much and to such a high standard in one lifetime.
But when they try to persuade us that Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe wrote the plays instead, they create a similar problem to the one they were trying to solve: if Bacon had written them all, they wouldn't want to believe that he, either, had been able to write them all in his lifetime.
So Alexander McCall Smith (singular or plural) may spark a similar debate, especially if he continues producing books at the breathtaking rate he's achieved so far.
But back to the book: it might be unprecedented for a novel to be prescribed on the NHS here in the UK, but this appropriately slim volume could be a major weapon in the Government's battle against obesity.
For anyone who's tempted to keep stuffing themselves until they resemble the likes of Fatty O'Leary will almost certainly be deterred, permanently, if they devour this book first.
August 9, 2014
I have never read the author before, so I thought I would grab this short from NetGalley. From the time they get to the airport, to leave for a long awaits trip to Ireland, things begin to go wrong. Most of what happens is due to Fatty's size. Have to admit I found this vey amusing but then felt kind of bad for laughing at his misfortunes. Though I am sure the author meant the reader to laugh. Anyway all the predicaments they encounter, made for a fast and light read, which we all need now and then. The ending was very satisfying and a good message, sometimes we judge people on the basis of how they look and presume to think they would be happier if they looks better.We don't stop and think that some people are just happy within themselves, regardless of how they look.
So a quick and amusing look at a trip gone seriously awry, with to very likable characters and many, many misunderstandings.
So a quick and amusing look at a trip gone seriously awry, with to very likable characters and many, many misunderstandings.
July 31, 2014
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
― Augustine of Hippo
This is an oddly titled book. I guess because Lemony Snicket already cornered the market on A series of unfortunate events. Betty and Fatty O'Leary travel to Ireland to celebrate Fatty's Birthday. What follows would make anyone in their right mind swear off travel forever. Most of the humor comes at the expense of Fatty's extra large girth, which fell a little flat to me. Using overweight people as the butt of jokes is not very cleaver. Fatty and Betty seem likable enough but I'm sure I wouldn't want them as traveling companions.
I received this ARC from NetGalley
June 16, 2016
Unpleasant book, and not in the way that an insightful look at prejudices might make the reader feel uncomfortable at themselves. It just pokes fun.
Not Alexander McCall Smith's finest by any stretch.
Not Alexander McCall Smith's finest by any stretch.
February 6, 2017
I really enjoyed this short novel about the exploits of American, Fatty O'Leary, and his wife Betty as they embark on their first trip to Ireland. It reminded me of Wodehouse in respect to the sheer number of mishaps and embarrassments that befall Fatty on the course of his travels. It could so easily have become farcical but it had a charm to it that made it an enjoyable, light read.
August 26, 2014
Kindle 1.99 buy. So hard to rate. Of course the writing is a big 5. But the stuffing? I just can't decide what I think about it. For a guy reported to be so easy going, Fatty "explodes" a lot, which leaves me thinking that this isn't Smith's best work, it just doesn't flow as beautifully as lots of his other works. Smith is consummately a people-lover, content to find the beauty and lovability (I think that's a real word) in all of humanity's vastness, and this was no different, but I just didn't quite get the point.
Was this a farce?
Was this a comic/tragedy?
Was this a commentary on how "stout" people are treated?
Would an easy-going human be so absurd about not getting the first-class food? (If the O'Learys were so well off, why didn't they just fly first class in the first place?)
What did happen to Fatty's clothes that went into the wash at the B&B never to return? What was the point of this? Was there a point other than farce?
Was O'Brien as bad as painted? After all, he fished Fatty's shoes out of the lock.
Are the people who run fat farms as evil as portrayed herein?
I'm sure I could think of other questions. Basically just slightly mystified.
Was this a farce?
Was this a comic/tragedy?
Was this a commentary on how "stout" people are treated?
Would an easy-going human be so absurd about not getting the first-class food? (If the O'Learys were so well off, why didn't they just fly first class in the first place?)
What did happen to Fatty's clothes that went into the wash at the B&B never to return? What was the point of this? Was there a point other than farce?
Was O'Brien as bad as painted? After all, he fished Fatty's shoes out of the lock.
Are the people who run fat farms as evil as portrayed herein?
I'm sure I could think of other questions. Basically just slightly mystified.
May 5, 2018
I totally loved reading Fatty O'Leary's dinner Party novel. I have become a fan of Alexander McCall Smith's book since reading The Forever Girl.
What I love about Alexander McCall Smith's new hardback novel.
It is a very small hardback book in size that will fit into any handbag for readers to take away as a holiday read, and the story is a short novel with only 174 pages.
About Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party.
Fatty O'Leary is a very large American man who is married to his wife Betty. But when Fatty and Betty head of to Ireland for a trip of a lifetime, Fatty is put through a series of embarrassing disasters one after the other.
What readers can expect from Fatty O'Leary's dinner party is that it is full of humour and a must read short novel.
I am looking forward to Alexander McCall Smith's next novel from Polygon.
What I love about Alexander McCall Smith's new hardback novel.
It is a very small hardback book in size that will fit into any handbag for readers to take away as a holiday read, and the story is a short novel with only 174 pages.
About Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party.
Fatty O'Leary is a very large American man who is married to his wife Betty. But when Fatty and Betty head of to Ireland for a trip of a lifetime, Fatty is put through a series of embarrassing disasters one after the other.
What readers can expect from Fatty O'Leary's dinner party is that it is full of humour and a must read short novel.
I am looking forward to Alexander McCall Smith's next novel from Polygon.
June 8, 2015
Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party is the third stand-alone adult novel by popular British author, Alexander McCall Smith. Cornelius Patrick O’Leary, Fatty to his friends (who include Tubby O’Rourke and Porky Flanagan) is an antique furniture dealer in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and happily married to Betty. For his fortieth birthday, Betty decides to treat her husband to a an Irish vacation to experience the land of his ancestors: his grandfather departed from County Tipperary almost seventy years earlier, in 1910. But before they even depart American soil, due to a combination of unwise choices, prejudicial attitudes and unkind strangers, they suffer the first of what becomes a series of misfortunes, humiliations and indignities. After a few days in Ireland, Betty is rueing her choice of gift, what with missing luggage, unpleasant dinner companions, purloined laundry, a broken bed and a bathtub embarrassment. Fatty remains genial (so much easier than taking offence at every little thing), but eventually, despite the friendliness of an aristocratic fellow diner, an unintentional purchase and a painful experience ensure that he, too, wants only to go home to Arkansas. But Fatty finds that, even at home, he is subject to unpleasantness, until he finally makes a stand.
McCall Smith divides his story in the manner of a menu, into Starter, Main Course and Last Course. As usual, his story is filled with gentle philosophy as his characters muse on derogatory nicknames, Irish Americans, passenger prejudice, people of generous proportions, fat farms and the empowerment of feeling well-shod. Fatty is a likeable character and the reader will feel sympathetic at his misfortunes, although he is not entirely blameless in every instance. His stoic attitude serves him well: he can endure a great deal because he believes “Things can hurt us only if we allow them to hurt us; if we think of them as trials over which we can easily triumph, then their sting is drawn.” As in real life, none of the characters is wholly good or bad: even the nasty ones surprise with random charitable acts. The plot may be fairly straightforward, but there is still a bit of a twist at the end. A delightful read.
McCall Smith divides his story in the manner of a menu, into Starter, Main Course and Last Course. As usual, his story is filled with gentle philosophy as his characters muse on derogatory nicknames, Irish Americans, passenger prejudice, people of generous proportions, fat farms and the empowerment of feeling well-shod. Fatty is a likeable character and the reader will feel sympathetic at his misfortunes, although he is not entirely blameless in every instance. His stoic attitude serves him well: he can endure a great deal because he believes “Things can hurt us only if we allow them to hurt us; if we think of them as trials over which we can easily triumph, then their sting is drawn.” As in real life, none of the characters is wholly good or bad: even the nasty ones surprise with random charitable acts. The plot may be fairly straightforward, but there is still a bit of a twist at the end. A delightful read.
May 23, 2015
As a reader matures, it is important to begin interrogating the form itself and not merely contemplate on the plot/story. McCall Smith writes for 10-year-olds and tries too hard to fit in as a writer of any consequence at all.
Here he tells the tale of a fat man who is shamed for being so only to realize he loves being fat. Taking 144 pages to get this across is a crime on literature itself. What is sadder is his poor characterisation, infantile dialogue and his packing of the text with shambolic tragicomedies. Ultimately, McCall Smith spews trash again as he has done throughout his literary career.
As a life-long worshiper of all things Wodehousean, I cannot at all see why this work has been awarded the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for comic writing.
IS NOTHING SACRED?!
Here he tells the tale of a fat man who is shamed for being so only to realize he loves being fat. Taking 144 pages to get this across is a crime on literature itself. What is sadder is his poor characterisation, infantile dialogue and his packing of the text with shambolic tragicomedies. Ultimately, McCall Smith spews trash again as he has done throughout his literary career.
As a life-long worshiper of all things Wodehousean, I cannot at all see why this work has been awarded the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for comic writing.
IS NOTHING SACRED?!
August 2, 2014
I don't what to say about this "short." I'm a big fan of several of Alexander McCall Smith's series but this story left me flat. It's basically a series of embarrassments visited upon a sweet,obese, somewhat clueless American, during his visit to Ireland.
The story left me uncomfortable and, on a completely different note, I was surprised at McCall Smith's lack of familiarity with American idiom.
The story left me uncomfortable and, on a completely different note, I was surprised at McCall Smith's lack of familiarity with American idiom.
August 7, 2024
دوستان و خانوادهی «کورنیلیِس اولیری» اونو Fatty یا چاقالو صدا میزنن، لقبی که خودش هم بهش عادت کرده و اعتراضی بهش نداره. به مناسبت ۴۰ سالگی کورنیلیس، اون و همسرش تصمیم میگیرن برن ایرلند که سرزمین آبا و اجدادی اونه؛ ولی ایرلند جز توهین و تحقیر برای کورنیلیس هیچی نداره.
داستان توی یه جامعهی به شدت چاقهراس و قاطی آدمای بهشدت چاقهراس اتفاق میافته. با اینکه بسیار اعصابخردکنه، ولی متأسفانه حقیقته و حقیقت اغلب اوقات زیبا نیست.
پایانبندی داستان رو هم دوست داشتم.
داستان توی یه جامعهی به شدت چاقهراس و قاطی آدمای بهشدت چاقهراس اتفاق میافته. با اینکه بسیار اعصابخردکنه، ولی متأسفانه حقیقته و حقیقت اغلب اوقات زیبا نیست.
پایانبندی داستان رو هم دوست داشتم.
August 15, 2014
I was very disappointed with this novella, nothing at all like the many other Alexander McCall Smith books I've read. It had no meaningful insights other than "I yam what I yam." I did purchase the e-book version from Amazon because I like the author, but I didn't get my money's worth.
December 24, 2019
3.5★
There's barely a space in this short McCall Smith story where the main character, Fatty O'Leary, isn't in some sort of predicament. Very amusing and easy to read!
There's barely a space in this short McCall Smith story where the main character, Fatty O'Leary, isn't in some sort of predicament. Very amusing and easy to read!
July 28, 2018
Listened to this as a short audiobook but disappointed. A few funny moments but not up to Alexander McCall Smith's usual quality. I was uncomfortable sometimes because there was hurt in the humor; Fatty O'Leary refused to accept society's categorizing him as "overweight/must do something about it" and triumphed in the end but still . . .
dnf
April 10, 2023I usually love Alexander McCall Smith’s books. He’s one of my favorite authors. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into this one.
October 9, 2015
A Whining Tale Of The Woes Of Obesity
This story seems like the author needed to vent over perceived slights due to his weight. I did not relate to the central character or his plight. Fatty O Leary gets into all sorts of misadventures mostly due to his obesity, then feels slighted because the mean spirited thin people all have it " in for him. " As a health care provider I encounter patients like the central character every day. They have no interest in taking positive steps to better their health, but just want to whine about their circumstances, i.e., diabetes, joint pain, heart disease, etc. his is not up to McCall Smith's usual standard. I hope this was cathartic for him, as for me, I 'd like a refund.
This story seems like the author needed to vent over perceived slights due to his weight. I did not relate to the central character or his plight. Fatty O Leary gets into all sorts of misadventures mostly due to his obesity, then feels slighted because the mean spirited thin people all have it " in for him. " As a health care provider I encounter patients like the central character every day. They have no interest in taking positive steps to better their health, but just want to whine about their circumstances, i.e., diabetes, joint pain, heart disease, etc. his is not up to McCall Smith's usual standard. I hope this was cathartic for him, as for me, I 'd like a refund.
November 1, 2014
I have enjoyed some of McCall Smith's other novels but this one left me absolutely cold. The humour was close to farce and I was uncomfortable with an obese person being the target for such childish laughs. It all felt a little desperate, pointless and unsubtle.
July 31, 2017
Cornelius Patrick O’Leary is an Irish American living with his wife Betty in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He is a gentle and kind man with two close friends Tubby O’Rourke and Porky Flanagan. Both Fatty and his wife are on the large size. Cornelius, who has been heavy most of his life, has always been known as “Fatty”, given his nickname when he was still a child. The name was never meant to be unkind and even if it was, Fatty has always been the forgiving type.
As a man born and raised in the United States, Fatty has always dreamed of going overseas to explore his Irish heritage. So when his fortieth birthday approaches, Betty decides a great gift for this significant birthday would be a trip to Ireland, the place Fatty has longed to see and experience firsthand.
As the day for their trip grows closer, the couple became more and more excited, thinking about everything they would see and soon experience. When it finally arrives, they are off to the airport, but things seem to go wrong from the moment they prepare to board the plane headed for Shannon. Fatty, waiting with the other passengers, is politely asked to stay behind because the plane is not only overbooked but Fatty’s size adds consider weight to the plane itself. After overcoming this terrible embarrassment and eventually being allowed to board, Fatty is once again approached with a request from the airline staff-- this time to change his seat to give his fellow passengers more sitting room. From here on, Fatty continues to face a number of challenges and misadventures because of his size.
McCall comically narrates the couples ongoing adventures which include several “laugh out loud” moments. Fatty loses his luggage and has no clothes so is forced to don a duvet cover to go into town. He gets stuck in a bathtub and is abandoned out on the lawn while his rescuers pursue cows who have escaped their pasture. On several occasions, he is forced to endure the ramblings of Rupert O’Brien, an obnoxious and pretentious theater critic, snob and name dropper who, with his haughty and remote wife Niamh, are staying at the same inn. And at a social event with Lord Balnerry, Fatty unexpectedly buys a very expensive horse.
Yet faced with all these embarrassments, Fatty maintains his dignity and never ceases to be generous and kind. When the couple returns home, Fatty is confronted with more issues over his size when his doctor informs him he absolutely must lose weight, an instruction that sends him to an expensive “fat farm”.
Given their experiences, it would not be unusual for readers to think that Fatty and Betty would denounce their trip to Ireland and criticize the way they were treated. But the couple always look on the positive side of things and see it all as simply a run of bad luck, all part of life's wonderful adventure. Their experience has simply reminded them that travel can broaden the mind but also lead one to appreciate the simple charms of home.
The entire trip and the events at the doctor’s office are humorous and sometimes painful to read. It seems the couple has faced every indignity possible and at times it made me uncomfortable. It is not McCall’s usual style. He may do everything from criticize his characters to humour or applaud them, but he does not usually make fun of them. It seems so unlike his other writing. Or perhaps I am just being overly sensitive.
I have several thoughts about this book. Initially I found it entertaining but I soon began to feel badly for this kind gentle couple and how they were being treated. By the time I finished the short tale I was wondering exactly what McCall Smith was up to. He is a masterful storyteller, usually centering his stories on ordinary people with ordinary problems that remind the reader about the absurdities as well as the important things in life, relationships and love. He lovingly describes the relationship between Fatty and his wife Betty who understand, respect and care for one another. But I did not feel as comfortable at the close of this story as I have with McCall’s other books, where I have been reminded of some simple truth in life and have at the same time been entertained.
Yes it is amusing and maybe McCall Smith is reminding his readers not to be unkind and that there is no need to be sarcastic or to create awkward moments that make others feel uncomfortable. There will always be others ready to do that when it is just as easy to be pleasant.
What about Fatty? Is McCall Smith introducing his readers to a new character who will appear in subsequent volumes? Will we hear more about Fatty and Betty or is this a stand alone?
Despite my comments, it is to be noted that McCall Smith won the Wodehouse Prize, the UK’s top award for humorous fiction for this story. So perhaps as I have said, I am just being too sensitive.
As a man born and raised in the United States, Fatty has always dreamed of going overseas to explore his Irish heritage. So when his fortieth birthday approaches, Betty decides a great gift for this significant birthday would be a trip to Ireland, the place Fatty has longed to see and experience firsthand.
As the day for their trip grows closer, the couple became more and more excited, thinking about everything they would see and soon experience. When it finally arrives, they are off to the airport, but things seem to go wrong from the moment they prepare to board the plane headed for Shannon. Fatty, waiting with the other passengers, is politely asked to stay behind because the plane is not only overbooked but Fatty’s size adds consider weight to the plane itself. After overcoming this terrible embarrassment and eventually being allowed to board, Fatty is once again approached with a request from the airline staff-- this time to change his seat to give his fellow passengers more sitting room. From here on, Fatty continues to face a number of challenges and misadventures because of his size.
McCall comically narrates the couples ongoing adventures which include several “laugh out loud” moments. Fatty loses his luggage and has no clothes so is forced to don a duvet cover to go into town. He gets stuck in a bathtub and is abandoned out on the lawn while his rescuers pursue cows who have escaped their pasture. On several occasions, he is forced to endure the ramblings of Rupert O’Brien, an obnoxious and pretentious theater critic, snob and name dropper who, with his haughty and remote wife Niamh, are staying at the same inn. And at a social event with Lord Balnerry, Fatty unexpectedly buys a very expensive horse.
Yet faced with all these embarrassments, Fatty maintains his dignity and never ceases to be generous and kind. When the couple returns home, Fatty is confronted with more issues over his size when his doctor informs him he absolutely must lose weight, an instruction that sends him to an expensive “fat farm”.
Given their experiences, it would not be unusual for readers to think that Fatty and Betty would denounce their trip to Ireland and criticize the way they were treated. But the couple always look on the positive side of things and see it all as simply a run of bad luck, all part of life's wonderful adventure. Their experience has simply reminded them that travel can broaden the mind but also lead one to appreciate the simple charms of home.
The entire trip and the events at the doctor’s office are humorous and sometimes painful to read. It seems the couple has faced every indignity possible and at times it made me uncomfortable. It is not McCall’s usual style. He may do everything from criticize his characters to humour or applaud them, but he does not usually make fun of them. It seems so unlike his other writing. Or perhaps I am just being overly sensitive.
I have several thoughts about this book. Initially I found it entertaining but I soon began to feel badly for this kind gentle couple and how they were being treated. By the time I finished the short tale I was wondering exactly what McCall Smith was up to. He is a masterful storyteller, usually centering his stories on ordinary people with ordinary problems that remind the reader about the absurdities as well as the important things in life, relationships and love. He lovingly describes the relationship between Fatty and his wife Betty who understand, respect and care for one another. But I did not feel as comfortable at the close of this story as I have with McCall’s other books, where I have been reminded of some simple truth in life and have at the same time been entertained.
Yes it is amusing and maybe McCall Smith is reminding his readers not to be unkind and that there is no need to be sarcastic or to create awkward moments that make others feel uncomfortable. There will always be others ready to do that when it is just as easy to be pleasant.
What about Fatty? Is McCall Smith introducing his readers to a new character who will appear in subsequent volumes? Will we hear more about Fatty and Betty or is this a stand alone?
Despite my comments, it is to be noted that McCall Smith won the Wodehouse Prize, the UK’s top award for humorous fiction for this story. So perhaps as I have said, I am just being too sensitive.
April 13, 2018
I love this author's books and this one had all the elements I have come to expect from his work. Loveable main character Fatty O'Leary is an American businessman, happily married to his childhood sweetheart Betty who decides to treat him to a holiday in Ireland to rediscover his Irish roots. So begins a story of mishaps and mayhem, laugh-out-loud in places but with an undertone of empathy for Fatty. Could have been a lot longer to make more out of a couple of the storylines. There is no 'dinner party', only in the sense of how the book is laid out - starter, main course, dessert. Funny but would have liked more! 8/10.
March 9, 2024
This won a humor award, why, I'm not sure. Fatty and his wife Betty take a vacation to Ireland and the whole thing was a disaster. Lost luggage, stuck in bathtub ect. Fatty is well, fat, but doesn't let him get him down. He is a total sweetheart and his wife is lovely. I just felt horrible for him and didn't find it funny.
July 23, 2024
This book made me smile cover to cover. Easy reading in a few hours.
Join the fun of Fatty O’Leary who has friends and Porky.
His trip to Ireland has misadventure after misadventure and the calamities add to the humour
Join the fun of Fatty O’Leary who has friends and Porky.
His trip to Ireland has misadventure after misadventure and the calamities add to the humour
October 4, 2020
Fat shaming, I wasn't impressed with this book in the least.
May 23, 2022
He’s fat, goes by the name Fatty, loves his food and treats and wine (and his wife) and his best friends Porky and Tubby.
The end.
Classic A M-S
The end.
Classic A M-S
January 31, 2020
Had me giggling and smiling at the touching moments. And loved the brief nod to his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series
June 16, 2019
A bit too unrealistic even for a farce. Whilst there were a few funny moments other times that were probably intended to be funny were a little too cringe worthy and jarring for my taste.
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