44 Scotland Street

Fiction serials a la Dickens have pretty much become a thing of the past. But what if the modernization of the genre happened not because a story grips the whole nation, but instead one specific city? Published in city newspapers, wouldn't it make sense to create a story that centered on the city itself? In 1978, Armistead Maupin wrote one such serial, Tales of the City, in the San Francisco Chronicle, creating characters and relationships that all center around San Francisco.
So inspired to create such a story for Edinburgh, Alexander McCall Smith, in 2004 started writing a daily serial in The Scotsman that ran for 6 months.
This novel is the collection of those 100+ short chapters.
Most of the action centers around 44 Scotland Street, the residence of many of the characters. We learn of their lives, loves and pasts and also meet their acquaintances, co-workers and therapists. But the main character of this story is really Edinburgh itself.
That isn't to say that those of us living outside of Edinburgh can't enjoy the story. The characters are many and interesting and the stories move along at a decent pace. I enjoyed this book, but didn't love it. I do wonder though what it would have been like to read as intended, one short chapter each day?