2019 #12: What W.H. Auden Can Do For You (McCall Smith)

What W. H. Auden Can Do for You by Alexander McCall Smith


It is true that this book is somewhat self-indulgent, but if you are one of those people, like me, who enjoys what one might call conversational erudition, this book is a fantasy fulfilled. In reading McCall
Smith's book, we imagine ourselves not in a classroom, but sitting in the Russian Tea Room, as the author did with Edward Mendelson (108-11). This evokes an older mode of teaching, and reminded me specifically of my Doktorvater, who could recall specific measures of a Brahms intermezzo, the structure of a medieval motet, or the specific page of a citation in an issue of the Journal of the American Musicological Society with authority based, first and foremost, in his pure love of--and engagement with--music. This is truly the "life of the mind," when we move past the hierarchical corporate machine of academia. That said, the book rests in privilege, without doubt -- both in the fact it exists, and that it banks on a readership of well-established fans. But I've been astonished by some of the criticism claiming that McCall Smith is not a good enough author to deserve to write a book on Auden. These same reviews call him out for his "ego" in producing the book in the first place. There's a quiet irony here which I won't harp on, to avoid a review of a review. For me, McCall Smith's stream-of-consciouness sidebars are refreshing and he wrote this book in the way that I read most books. If you are looking for an academic tome about Auden, or a biography-- this isn't it, which the author tells us on p. 3:

This small book does not purport to be a work of criticism. It does not claim to shed new light on a body of work that has already been extensively examined. It is simply an attempt to share an enthusiasm with others who may not have yet discovered, or may not have given much thought to the work of Wystan Hugh Auden.

Those familiar with McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series may take extra delight in this volume, particularly in that the real Edward Mendelson, whom McCall Smith extolls as "no better guardian and exponent of [Auden's] work," makes an appearance in several of those novels.