Development
After criticism for the first novel in the series asserted that Isabel was difficult to empathise with, McCall Smith aimed in this novel to show “more of the human side of her”. The title refers to “three issues of great philosophical importance” that test our moral inclinations. The “philosophical resonance” of friendship and lovers are evident; as McCall Smith says, “Friendship involves philosophical issues. Lovers can certainly give rise to moral difficulties.” Chocolate represents “temptation and our inability to resist temptation” and is included for personal reasons, because the temptation of chocolate affects “most of us ... me in particular.”
A key subplot is Jamie’s affair with Louise, which can be seen as demonstrating his willingness to enter into relationships with older women and foreshadowing the events of the next book in the series.
Read more about this topic: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I can see ... only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen.”
—H.A.L. (Herbert Albert Laurens)
“Theories of child development and guidelines for parents are not cast in stone. They are constantly changing and adapting to new information and new pressures. There is no “right” way, just as there are no magic incantations that will always painlessly resolve a child’s problems.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)