Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie

Ever since I read Mackenzie's Extraordinary Women, I've been wanting to read more by him, but this book turned out to be completely different from what I expected. It's a comic novel about a ship laden with whisky running aground near two Hebridean islands, which are suffering from a wartime shortage of that particular beverage. I expected it to be a really fast-moving and fun read, but for me, it didn't get amusing or interesting until half-way through. After that, it was really fun, but I was at the point of giving up on it about ten times before that. The first half introduces the characters and details the effects of whisky deprivation on the two islands (ranging from untimely death to despair). I got hopelessly tangled up in the similar names and endless ranks of the characters, and didn't find the jokes about Scots pronunciation and resultant confusion very funny. However, by the end, I was hugely enjoying the book, as I got used to the names and sorted out the characters. The way whisky becomes the catalyst for the resolution of every problem in the plot (two marriages, a tyrannical mother, a self-important and interfering Captain) was very well-executed. I also wound up really liking the eccentricities and peculiarities of the various characters, and their interactions with one another. Mackenzie wonderfully captures especially the spirit of public gatherings (such as an engagement party, a wedding, a meeting in a pub) and the manners and customs of the islands' natives as they communicate with one another and the outside world.