"[4] In The Bertie Project, Irene has just returned home from a lengthy stay in the Middle East where she ran a book club in a Bedouin harem, causing her to redouble her commitment to making "drastic" reforms in the lives and characters of her husband and son.
[5] American political commentator Charlie Sykes describes Bertie as "a precocious six-year-old of distinctive sweetness, thoughtfulness, honesty, and kindness, whose longing for a normal boyhood is more poignant than threatening.
"[4] Other critics, like Bethanne Patrick of The Washington Post, who describes Bertie's mother as "a miserable shrew," enjoys the fact that as Smith's characters "walk, talk, cook, study and meet, they consider all sorts of philosophical conundrums, from how best to raise a child to what constitutes hipster clothing.
"[6] The "44 Scotland Street" books began as a weekly series in The Scotsman,[7] where Bertie's mother, Irene Pollock (37), is described by Smith as "the guiding spirit of at least three book clubs (including a Melanie Klein reading group), and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh in social theory and politics.
Smith offers up a stinging takedown not merely of a style of parental hothousing, but of psychotherapy, feminism, the attack on masculinity, and social-justice hectoring.