A Mug's Game

25 Jun 2005
More What If? - ed.Robert Cowley - Pan 2003
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As its name suggests, this is a book of counterfactual history, in which "eminent historians imagine what might have been". Regular readers of SF and other imaginative fiction are quite used to this concept due to the "alternate world" sub-genre of novels churned out by Harry Turtledove and his ilk. Most of these are not great works of literature (excepting, of course, such masterpieces as Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle), but are mildly interesting for the way that recognisable characters appear in completely different contexts. I thought that this might be a superior version of the same thing, with properly knowledgeable people coming up with plausible scenarios. And indeed it is. There's only one small problem - the whole thing is a completely wasted exercise.
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A Sweet Dessert

25 Jun 2005
The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith - Abacus 2004
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This is another Botswana-set tale about Mma Ramotswe and her No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, though it must be said that the whodunnit pretext is growing progressively thinner with each passing volume. The detective plot here concerns a successful businesswoman who wants Mma Ramotswe to check out four possible suitors for her hand. Do they really love her, or are they just after her money? The plotting is so perfunctory that two of the four suitors never appear at all and the ending is disappointing and rushed.

Fortunately there are other storylines that compensate. The main one concerns the attempts of Mr J.L.B. Maketoni, Mma Ramotswe's everlasting fiance, to extricate himself from a sponsored parachute jump on behalf of the local orphanage, into which he has been talked by its wily matron Mma Ptokwani. There are other plots to do with shoddy workmanship on a car and a significant event for Mma Ramotswe which need not detain us here.

Despite the disappointing plotting, this is still an enjoyable read. The deceptive simplicity of the style and the basic decency and politeness of the characters is very engaging. In an age where most images of Africa are negative - starving children, AIDS victims, corruption, war - it is a breath of fresh air to to have a series that celebrates the positive features and strengths of its people. I am sure that the Botswana portrayed in these novels is far from the reality - McCall Smith has undoubtedly downplayed the chaos and squalor - but I for one would like it to exist (and I am certainly now interested in going to see what it is really like). It is probably sensible, however, that the books are so short. Any longer, and like a sweet dessert, they would become cloying.