A Sweet Dessert
Jul. 27th, 2005 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvessel25 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.
The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith - Abacus 2004
* * * *
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.