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Email a FriendPosted by katen on Monday, Oct 24, 2011 11:53 AM (EDT):
I enjoy the books and the tv show. A shame they only made 8 episodes.
Morality For Beautiful Girls
Do you read the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series?
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Reviews on Monday, October 24, 2011 10:24 AM
#1 Ladies’ Detective Agency sounds like precisely the opposite of anything I’d want to read.
“Miss Marple for Botswana?” No thanks, no matter how big an international best-seller.
Early this summer, however, a good friend wore down my resistance, and I’m so glad!
It’s not a pert little series of murders solved, but a charming and deeply evocative collection of tales about the solitary burdens we humans carry around and the capacity of kindness to overcome them.
Author Alexander McCall Smith manages, however, to be neither saccharine nor didactic.
I’ve just finished book three in the series, Morality for Beautiful Girls, and found myself—as in the previous two volumes—moved to tears at poignant moments gently and subtly observed.
I am not a crier, generally, but Smith has a gift for illustrating the workings of the human heart while resisting the urge to suck the marrow from his scene by commenting upon it himself.
If I had to make a comparison, I’d say the series is reminiscent of Wendell Berry’s Port William series:
the sharply drawn characters, the intense evocation of place, the keen observations about the tensions between the old agricultural economy and the new ways of the developing cities.
The series is set in Botswana, however, so there are other interesting ideas brought into relief.
Christian morality versus old African spiritualism versus the “new morality.” The patriotism of good citizens in an emerging nation versus the attitudes of Americans and Europeans. Rarely you will find Christianity, marriage and family life treated so tenderly and at the same time so unselfconsciously.
These things emerge, as I say gently, naturally, and without hectoring. They’re just there to savor, along with the bustling city life, the occasional dangerous animal, heroine Precious Ramotswe’s common sense wisdom, and a bracing cup of “bush tea.”
Comments
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Posted by Jennifer on Monday, Oct 24, 2011 12:29 PM (EDT):
I love this series, much more than some of his other works. I often “reread” a book here and there just to savor it again. You are right that he works in very Christian issues, without sounding moralistic or didactic. I also found these books especially comforting after I lost my father. Read the rest - they get better and better!
Posted by Therese on Monday, Oct 24, 2011 3:37 PM (EDT):
The first two novels were part of my summer beach reading, upon the recommendations of several friends. I agree with you, Rebecca, in really enjoying the characters, the setting, and the family and cultural life that are depicted. I was a bit disappointed, however, that the mysteries weren’t a bit more challenging from a detective standpoint.
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