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Ramotswe Redux
Book Reviews: The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency; Tears of the Giraffe; and Morality for Beautiful Girls, by Alexander McCall Smith
I think it was a couple of years ago that I was in a conversation with some colleagues about books and TV box sets. I asked whether they binge-read on books in a series, and the consensus seemed to be affirmative. It's not something I have generally done, tending to interleave my reading. But I thought perhaps it might work well for a re-read of this series, so I took the first three in turn.
Original reviews are here, here and here, and I think I'm broadly in agreement with what I wrote then. I knew more or less what to expect, although after twenty years(!) some of the detail was a bit hazy. There's a bit more "domestic" in book one than I had remembered; perhaps that's because it's filling in the back-story for Precious Ramotswe and so it didn't become intrusive the way I recall it in later books. And I think the second book also holds up well. The third is perhaps running a little low on steam, and I decided I would pause the series here, although I intend to return to it shortly.
One thing that did strike me on a re-read is the way Alexander McCall Smith uses opportunities to contrast Botswana society and values with European / western ones. Mma Ramotswe thinks, for example, that it is her duty as someone of reasonable financial standing to employ a maid, a role that is really a live-in housekeeper. I see the advantages, but beyond the cost there's also the loss of independence and privacy, and it's just an icky idea to me; had I grown up accustomed to that model no doubt I would think differently. The redistributive element ought to be accomplishable by taxation and the provision of good public services, although it doesn't seem to work out that way. The human problems that Mma Ramotswe's business deals in are, of course, universal at the fundamental level, but they - and often their solutions - manifest in a distinctly African way.
I think it was a couple of years ago that I was in a conversation with some colleagues about books and TV box sets. I asked whether they binge-read on books in a series, and the consensus seemed to be affirmative. It's not something I have generally done, tending to interleave my reading. But I thought perhaps it might work well for a re-read of this series, so I took the first three in turn.
Original reviews are here, here and here, and I think I'm broadly in agreement with what I wrote then. I knew more or less what to expect, although after twenty years(!) some of the detail was a bit hazy. There's a bit more "domestic" in book one than I had remembered; perhaps that's because it's filling in the back-story for Precious Ramotswe and so it didn't become intrusive the way I recall it in later books. And I think the second book also holds up well. The third is perhaps running a little low on steam, and I decided I would pause the series here, although I intend to return to it shortly.
One thing that did strike me on a re-read is the way Alexander McCall Smith uses opportunities to contrast Botswana society and values with European / western ones. Mma Ramotswe thinks, for example, that it is her duty as someone of reasonable financial standing to employ a maid, a role that is really a live-in housekeeper. I see the advantages, but beyond the cost there's also the loss of independence and privacy, and it's just an icky idea to me; had I grown up accustomed to that model no doubt I would think differently. The redistributive element ought to be accomplishable by taxation and the provision of good public services, although it doesn't seem to work out that way. The human problems that Mma Ramotswe's business deals in are, of course, universal at the fundamental level, but they - and often their solutions - manifest in a distinctly African way.