The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998) By Alexander McCall Smith

I picked up The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency at a used book fair out of sheer eclectic curiosity. It’s a book written by a White guy living in Scotland, with a protagonist who is a “fat” African woman living in Botswana, who decides to open a detective agency. Who could resist?

The detective is Precious Ramotswe, known to all as “Mma” Ramotswe, an honorific prefix, rather like “Mother Ramotswe” used to show respect. She was born and raised in Botswana. She is educated, and the pride of her hardworking, widowed father. When he dies, she inherits his herd of two hundred cattle. He had told her he wanted her to sell the cattle and open up a business of her choosing.

Her cases are everyday issues -- cheating husband, stolen goods, missing person, etc., and some are both charming and hilarious, and almost always have a digression on the subject of snakes. Like her favorite detective Agatha Christie, or Sherlock Holmes, or later my favorite Sara Paretsky’s star V.I. Warshawsky, her detective methodology is deductive reasoning more than modern day DNA-style evidence as portrayed on CSI.

The author, Alexander McCall Smith, is an interesting case himself. Born in what was then Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe), he moved to Scotland as a child. He’s a legal scholar and later in life started writing. He is a prolific writer across multiple genres. This book introduces the reader to what will become a series of detective novels, many of which hit the New York Times Best Sellers List.

Recommendation: Yes, it is fun, light reading.

The Age of Innocence (1919) By Edith Wharton

I do understand why Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; she is a masterful writer. It is considered a classic of American literature. What I do not understand is why anyone would find the story appealing enough to read.

Wharton’s book is set in Manhattan during America’s Gilded Age, the later decades of the nineteenth century. It is basically a summation of the lives of a group of elitists, “upper class” people without a serious care in the world – and by elitist I mean financial, definitely not intellectual. They have zero empathy with the outside world. More accurately they have zero recognition of the outside world. F. Scott Fritzgerald’s Great Gatsby from the same era at least acknowledged others.

I think perhaps what I dislike about the story is it reminds me of today’s America. Early in the novel is a ridiculous subplot explaining the necessity of having the largest ballroom in New York City, even if it is used only once a year.

In the novel Newland Archer gets engaged to Mary Weeland, a good match by high society standards, both are from wealthy, respected families. They will eventually marry, prim and proper. Newland however has become infatuated with Mary’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska who has recently returned to New York because she is estranged from the Count and is rumored to want a divorce (considered a scandal in that era).

There is one, and only one, interesting plot in the book. Olenska makes the point that women are ostracized for divorce and considered whores if they have an affair. While it is okay for men to get a divorce, and secretly okay for them to have extra-marital affairs. Newland understands and agrees. Yet, they both play by the rules.

My criticism is with the story, not the writing. Wharton is superb, I’ve previously posted blogs on her novels A Son at the Front and Ethan Frome.

A movie was made of the book in 1993 starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder. Despite good performances, they weren’t able to save the movie.

Recommendation: Yes if you are a literature major. No on the pleasure reading scale. And definitely a no on the movie.