Botswana's No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

A few weeks back when a teacher of mine recommended me to read some of Alexander Mccall Smith’s writings, I set out to look for a book which will be best for me to step into his oeuvre with. So, I picked his 1998 released novel, The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Precious Ramotswe’s intelligence and affability combined with McCall Smith’s witty narrative got me hooked so much that by the end of this book I was itching to read the next instalment of the series.

Set in Botswana, The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is one of its kind in the entire country. Following her father’s death, Mma Ramotswe used her inheritance to set up a detective agency because she unwaveringly believes that ‘women understand what’s happening. They are the ones with the eyes.’ Ramotswe along with her assistant Mma Makutsi and a small white van set out to solve cases and help people ‘solve the mysteries in their lives’. Though business starts off slow with small cases involving con men, embezzlers and rebellious kids, it does not take too long to pick up momentum as the perceptive and quick-witted Mma Ramotswe bags important and high-profile cases in her kitty. Through the tribulations of the ingenious cases, cups of bush tea and Mr JLB Matekoni remain as constant friends to Mma Ramotswe.

Precious Ramotswe with her easy and patient demeanour and a keen understanding of the human psyche comes across as a detective, au naturel. Her progressive and feminist ideals does not come in conflict with her traditional African values, compassion and grace. She is a patient feminist who puts an arrogant man in his place with her intelligence and sharp wit and her amicable disposition. Mma Ramotswe is a confident woman who is not only sure of her looks and her colour, but also of her self and her identity as a feminist. She is unlike the stereotyped sleuths who are endowed with atypical qualities, for her judgement is tempered with compassion and human understanding—the Moretsi case for instance.

If Mma Ramotswe’s character is instrumental in keeping the readers glued to the book, McCall Smith's
narrative is no less in making the novel such a success. The narrative’s inspection of human character, foibles and pressing issues of the society is deceptively covert by Smith’s lucid language and easy humour. McCall Smith let’s his protagonist use sly humour to cut through chauvinism, patriarchy and superstition. The narrative is interspersed with actions from Mma Ramotswe’s curiously interesting present and thoughtful ruminations from flashes of her painful past, thus, striking a delicate balance of wit and philosophy, of humour and pathos.

While some may dismiss McCall Smith’s handling of the pressing social issues as trivial, it is undeniable that his protagonist, nonetheless, comes across as a nosy realist who hesitates for no two seconds before plunging headlong to address such issues in her own capacity. The plot doesn’t follow the whoddunnit genre, nor does it involve sensational crimes, indomitable criminals or the maddening chases. McCall Smith’s novel relishes the slow-paced life of Gabarone, the challenges that form the kernel of the mundane, and studies the foibles of human character in a different light, unlike most detective novels. The novel, at best, stands out as a optimistic and humorous commentary on human life, character and society. 

Rainbow's Landline!

One of the recent books I read is Rainbow Rowell’s best selling novel of 2014, Landline. Adjudged as the Goodreads Best Book of 2014 in the fiction category, Landline marks Rowell’s return to adult fiction after her two best selling young adult novels, Eleanor and Park (2013) and Fangirl (2013). Landline is Rowell’s take on marriage, love and mature relationships.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

               

                  Georgie McCool is a successful scriptwriter who is very much aware that her marriage is in the rocks. Her husband, Neal, is a stay-at home dad who looks after the kids and patiently waits for Georgie to commit her time for them. He has increasingly grown distant from her and is discontent with a sterile conjugal life due to her endless work. She drives the last nail in the coffin when she chooses to soar high in her career and ditches her husband and kids on celebrating Christmas together with Neal’s family at Nebraska. However, just after Neal and the kids depart for Nebraska, Georgie begins to crumble. She worries if her marriage is over, having realised that perhaps this time she has pushed Neal a little too far away from herself. She begins a journey to rediscover herself, her feelings for Neal and to achieve a full understanding of the conjugal relationship she shares with Neal.

                        Rowell explores the themes of travails of marriage, midlife crisis, work and parenthood adroitly through a psychological study of her characters and the deft use of the instrument of magic realism. Georgie attempts to fix her marriage by starting afresh her conjugal relationship with Neal. She attempts to talk to Neal, but the Neal she keeps talking to from her teenage bedroom using the old yellow landline is the young Neal, one that she had fallen in love with. As Christmas draws near, Georgie travels between past and present to understand her own feelings and her relationships. She is left to consider if they should stay together, if they are enough as a couple to make each other happy.

                          Beneath the sparkling narrative lies a subcutaneous tension that Rowell has adroitly captured. Once again Rowell proves herself as a master storyteller in her ability to narrate a heart-warming story that dissects a modern marriage to talk of the problems of modern life and relationships. At the heart of her story lie the imperfect characters - Georgie and Neal.  Georgie is a far cry from a perfect lover, mother or wife. Neal is a quite brooding man whose stolid passivity and resigned acceptance constantly conveys Georgie her inability to make him happy. It is also interesting to note how consummately Rowell has reversed the gender roles in her story. The man patiently waits for his wife’s attention and time as he looks after the house and kids. But Rowell falls back to her young adult strain and gives into that idealist and escapist nerve. What rubs off against me is the forced reconciliation of the story. Somewhere in the end the characters seem to give up their free will to resolve Rowell’s plot. The author manipulates her characters to script a happy ending that is at once affected and fake. However, Rowell’s lucid language and swift narrative, evenly distributed with humour, make Landline a page turner. It is indeed a good read that combines the pleasures of a young adult novel and the plot of an adult fiction.