McCall
Smith, Alexander. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. New York: Anchor Books,
1998.
235
pages.
Reviewed
by J. d’Artagnan Love
In
Botswana, Precious Ramotswe uses an inheritance to open her own detective
agency. In a world run by men, Precious must be brave and assertive to solve
the puzzles her clients bring her. Less a murder mystery and more a caricature, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency surprised me. The past year
I’ve been devouring cheap murder mysteries. I was expecting this to be the
same, formulaic murder mystery. It did not meet these expectations. It exceeded
them.
I
should preface this with some background information about my reading
experience. I am well-read in African literature. I’ve read the major
writers—Ousman Sembene, Frantz Fanon, Chinua Achebe, Mariama Ba, and Calixthe
Beyala. I’ve taken many, many classes on Francophone and Anglophone literature
of North and West Africa. I can spot a well-written piece of African literature
and pick it out from the pseudo-African literature (books written more from a
colonist’s perspective than an African’s perspective, etc., etc.).
That
being said, a lot of debate exists about this book in particular. The debate
stems from the author of the novel, a white man, whose protagonist is a black
African woman. Critics claim that the tone is patronizing, pointing out how
“simple minded” the characters are. Critics lauded the slow pace of the
narrative as another nail in the coffin for this book.
I
myself, found the book delightful. I’ve thought a lot about the criticism about
McCall Smith being a white man narrating a black woman’s story and to be
perfectly honest, as a feminist I was quick to jump on the bandwagon and fume about what a foul trick he was trying to play. I had to take a step back though, and
think about this as a writer and a reader too. If I knew nothing about this
author and I read the book with no idea who had written it, I would have found
it to be a compelling and authentic story.
Those
who find the characters to be simple-minded and the plot slow might not be reading
the text and digesting it. If one slows down a bit and digests the story as it
unfolds, one discovers an enormous amount of wit and humor in the characters
and their interactions with one another. The story moves slowly, but so does
life in Botswana. It unfolds more as a collection of vignettes than as one
seamless novel but this enables the reader to digest and interpret and
contemplate the story instead of speeding through it. One can read a chapter
and put the book down for a while. Think about the plot, the characters the
connections between this chapter and the last. It’s not meant to be read quickly. It’s meant
to be absorbed one page at a time. The only way to enjoy this book is to read
it slowly. It’s not a Tom Clancy novel. There’s a time and place for
fast-paced, plot-driven novels, and this is not it.
SO,
let’s go back to expectations. I was expecting a beach read, or as a friend and
fellow blogger puts it, popcorn lit. My experience with the narrative styles of
African writers allowed me to recognize that my expectations were way off the
mark. This isn’t popcorn lit; this is African lit and it’s delightful.
4 darts
out of 5
This
book is FOR: people who like a slow, character-driven story.
This
book is NOT FOR: people expecting an action-packed, fast-pasted mystery
thriller.
