From a Far and Lovely Country

In my opinion, Alex. McC. Smith has not lost his touch with this long-running series. The lyrical physical descriptions, and the gentle observations about husband and wife relations and friendship and "extra low-grade" people and hard work and history - it's all there. Also, there's an interesting storyline about wartime history and an American woman who comes to Africa to search for relatives.
One of my favorite passages is this, spoken by that American woman in a conversation with Mia Ramotswe: My father was from Antigua, which is why, as you can see, I have a bit of Africa in me. He came to work in the US and that's when he met my mother. She was half French, half German, and so you see our background is a bit complicated. Sometimes I show more think of myself as being half American, half history — as many people are, don't you think? We all have history in our veins. show less

In Alexander McCall Smith’s “From a Far and Lovely Country,” Mma Precious Ramotswe is chagrined that her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, has forgotten her birthday. However, she is a forgiving person who, even on this special occasion, goes to work at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Later, she pays a visit to her old friend, Mma Siliva Potokwame.

Precious Ramotswe, her good-hearted but strong-willed colleague, Mma Grace Makutsi, Mma Potokwame, and Charlie (a mechanic who works for Mr. Matekoni) have mysteries to solve. Charles gets a chance to go undercover when he investigates a disreputable club whose owner preys on single women looking for eligible bachelors. In addition, Precious agrees to help an American look for show more relatives of an individual whom her late grandmother cared for very much.

What keeps loyal fans of this long-running series returning for more are McCall Smith's simple yet lyrical prose; gentle humor; and wise observations about love, family, friendship, and kindness. Although the plot is insubstantial, spending time with the characters we know so well is like having a bowl of hot and delicious chicken soup. Both warm our insides and make us feel that the world may not be such a bad place after all. show less

In Alexander McCall Smith’s “From a Far and Lovely Country,” Mma Precious Ramotswe is chagrined that her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, has forgotten her birthday. However, she is a forgiving person who, even on this special occasion, goes to work at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Later, she pays a visit to her old friend, Mma Siliva Potokwame.

Precious Ramotswe, her good-hearted but strong-willed colleague, Mma Grace Makutsi, Mma Potokwame, and Charlie (a mechanic who works for Mr. Matekoni) have mysteries to solve. Charles gets a chance to go undercover when he investigates a disreputable club whose owner preys on single women looking for eligible bachelors. In addition, Precious agrees to help an American look for show more relatives of an individual whom her late grandmother cared for very much.

What keeps loyal fans of this long-running series returning for more are McCall Smith's simple yet lyrical prose; gentle humor; and wise observations about love, family, friendship, and kindness. Although the plot is insubstantial, spending time with the characters we know so well is like having a bowl of hot and delicious chicken soup. Both warm our insides and make us feel that the world may not be such a bad place after all. show less

This is another installment of the wonderful and comforting No 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Reading this series is like sitting on your couch, in front of a fire, with a warm drink and slippers; it's comforting. Mme Ramotswe always looks for the goodness in people and most of the time, she can find it. While she is solving problems for people, none of these problems are violent or gruesome, more like dilemmas.
In this novel, Charlie, the happy go lucky apprentice, gets his first case. When Mme Ramotswe isn't available to consult with, he discusses the case with Mme Makutsi, the "assistant director". While Mme Ramotswe knows she basically means well, she can be harsh, judgemental and doesn't look at the big picture...and this leads to an show more unexpected outcome. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, Mme Ramotswe's husband and Charlie's other boss offers him some solace and advice.
A client approaches Mme Ramotswe about finding some relatives. The problem is, family ties are not what make a family.
As with the other books, goodness and forgiveness prevails. And as Mr J.L.B. Matekoni points out, "That was the strange thing about hearts: there was always room for somebody else (to love)." show less

For some time now I’ve wondered if there’s some ghost writing going on in this series and the latest entry just strengthened my suspicions. It had less of the gentle humor and wisdom I’ve come to expect and the characters were stale composites of traits from previous books. I hate the thought of giving up on these but I can’t say I’m looking forward to reading the next one.

This is book 24 in the series so obviously I enjoy them. These books on audio are the audio version of comfort food for me. The characters feel like old friends and the stories continue to be enjoyable listening. This is very much due to the excellent narration by Lisette Lecat. She also feels like an old friend at this point because she's told me so many stories over the years.

These are light and charming. There is often not a lot that happens but the observations and conversations among the cast are just a nice way to spend time.

The mysteries are always fairly light and often the minor parts of the books because so much ot the ongoing story in the series is the lives of the cast of characters.

Go with the audio editions (except for the show more one they stupidly had narrated by someone other than Lisette Lecat - read that one in print) and pour yourself a cup of tea and enjoy the stories. show less

It's quite hard to write about these books as there are so many (24) in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

The key elements are who do we blame for a problem or who is responsible for fixing it? In the first instance this is based around a red dress that Mma Makutsi bought as present for Mma Ramotswe. Mma Ramotswe tried it on in the shop before Mma Makutsi could give it to her. Unfortunately it ripped. So who should pay for it - whose fault was it? Was it Mma Ramotswe's fault because she ripped it trying it on when she knew it was a bit too small for her? Was it Mma Makutsi's fault because she should have known her friend's size and not ordered something too small? Or should the shop owner foot the bill?

The same conundrum is then show more repeated with the central problem of the story: should a man lose his day job and pension because he was working for a dubious evening business and having an affair with its owner. What if this man was a pillar of society, the deputy principal of the local secondary school? Would that affect the decision? Whose fault was this? The man who made the rules? The deputy Principal for losing money on cattle and having his head turned by a woman? The woman?

Another thing that I really enjoy in this series is the way that McCall Smith can show a way of thinking that seems to make sense and then contrasts it with a way that the same thinking won't work. At one point Mma Ramotswe thinks that the world would all be so much better if men just did everything that women wanted and were led by them. We then move over straight away to the main problem of the story where a man had his head turned by a woman and followed her only to end up having an affair with her and running her dubious business.

As usual, a fun read. show less