By Pam Walatka
Finally I’ve found a detective novel that makes me want to read the others in the series. “Blue Shoes and Happiness,” by Alexander McCall Smith, (Pantheon 2006) is the latest installment in the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” books.
Smith is gentle and sweet without being sappy. He avoids the gruesome details of murder; in fact, in this book he avoids murder altogether. Protagonist Mma Ramotswe runs a detective agency in Botswana with the help of assistant Mma Makutsi, who explains, “‘Mma Ramotswe does not solve crimes. She deals with very small things.’ To portray the smallness, Mma Makutsi put a thumb and forefinger within a whisper of one another. ‘But,’ she went on, ‘these small things are important to people. Mma Ramotswe has often told me that our lives are made up of small things.’” Smith is a philosopher who paints a cast of characters from whom we can learn how to discern the important things in life.
Really, though, it’s not too syrupy or instructional. The New York Times Book Review calls the series a “literary confection,” meaning the writing is good enough to be called literary, and the content is sweet and light.
Chapters have names like “You Will Be Very Happy in That Chair.” Smith reminds us that simple things can bring happiness. “I always find that shopping clears the head.” Assistant Makutsi is enamored of a pair with blue shoes that don’t fit. Ramotswe reflects: “Shoes that were too small were usually too small for a reason: they were intended for people with small feet…. It was her assistant’s one weak point - this interest in unsuitable shoes - but, as failings went, this was not a great one; how much more dangerous was an interest in unsuitable men?”
A running joke is that Ramotswe is “traditionally built,” meaning overweight, considerably. “There were many arguments in favor of being traditionally built…. I am the shape that African ladies are traditionally meant to be.”
The only thing that bothered me was my ignorance about the “Mma” that precedes all the adult female names. Thanks to Todd Clawson at the Los Altos library, I now know that “Mma” is the contraction for a Setswana word meaning “mother” or “Mrs.” but more formal and honorific. Smith treats all his characters with formality and honor, even the perpetrators. Ramotswe “had been prepared to dislike this woman who had been stealing food from the college; this woman who had so unfairly threatened the inoffensive Poppy with dismissal. But now, in the flesh, with her laboured breathing and her odd walk, it was difficult not to feel sympathy. And of course it was always difficult for Mma Ramotswe not to feel sympathy for another, however objectionable his conduct might be, however flawed his character, simply because she understood, at the most intuitive, profound level what it was to be a human being, which is not easy.”
Smith, who was born in Africa and taught college in Botswana, would like us to understand and appreciate the people there. “The world had never paid much attention to places like Botswana, where everything went so well and where people did not squabble and fight.”
