Posted in 0: 2010 Reviews, Botswana on Apr 21st, 2010
Mma Precious Ramotswe never changes, and that is one of her most obvious charms. “Traditionally built,” and focused on the traditional values of Gaborone, Botswana, where she runs the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Mma Ramotswe is genuinely “nice”–always believing in the goodness inherent in even the most challenging adversary. This novel, the twelfth in the series, brings several new cases (and their complications) to Mma Ramotswe’s office door, and, as always, she relies on her understanding of human nature and her ability to communicate to bring about solutions. Four revolving plot lines keep the reader involved and often amused as Mma Ramotswe tries to help her clients resolve their problems–a couple appears separately, each one thinking the other is having an affair; Mma Ramotswe must locate an unknown safari tour guide who has received a large bequest from a former client; Phuti Radiphuti is seriously injured in an accident, and his aunt will not let Grace Ramotswe see him; and an aggrieved man appears to be the latest victim of Violet Sephotho.
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Not a believer that change is entirely for the better in Botswana society, Mma Precious Ramotswe, the “traditionally built” owner of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency in Gaborone, has decided that cars are among the biggest agents of change, making people lazy. She has therefore decided to walk the two miles each way to her office, located beside the garage where her husband Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni operates a car repair service. She secretly admits, however, that the real reason she is walking is that her beloved little white van, now twenty-two years old, is making strange noises, and she fears that when Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni hears them that he will decide her little van can no longer be repaired. More sentimental and less dependent upon plot than some of the earlier novels in this endearing series, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built intersperses local stories, gossip, and legends among several (sometimes thin) plot lines—Mma Ramotswe’s love for her little white van and her unhappiness about its possible future; a mysterious case of the Kalahari Swoopers, a great football team that is losing too many games, a particular worry for its owner, Mr. Molofololo; the fate of the romance between Mma Grace Makutsi and her fiancé, Mr. Phuti Radiphuti, after he hires Violet Sephotho to work in his furniture shop; and the case of a woman who is trying to live with two husbands.
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In this ninth novel in the Alexander McCall Smith series, Precious Ramotswe, the “traditionally built” proprietor of the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, receives a threatening letter: “Fat lady: you watch out! And you too, the one with the big glasses.” Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Grace Makutsi, of the big glasses, are startled by this letter, and Mma Ramotswe even begins to believe that she is being followed. As the two women deal with their business and their lives, the letter haunts them–it is so uncharacteristic of the gentle, sweet-spirited life of Botswana, a place where, in Mma Ramotswe’s experience, almost any problem can be worked out over a cup of bush tea.
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Throughout this charming series, plots and subplots serve primarily as vehicles for character development and the exploration of cultural values. In this novel Mma Ramotswe, proprietor of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency, has a deep secret, not shared even with her new husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekone. and she is desperate to have it remain a secret. Her house is broken into, her car is stolen, and Note Makoti, her first husband, returns to Gabarone. Mysterious goings-on occur in Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni’s former house, now rented; the detective agency looks for a missing man from Zambia; and Mma Makuti finds herself receiving the attentions of a clumsy suitor. While these events may not be very exciting when regarded on a large scale, they are significant in the lives of these ordinary people trying to live their lives with dignity. Another winning entry in the series.
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Life is a rich, full, and happy experience for Mma Ramotswe, who can find out everything she wants to know from her broad network of family and friends. Engaged to the good-hearted Mr. J.L.B. Matakone, who has not yet set a date for a wedding, she helps him surreptitiously with his problems and cooks and cares for the two orphans he has taken into his home. In this novel, full of gentle humor and wisdom, Mma Ramotswe and her friends face several “difficult” problems: A woman who has made a fortune establishing hair-braiding salons hires Mma Ramotswe to find out whether her suitors want to marry her for her money. Mr. J.L.B. Matakone finds himself tricked into “volunteering” to do a parachute jump. He is also disturbed to discover that First Class Motors, a rival garage, has sold improper parts and failed to service a classic old Range Rover correctly, and he has been procrastinating about reporting him to authorities.
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