Precious and Grace

This is a lovely and feel-good read – exactly what we expect from Mma Ramotswe and Co. This is well known.

Its always fun to read an Alexander McCall Smith book, especially starring Precious Ramotswe. Some of it is predictable but the plot is always different and it’s never too intense so it’s always fun. One learns a lot about Africa and Botswana in particular. Return readers will be cheering to see all their favorite characters there, for example, Precious and Mrs. Potokwane putting their heads together to plot . Grace Makutse with her large glasses and 97% is out of control when it comes to interviews, and Fanwell brings the ugliest mutt to work hoping Precious would give the dog a job! Precious gets a case unlike any she’s ever handled and Mr. Polopetsi gets taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man. The evil Violet Sephoto is up for an award and Grace and Precious have to attend the ceremony! In this world of not so happy events it’s a welcome respite to delve inside the First Ladies Detective Agency for a while.

Another glorious book with so much charm, wit, and feeling. Alexander McCall Smith and his cast of characters never disappoint! I usually pass all my books on but I will not part with this set of books. A treasure!

Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed by the rudeness, unthinking and unthinkable cruelties, and selfishness of the world that we live in, I like to take a break from it all by visiting Botswana. There, I can sit in the shade of a tree and drink red bush tea with Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi and listen to Precious expound on her philosophy of life and her view of what is important. For example, there is her rumination about the past:
There were too many people who took the view that the past was bad, that we should rid ourselves of all traces of it as soon as possible. But the past was not bad; some of it may have been less than perfect – there had been cruelties then that we had done well to get rid of – but there had also been plenty of good things. There had been the old Botswana ways, the courtesy and the kindness; there had been the attitude that you should find time for other people and not always be in a desperate rush; there had been the belief that you should listen to other people, should talk to them rather than spending all of your time fiddling with your electronic gadgets; there had been the view that it was a good thing to sit under a tree sometimes and look up at the sky and think about cattle or pumpkins or non-electric things like that.
Old Botswana ways actually sound a lot like the ways I was brought up with, and perhaps it is important, as Precious says, not to abandon all the good that existed in those ways in our rush to embrace the “new and improved” modern ways.

That is the philosophy with which Precious faces life and which she tries to impart to those around her, not always successfully to the newly installed co-director of her No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Grace Makutsi.

Grace is always eager to welcome modern innovations and introduce them into her life, including her workplace, sometimes at the expense of more traditional Botswana sensibilities. The “traditionally built” Precious Ramotswe is also traditional in her cautious approach to life and to her work, always weighing the effect that her words and actions may have on others. This difference in ways of thinking inevitably brings some conflicts into their relationship, conflicts which call on Precious’ remarkable talents for tact and diplomacy in order to resolve them.

This happens again with their latest case. A Canadian woman who was born and lived the first few years of her life in Botswana returns there and contacts the detectives to try to locate some people from her past. She wants to find the nursemaid who helped care for her and some of her childhood friends. And she wants to see the house where she and her parents lived.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t have much to go on. She was a child when they left Botswana and her memories are vague. Her parents are deceased and she doesn’t have addresses or the full names of the people she is seeking. Precious and Grace take different views of her request and employ different tactics in fulfilling it. But in the end, somewhat surprisingly, they both get results.

In addition to working on this case, life goes on and brings its daily share of mysteries and problems which Precious tries to solve. Fanwell, the tender-hearted apprentice of her mechanic husband takes on the care of a stray dog – a dog that he has no place to keep and little to feed. Of course, Precious ends up finding a home for this “orphan” dog. Meanwhile, her friend and sometime assistant, the meek and mild Mr. Polopetsi, has managed to get himself entangled in a pyramid scheme and requires the help of Precious to extricate him with his honor intact.

Of course, there are regular visits with Precious’ good friend, Silvia Potokwani, the director of the orphan farm, in which large quantities of Mma Potokwani’s famous fruit cake are consumed and, as usual, Grace’s nemesis, Violet Sepotho, is still causing her heartburn, but this time even Violet seems to be developing into a more gracious and courteous woman. Perhaps Precious is rubbing off on her.

Would that she could rub off on all of us.

As usual, Alexander McCall Smith’s humor and kindness illuminate the continuing story of Precious Ramotswe , Grace Makutsi, Mr. J.B.L. Matekoni, Mr. Polopetsi, Charlie, Fanwell and the rest of our Motswana friends.
Precious has several issues to solve in this set of adventures, and, as always with Alexander McCall Smith’s novels, the emphasis is on ethical behavior and ethical dilemmas. Will Mma Ramotswe be able to deal kindly with Fanwell’s stray dog? Will she be able to locate people and places from a client’s distant past–and what purpose does that client have in seeking out these people? How can she save Rra Polopetsi from his ill-advised involvement in a pyramid scheme…or worse– yet see that justice is done for the victims of that scam?
In the world of McCall Smith, human beings actually *do* follow the voice of their “better angels”, and kindness and forgiveness are the rule rather than the exception.