The House of Unexpected Sisters

For sheer charm, it’s hard to beat Alexander McCall Smith’s delightful series of novels about the #1 Ladies Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana. (If you know where Botswana is, much less anything else about it, go to the head of the class.) The 18th entry in this ongoing series is a case in point. InThe House of Unexpected Sisters, McCall Smith outdoes himself. The novel is a gem.

The House of Unexpected Sistersfeatures the whole cast of characters that fans of the series have grown to love: the surpassingly wise Mma Precious Ramotswe, founder of the agency; her annoying assistant, Mma Grace Makutsi; her dutiful husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, owner of the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors repair shop; the mousy Mr. Polopetsi; and the randy apprentice mechanic, Charlie. In the 18th novel in a series, a reader might expect these characters to come across as stale, trapped in stereotypes. But that’s not the case at all. Every one of them will surprise.

The #1 Ladies Detective Agency books are nominally detective novels. But only nominally. The cases Mma Ramotswe and her colleagues take on are rarely crimes in a traditional sense. Here, for example, is how Mma Ramotswe views the successful resolution of a case she has investigated: “that all those concerned had been persuaded to see reason. that, she felt, was the key to the solution of any problem: you did not look for a winner who would take everything; you found a way of allowing people to save face; you found a way of healing rather than imposing.”

InThe House of Unexpected Sisters, the ladies investigate the allegedly unfair firing of a saleswoman at an office furniture warehouse. This case proves to be far more complicated than any reader might reasonably expect. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe is forced to grapple with the sudden, unexpected appearance of a woman who shares her surname and may be a sister she never knew she had.

The dialogue, especially that involving Mma Makutsi, is frequently priceless. Here she is discussing short skirts with Mma Ramotswe: “Men know that women have legsthat is one of the things that they learn at an early age. So why do you have to show them that you have legs when they are already well aware of that?”

McCall Smith’s series is a paean to Botswana, where he lived for at least a decade while teaching at the University of Botswana law school. Here is Mma Ramotswe musing about death: “the thought was always present that although we might be going, the things and places we loved would still be there. So it must be a consolation to know that there would still be Botswana; that there would still be a sun that would rise over the acacia trees like a great red ball and would set over the Kalahari in a sweep of copper and gold; that there would still be the smell of wood fires in the evening and the sound of the cattle making their slow way home, their gentle bells marking their return to the safety of their enclosure. All these things must make leaving this world less painful.”

McCall Smith discusses his writing career in a fascinating interview with the The National, published in the United Arab Emirates. The author claims he writes 1,000 words an hour in a “dissociated state” and rarely, if ever, has to edit his work. The proof that he truly does write so fast lies in his staggering productivity. The 18 novels of the Ladies Detective Agency series join several dozen more works of fiction for adults, an almost equally large number of books for young adults, and a slew of academic texts in medicine and the law. McCall Smith is a world-renowned expert on medical law and bioethics.

First of all, this is no. 18 in this series! Eighteen! And not a genuine dud among them. Do you know how hard that is? Over 18 books, Mr McCall Smith has maintained the charm to keep me and many others loyally returning, year after year. Not only that, but this one is one of the best yet. I’ve often promoted the theory that AMS has a little game with himself to see if every time he writes a book, he can incorporate less of a plot than in the previous one. But not this time! This time there’s a real, satisfying and not 100% predictable plot, and even (I hope you’re sitting down) a real sub-plot.

But let’s be honest, what keeps me and so many others returning to the series is the whimsical charm of AMS’s eternally sunny Botswana, where the pace of life is slower, where you welcome a stranger on your doorstep without question, where a cup of tea will solve almost any problem. Every time I read one of his books I find myself quietly resolving to be kinder and more patient. It’s not just the characters that remind me that, but the meandering way he tells a story in his own time.

How can you read this and not feel refreshed: “A good stew smelled like…well, a good stew; it would remind you of that time when the sun has just sunk over the Kalahari, when the cattle have been brought back into their kraal against a background of gentle lowing, when the moon is floating up in the sky over Botswana and the children are sitting about the fire, waiting for their dinner. It smelled like that. It smelled like the world when, early in the morning. you make your way through the bush and the birds were just beginning to greet the world and the delicate leaves of the acacia trees were opening to the warmth of the gold with which the world was painted. It smelled like that and all you had to do was to train yourself to know when something was just right.”

Eighteen books into the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, most readers know what to expect and would, in fact, be disappointed if author Alexander McCall Smith strayed too far from his formula in any new installment. The House of Unexpected Sisters opens true to form, with familiar characters trading comfortable truisms on subjects ranging from womens wardrobes to the flaws of Violet Sephotho. Then with deceptive ease, Smith darkens the plot by complicating life for Mma Ramotswe, owner of the detective agency: she is shaken to the core to discover she may have a sister.

What passes for actual detective work in this book seems unimaginative and incidental. What counts more are Smiths reflections on human nature, typically but not exclusively offered by Precious Ramotswe. At its core, The House of Unexpected Sisters is a touching, warmhearted, and mostly hopeful depiction of the goodness of ordinary peoplesome of whom manage to be quite exceptional.

Reading a No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency book is like an extended trip to Botswana. The discussions between characters and ruminations of Mma Romatswe are rooted in concern for ethics and tradition, with love of country, with dilemmas and problem-solving that is always concerned with the best outcome for all. Some discomfort for wrongdoers is acceptable, but the preference is that everyone be left with dignity intact and harmonious relationships continue. The phrase, “It is well known…” amuses me as my Japanese husband often used that phrase as well. This is the kind of book that builds hope for humanity.

Gentle humor often subtly appears as when her husband comments that cars of “traditionally built women” often sag, realizes she is traditionally built and changes the subject. The foibles of characters are fun and gentle amusement as well as inspiration is like icing on the fruitcake.

This book embodies all that we have come to expect from the delightful series that is the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
It contains a wonderful gentleness, mixed with intertwined issues, which ring so true, especially to anyone with a knowledge of how Africa operates. It is truly life affirming, established heroes such as Preciouss father have their reputation threatened by inaccurate information. A womans reputation is damaged by the poisonous activity of another woman, the arch villain who has been a constant thread within these wonderful books. These books are such a tonic, an antidote to the constant pressures and pains of modern day life.

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