Author Archive
Last summer, when I was recuperating from surgery, a friend sent me a care package that included the book, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Hooked from the first page, I read each installment in the eight-book series back-to-back.
I was lured by author Alexander McCall Smith’s main character, Precious Ramotswe, called Mma. Ramotswe in the story. A woman of traditional build, as she describes herself, Mma. Ramotswe uses her innate kindness and intelligence to solve the mysteries that are brought to her agency — the first and only ladies’ detective agency in Botswana.
These are no Mission Impossible-type cases where dead bodies crop up or bullets fly through the streets. Mma. Ramotswe’s cases are everyday mysteries like missing persons cases and embezzlement.
After eight books in the series, Smith returns with his ninth release, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, which will be available Tuesday, April 15.
In his latest Mma. Ramotswe saga, the author once again employs his poignant and practical prose that make the books a joy to read.
As the tale opens, Mma. Ramotswe and Mma. Grace Makutsi, her associate detective, are receiving threatening letters.
“Fat lady: you watch out! And you too, the one with the big glasses. You watch out too!,” reads a note left at the detective agency.
Do you surrender to change or, is it possible, to make it surrender to you?
This central question arises in Chinua Achebe’s classic African novel “Things Fall Apart.”
This book was Nigerian author, Achebe’s first novel written in 1959. It was one of the first African novels written in English that showcased African life.
Recently, the 50th anniversary edition of this timeless book was released. I first read it when I was a freshman in college. Rereading it, left me buzzing with thoughts about society, family and change.
The story centers around Okonkwo, a Nigerian warrior, a famed wrestler and prosperous yam farmer who works hard for greatness.
“Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders,” Achebe wrote.
This is just one example of the many African proverbs that flow throughout this 200-plus page book.
The proverbs and fables about life and its pathways are intertwined with Okonkwo’s tale.
As his story unfolds we are shown that this warrior is ruled by fear that steams from the sins of his father.
“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness,” Achebe wrote.
But, when change knocks hard on Okonkwo’s door in the form of white Christian missionaries we see him struggling to hold on to traditions, his family and his very life.
As I neared the end of this novel, it made me examine how I deal with change in my life.
I found myself looking at Okonkwo’s final decision and asking did he do the right thing as his world fell apart?
It is a question I am still struggling to answer.
