A book by Alexander McCall Smith.An extremely good read. Simple,unpretentious style of writing.
A Botswanian woman who runs a detective agency forms the crux of the story. The book just flows smoooth with a little intrigue thrown in at places. Not any detective-thriller per se...but interesting nevertheless!
The other interesting point was the author`s (and the protagonist`s) love of Africa. No apologies, no excuses..just as is description. Of everything. Of the bushes, scrubs,deserts,poverty and water shortage. A first. Most other books that I have read all bring out the "other" side with disdain.
A book that I enjoyed throughly. Page after page. Espicially after subjecting myself to books like "Alchemy of Desire" by Tarun Tejpal. An overdose of libido.Monotony more so because of the fact that Indian authors cannot portray passion,lust etc for nuts. Either its sleazy or its cheesy and verbose. I think it all stems from the whole attitude towards the subject of sex in India...always looked upon as something taboo and cheap. Let me not get into that now. The handling of sensitive topics by Indian authors and movie makers warrants another separate post. Sorry for the digression. I got carried away..:D.
Back to Ladies No 1....,I was telling K (my Bibliotwin!!) that I loved the book. And it struck me only after he mentioned it..it WAS like reading R.K.Narayan!!
to be extremely frank i was averse to the idea of reading this series. but then a woman cajoled me into reading. come to think of it, it was more of a challenge that i couldn't sit thru another suspense novel. but i'm glad i did. quite a refreshing change from other detective tales. a nice variety of subjects too. will be reading "morality for beautiful girls" next. my chance to get back at the cause of my first read.
ReplyDeleteabout the indian authors you've hit bang on target. we seem to be churning out dark, gloomy tales of status quo. no longer do we have ruskin bonds and rudyard kiplings that would challenge our imagination. gone are the landscapes, the hills n dales and the cataracts. too real...too cold!
all you get to read in indian lit these days is about the dung of some rotting dead animal.
Yep..
ReplyDeletenext on my list are Kalahari typing school for men and friends,lovers,chocolate...:D