Scan barcode
A review by sassafrasreas
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
4.0
A touching story out of nowhere!
This book was recommended to me by my husband, and much of my time spent reading it I wondered why. It wasn't as though it was bad - not at all, actually - but I also didn't think it was that good. I had a hard time identifying the "real" story because there are a lot of little side stories, and I wasn't sure what to focus on.
Yet, by the last line, he got me. I was in tears. Somehow, in the last 1% of the book, I felt genuinely connected to characters that had felt somewhat removed for 99% of the story. I was so touched by how it ended and so surprised by how I reacted.
In addition to a heartwarming resolution, the author uses language in a strikingly simple way, which often made me pause and reflect, and sometimes chuckle. Even now, as I look back at quotes I highlighted, I'm brought back to the story in such a different, much more meaningful way.
How did the author do that?
"I am Precious Ramotswe, citizen of Botswana, daughter of Obed Ramotswe who died because he had been a miner and could no longer breathe. His life was unrecorded; who is there to write down the lives of ordinary people?"
This book was recommended to me by my husband, and much of my time spent reading it I wondered why. It wasn't as though it was bad - not at all, actually - but I also didn't think it was that good. I had a hard time identifying the "real" story because there are a lot of little side stories, and I wasn't sure what to focus on.
Yet, by the last line, he got me. I was in tears. Somehow, in the last 1% of the book, I felt genuinely connected to characters that had felt somewhat removed for 99% of the story. I was so touched by how it ended and so surprised by how I reacted.
In addition to a heartwarming resolution, the author uses language in a strikingly simple way, which often made me pause and reflect, and sometimes chuckle. Even now, as I look back at quotes I highlighted, I'm brought back to the story in such a different, much more meaningful way.
How did the author do that?
"I am Precious Ramotswe, citizen of Botswana, daughter of Obed Ramotswe who died because he had been a miner and could no longer breathe. His life was unrecorded; who is there to write down the lives of ordinary people?"