A review by 1969sl
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

3.0

"Hey, what is this" I said to myself "Dr.Doolitle?". I yelled to my friend "on the cover it says that British "Times" claimed this is book of the millennium!" She responded with laughter "and cover of my book says its a New York Times Nr.1 bestseller, so what!" We both roared, amused with this bombastic descriptions that unwittingly brought more damage than good - I understand that products needs to be marketed and sold but come on, the book of millennium should overshadow centuries worth of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dickens and Dostoyevsky - even if we talk only about the genre of detective novels, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K.Chesterton, Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon left some pretty big shoes to be filled. Not that anything is wrong with this little book - had I not known about the hype, it could have been pleasant, unpretentious read on a train, but this was just mildly amusing. Contrary to its title, its not so much about detectives and crimes but about simple people living simple life in Botswana - the fact that these novels (which I will not follow) are so popular around the world shows there are many readers who find this kind if "simple philosophy" very appealing ("don't worry too much and eat your pumpkin") - it is cute and heart-warming, but personally I found it too slight. Not because of its volume - Willa Carther was deeply moving and her book was just as slim, or Josephine Tey for example - I constantly had a gnawing feeling this is a children's book.