The No. 1 Ladies´ Detective Agency  by Alexander McCall Smith

Joan Manel Minguell Mir. Fourth English Level

The main character in the story is Precious Ramotswe, who lives in Botswana. Mma Ramotswe ( That how she is known throughout the story) had no mother and was brought up by her father and her father’s cousin. She grew up to be a sensible, intelligent and quite well educated woman. She married for the first time to a musician, Note Mokoti, but they divorced when she got tired of being hit by him. At the end of the story, she will accept to marry to owner of mechanical workshop J.L.B Matekoni.

After his father died, she used the money from his farm to buy a small building and start his own detective agency. She called “The No. 1 Ladies’s Detective Agency”. She set up the agency with a shortage of means: a small white van, few furniture and an old typewriter.  But Mma Ramotswe has two main abilities: the intuition and intelligence necessary to solve the cases.

Mma Ramotswe encounters lots of different cases. Most of them which she has to solve are related to issues of everyday life: deception, betrayal or ambition. One of the distinctive features of the character of Mma Ramotswe is that she makes deeply observations about human behavior and reflects how these behaviors have been developed.

Being a book of adventures, in general, I could understand the plot, although with some difficulties, since there were many words that I did not know the meaning.

The Sense of an Ending is a short novel ( around 150 pages) by Julian Barnes published in 2012 and awarded with the Man Booker Prize 2011. The book is divided in two parts. In addition, it is narrated in first person by its main character, named Tom Webster.

The first part, which it is shorter than the second one, deals about Tom’s classmates lifestyle, boys who are deeply interested in literature and also philosopy. This part end by the suicide of one’s Tom peer called Finn, who had also been Veronica’s boyfriend.

The second part of the book, is currently located and it shows us the daily life of the main character,  who seems to be a lonely, guilty and nostalgic person. Morover, he has been unlucky with love although he gets on well with his former wife (Margaret) as they have one daughter (Sussy).

A few years before, Tom and Veronica meet again, and he asked her why his classmate committed suicide, so he tries to find out through his classmate’s girlfriend.

In my opinion, the book shows us a sadly point of view about elderly people and how they have been spending  their time. As the main character tells us his wonderful and exciting life when he was younger against his lonely and bored life nowadays.

In spite of having some problems to understand the  author’s main vision, I highly recommend it.

Ester Rocaginé

1. The story

When I finished this book I could differentiate at least two parts. In my point of view, the protagonist wrote about your past in the first part and about your present in the second part.

In the one hand, in the first part of the book, Tony Webster, the protagonist, explains about your memories. Tony is a man who is retired and he has a granddaughter of her only daughter. He is divorced but he has got a good relationship with your ex-wife. In this part he writes about your youth. He writes some anecdotes of his years in high school and in the university. In fact, he writes quite about your friends (Adrian) and your girlfriend (Veronica). I can remember that Adrian also had a relationship with Veronica but he committed suicide when Tony was abroad.

In the second part of the book, the protagonist backs to the present and he writes about Margaret, your ex-wife. Moreover, I can read that the mother of Veronica, your ex-girlfriend, found the Adrian’s diary. Tony could read a letter for him.

2. Characters

I want to stand out Adrian Finn. He is the Tony’s friend and all your friends admire your behaviour. Adrian is an intelligent boy and he studied in Cambridge. The relationship between Tony and Veronica broke and after Adrian wrote a letter where pretend to ask for permission to start a relationship with Veronica. Tony could read the letter when he returned of his trip but in this moment Adrian has already died.

3. My own reactions

In my view, what I liked the most was how Tony tries to recreate his past. On the other hand, I didn’t like that the characters were very complex as they changed a lot during the book.

I wouldn’t recommend this book because I think that it’s a boring book and difficult to read.

Written by Jordi Calderó (4t EOI Tàrrega)

The No. 1 Ladie’s Detective Agency is a novel by Alexander McCall Smith. It’s about a woman named Precious Ramotswe (Mma. Ramotswe) ho lived in Botswana. After her mother’s death, she lives with her father and a cousin, both took care of her. As a young girl she met Note Makote, a trumpeter,and married him. The marriage lasted little due to the minstreatement  that Mma Ramotswe from her Husband. He had a daughter who died few days after birth. After that she decided go home. A few years later her father dies and with the inheritance she decided to buy a small Building in Gabarone to start her own detective agency, the only detective agency run by women in Botswana. From here, each chapter tells a case that Ms. Ramotswe must solve.

Characters:

Precious Ramotswe:
It is the novel’s central character. She is not a traditional woman, she is quite independent, and want to amke her own way. The writer explains many details of his personality and way of thinking.

Obed Ramotswe:

Precious’s father. He is a hard-working man, who loves and tries to take care of his daughter as best he can. He owns a cattle and for a few years he works in a mine, but the vapos and work conditions made him sick.

The cousin:

Her husband abandoned her because she was sterile, from this moment, she was the person who took care of Precious and taught her values.

Mma Grace Makutsi:

A recently graduated from secretarial college, who work as her assistant and recepcionist.

Note Makoti:

A mediocre trompetist and abusive Husband,  who married to Precious when she was very young.

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni:

A old friend who helps Precious in some of their cases, and finally he becomes someone very special to Precious.

Reactions:
I think it’s a book aimed at young people,  even though, I really enjoyed this book,  it’s an entertaining book, with some pretty funny chapters and others that deal with more serious topics. The author describes the landscapes and the psychology of the characters very well, but with an easy and quite understandable language.  I think it is appropriate for the course we are doing.

Mar Escoté
4rt