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The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Penzler Pick, July 2001: Working in a mystery tradition that will cause genre aficionados to think of such classic sleuths as Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee, Alexander McCall Smith creates an African detective, Precious Ramotswe, who's their full-fledged heir.
It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies' Detective Agency--then you have an idea of how Precious sets herself up as her country's first female detective. Once the clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a pleasingly successful series of cases.
But the edge of the Kalahari is not St. Mary Mead, and the sign Precious orders, painted in brilliant colors, is anything but discreet. Pointing in the direction of the small building she had purchased to house her new business, it reads "THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER PERSONAL MANAGEMENT."
The solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities (depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctor's magic kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying. Smith's gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards his lively, intelligent heroine and towards her fellow Africans, who live their lives with dignity and with cautious acceptance of the confusions to which the world submits them. Precious Ramotswe is a remarkable creation, and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency well deserves the praise it received from London's Times Literary Supplement. I look forward with great eagerness to the upcoming books featuring the memorable Miss Ramotswe, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls, soon to be available in the U.S. --Otto Penzler
Une Miss Marple black et aux pieds nus .
Il est temps de prendre le temps, et mme d'en gagner en lisant la série de romans policiers qu'Alexander McCall Smith consacre à la première détective privée africaine Mma Ramotswe.Cette forte femme africaine est en passe de devenir la femme forte des enquteurs tous continents confondus. Mma prolonge et renouvelle la tradition des Holmes, des Poirot, des Maigret, des Burma ...Le dépaysement est complet: les enqutes sont menées sans recherche d'ADN, sans micros miniaturisés, sans jumelles à infra rouges, sans violence! L'enqutrice n'est pas une top model mais une femme qui pèse bien son poids et en est fière. Le pays choisi - le Botswana - offre un double dépaysement, il nous amène en Afrique mais dans une Afrique qui ne met pas en scéne tous les clichés attendus :les guerre tribales, la famine, le pouvoir corrompu...certes les crocodiles et les sorciers sont là, mais la démocratie, la solidarité ancestral aussi.Le génie de McCall Smith, par ailleurs universitaire spécialiste de droit médical, est de nous faire goter et aimer le rythme paisible de Mma Ramotswe et des Tswana, les habitants du Botswana, de nous faire trouver du plaisir à lenteur de ses enqutes, à la mincer des affaires qu'elle résoud, car chez Mma, au Botswana ce qui compte ce sont les tres et le bonheur de nouer des relations avec eux.C'est dans un style simple à l'image de son hérone, qu'Alexander McCall Smith, qui a longtemps vécu au Botswana, nous offre sans l'air d'y toucher une contribution à la connaisance ethnologique de l'Afrique, sa méthode: la tendresse.
African Wisdom .
Written by a man, The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency has enough of a feminist persepctive for me to feel I was reading something actually written for me, rather than feeling as I usually do when reading, that I am trying to take pleasure in literature created for an audience of which I am not a part. McCall Smith' s feminism is simple but fundamental : men should not beat their wives, the better fathers are those who encourage their daughters to be independent and realise their dreams, women have a right to happiness.These beliefs are just part of the basic philosophy of the central character, Mma Precious Ramotswe, the first lady detective in Botswana, who imparts her basic moral philosophy at the same time - murder is worse than lying, relationships are more important than money, intuition is a kind of knowledge. While all of this philosophy may seem clichéd, as perhaps it is, it appears naturally in the book as part of the character and helps us to understand her approach to solving the cases brought to her.Woven throughout all of this is a picture of Botswana, considered by Ramotswe, and presumably McCall Smith, as the best and most successful country in Africa. Independent from the British since 1966, there is enormous pride in her accomplishments, and only the ongoinging black magic practices of some of the country's witchdoctors cast a shadow on the shining accomplishments of Botswana's diamond-fueled progress.Most powerfully of all, it is the love of the land that sings throughout the book. Botswana - stretching from the Kalahari desert to the Limpopo river, a country where there is a place for me, and for everybody, to sit down on this earth and touch it and call it their own . A country with its distinct riches - that was what her country was so rich in - emptiness...those empty spaces, those wide grasslands that broke and broke the heart . With its thorn trees that know how to survive in the searing heat and the birds and snakes of Mother Africa. Where nature is a family member and where the rising of the sun and its setting at the end of day are events to be savoured in the daily rhythm of life.I read this book in a relaxed afternoon, and felt I had passed my time with a pleasant companion, who had painted pictures for me of a place I might otherwise never visit.
raffraichissant .
Malgré les lieux réputés "chauds" des événements décrits, les nouvelles ont un contenu très raffraichissant. Les enqutes sont menées avec une fausse lenteur dans des endroits qu'on peut presque visualiser et surtout dont on peut sentir les parfums.Un livre découvert par hasard qui donne envie de vite se laisser à nouveau séduire par la poussière ambiante.
A la mort de son père, Precious Ramotswe vend le troupeau de son héritage, s'achète une maison et une agence où elle serait la première femme détective du Botswana.Mma Ramotswe est brillante à sa manière. Tout comme l'agent secret Jaime Bunda de Pepetela, on a l'impression qu'elle suit des pistes à la limite du fantasque, mais à la fin, parvient à réussir à résoudre ses cas.Eish !
Une sympathique détective du Boswana nous fait découvrir son pays, ses concitoyens dans un anglais bien écrit, avec des histoires courtes. Livre assez facilement abordable pour un élève en Anglais niveau intermédiaire.*
Livraison conforme et dans le delai le plus court annoncé - bravo pour le respect des engagements
Product Details
EAN : 9780375423871Weight : 1 pounds
Height : 2 inches
Length : 9 inches
Width : 6 inches
Author : Alexander McCall Smith
Binding : Relié
Manufacturer : Pantheon Books
PublicationDate : 2005-11
Publisher : Pantheon Books
SKU : RH9780375423871
Studio : Pantheon Books
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