Alexander McCall Smith Appearance in Sacramento, California
The Sacramento Bee Book Club will be hosting Zimbabwean-born author, Alexander McCall Smith, at the Pavilions Shopping Center near, not in, Borders Bookstore. Although I am not a reader of the detective series (you can't read everything), I plan to attend this April 25 event. But wait, I will be already at a writers' conference where I am teaching workshops on the making of a story.
And talking of the making of a story, the idea of the Number 1 Lady detective agency is fantastic. The concept, the idea of detective stories set in Africa; that seems to be one of the latest sexy things about Africa nowadays, next to celebrities acquiring Malawian orphans. Worthy causes both. In fact, I have often lamented the near-absence of tangible genre literature in Africa and, it seems, Alexander McCall Smith has opened up a phenomenon in detective stories that may soon rival what J.K. Rowling has done with wizardry. And new African writers are also already establishing their names in the detective story genre; I am thinking of my friends Masimba Musodza (Zimbabwe) and Lauri Kabuitsile (Botswana).
Yesterday I watched the premier issue of the HBO feature based on the Number 1 Lady Detective Agency. I wasn't impressed by the movie; an effort was made in it to oversimplify the story for a foreign audience, making the detective do predictable investigations. It does, of course, excel in showing that the detective is a strong African woman, surprising men with what she can do, and in a country like Botswana where gender imbalance is appallingly glaring, that's a worthy cause. But what was up with the The Gods Must be Crazy overtones of the story, the emphasis on the same stereoypes about Africa which reeked of Discovery Channel gone wrong?
Since I haven't read the books, I may not know how closely the movie depicts what's in the books. Be that as it may, I was proud that HBO viewers were watching a story set close to home, based on a series by a Zimbabwean writer. And it was good to see the veldts and the villages. Homesick, I guess.
And yesterday at Borders I started reading Lady Dectective 10, and when I was starting to enjoy it, I reminded myself I had to start from the first one! Perhaps a summer project?
The bush tea (what's that all about?)features prominently in the movie, as I am told it does in the books. I have read somewhere that sales of the tea have gone up since the detective started using it.
I will look for this tea.
And talking of the making of a story, the idea of the Number 1 Lady detective agency is fantastic. The concept, the idea of detective stories set in Africa; that seems to be one of the latest sexy things about Africa nowadays, next to celebrities acquiring Malawian orphans. Worthy causes both. In fact, I have often lamented the near-absence of tangible genre literature in Africa and, it seems, Alexander McCall Smith has opened up a phenomenon in detective stories that may soon rival what J.K. Rowling has done with wizardry. And new African writers are also already establishing their names in the detective story genre; I am thinking of my friends Masimba Musodza (Zimbabwe) and Lauri Kabuitsile (Botswana).
Yesterday I watched the premier issue of the HBO feature based on the Number 1 Lady Detective Agency. I wasn't impressed by the movie; an effort was made in it to oversimplify the story for a foreign audience, making the detective do predictable investigations. It does, of course, excel in showing that the detective is a strong African woman, surprising men with what she can do, and in a country like Botswana where gender imbalance is appallingly glaring, that's a worthy cause. But what was up with the The Gods Must be Crazy overtones of the story, the emphasis on the same stereoypes about Africa which reeked of Discovery Channel gone wrong?
Since I haven't read the books, I may not know how closely the movie depicts what's in the books. Be that as it may, I was proud that HBO viewers were watching a story set close to home, based on a series by a Zimbabwean writer. And it was good to see the veldts and the villages. Homesick, I guess.
And yesterday at Borders I started reading Lady Dectective 10, and when I was starting to enjoy it, I reminded myself I had to start from the first one! Perhaps a summer project?
The bush tea (what's that all about?)features prominently in the movie, as I am told it does in the books. I have read somewhere that sales of the tea have gone up since the detective started using it.
I will look for this tea.
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