Skip to main content

Blue Shoes and Happiness

Image result for blue shoes and happiness"

By Marlow Tracy


               Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith is a wholesome, quick read that is well worth picking up. It is set in Botswana and follows the daily life of Mma Ramotswe as she works for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, solving crimes and righting wrongs with the help of her skilled assistant Mma Makutsi.
               Something that struck me about the book right away was its style of writing. The author takes the perspective of one character at a time, detailing their reactions to events and providing an insight into their thought process following each action instead of just providing reactions and forcing the reader to make inferences regarding their feelings. These tangents (of sorts) are not boring or off-topic, but rather give the reader an amusing interpretation of events in the novel and help develop each character’s personality. For example, when Mma Ramotswe confronts a chef to interview her, the author spends a paragraph describing how Mma Ramotswe imagined the chef as a strong woman who would pour soup over the heads of her assistants, like chefs in TV shows, and later imagined what it would be like to pour soup over the heads of people that she herself didn’t like. Description of the characters’ thoughts makes the book much more entertaining to read than if it was just a series of events.
               Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed was just how wholesome it is. Every issue introduced in the novel is eventually tied up with a satisfactory end that leaves the characters feeling happy (perhaps explaining the title of the book), and the author also includes positive events that happen purely for the sake of themselves. Even events that aren’t necessarily positive end peacefully. For example, when Mma Ramotswe’s new assistant, Mr. Polopetsi, decides to address a case himself instead of waiting for her and ends up making a grave mistake, Mma Ramotswe simply gives him a lecture and helps him right his wrong as best as possible. She even goes out of her way to give him another job later to show that she still respects his skills as a detective. In a way, the author provides a sort of utopian world to the reader, where all the problems are solved with the best possible outcomes.
               I would give Blue Shoes and Happiness an 8/10 - it is a bit slow-paced, but still well written and uplifting. If you like detective stories, slice-of-life novels, or a little bit of both, this is the book for you.

Comments

  1. Great Review! This book seems like an interesting mix of genres mostly because I don't consider detective stories to be particularly uplifting, but based on your review it sounds like the author executed this idea pretty well and I would not mind being happy at the end of the book even if is a little slow to get there. Nice concise, but well-written review!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like how you immediately gave what you like about the book in your blog, and was able to talk about what you liked about the book without giving any real spoilers. I don't know if I would read the book, as I am not a big fan of slow paced books. Great review!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Phantom Tollbooth Review - Jashan Takhar

Due to popular opinion among my classmates at the time, I expected The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster to be a "really awesome good book" as a 5th grader several years ago. I read it, understood some of it, did not love it, and forgot it. The older-style writing bored me very quickly and I had thought back then that to fully enjoy a book it had to be fifteen years or younger. Now, going back to this children's classic, I can now comprehend the genius world-building and execution of The Phantom Tollbooth . Milo is a normal boy, who is extremely bored one day when he finds a strange package addressed to him that he does not know the contents of. He finds a tollbooth that he has to put together inside as well as a small electric car. He finishes the tollbooth, steps inside, and is immediately transported to the Lands Beyond. He finds himself suddenly driving on a road, an activity that he enjoys and thus continues doing. Little does he know that he is about to make new ...

Heartless (So Far)
John Brownridge

     During quarantine, I have been doing many things I don't usually get the chance to, like writing, reading superhero comics, practicing Karate, watching Anime ect. What I haven't been doing enough of, however is reading. That's why I am only about halfway through Heartless right now. Anyway, here are my thoughts.       Heartless is a book about a world that is based on a deck of cards. There are Kings, Jokers,  Jacks, ect.. The book takes place in the Kingdom of Hearts, where there is a King, but no queen. The story follows Catherine, who is a normal citizen of the kingdom, who's dream is to open a bake shop with her maid and best friend, Mary Ann. She learned to bake from many cook books in her mansion, and has gotten very good at it, gaining attention from the King himself, who wants to marry her. Catherine's  mom wants nothing less than for her daughter to be the queen, and would do anything to make this a reality. Catherine however...

Why Albrek's Tomb Was a Disappointment (so far)

John Brownridge

      Adventurers Wanted: Albrek's Tomb, the third book in the Adventurers wanted series follows Alexander Taylor (goes by Alex) as he is requested by one of his old company members to find Albrek, a dwarf who went missing searching for new mines in the village of Thraxon.  Alex and his company have to go through many dangerous places to get to Thraxon in search of Albrek, and run into trouble along the way.        I really liked the first two books in the Adventurers Wanted series, Slagboth's gold , and The Horn of Moran. Slagboth's gold  and The Horn of Moran  were Alex's first two adventures, which introduced me to the fantasy world of magic and adventures, all throughout the book. It was fun to see Alex adapt from being a normal sixteen year old kid, to an adventurer on a quest to find gold, having to slay dragons in the process. I was able to experience getting to know magic in the world for the first time with Alex, and it was f...