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.