Authors /McCall Smith(was Jasper Fforde)

[carolynwhite2]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Catherine Coleman 
<catherine at c...> wrote:
> 
> 
> As for Alexander McCall Smith - I've read the first few in the 
series. 
> I really enjoyed them to start with - as you say, they are very 
light 
> and easy to read - quite whimsical and gentle on the surface 
(although 
> some of the events are really very shocking - just not how they're 
told) 
>   but after a while I started to feel a bit uneasy about them - the 
main 
> reason being that AMS is writing from the perspective of Botswanan 
(sp?) 
> natives.  Their thoughts are on the whole conveyed as being very 
> simple-minded and unsophisticated, to match their speech patterns 
in 
> English, which is their second language, and I feel as though he is 
> ascribing a naivety and simplicity which I am not sure exists, to 
the 
> extent that I felt that he was being (unwittingly) patronising.  
I'd be 
> interested to know if anyone else had similar thoughts - it could 
be me 
> being over sensitive.
> 
> Catherine

Carolyn:
I thought the latest one (The Full Cupboard of Life) tended that way 
more than the earlier ones, maybe because he couldn't think up a good 
enough plot this time. Here's a couple of reviews which express 
similar doubts:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,1001171,00.h
tml

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/story.jsp?
story=424869